HEARTH OF HAPPINESS

“Dad, I’m ordering pizza for lunch,” called out Rahul, as he put his headphones back on and sat in his gaming zone playing his video game. Rahul’s house was all you could have ever wanted. He lived in a bungalow with three floors plus a basement and a terrace. They had servants waiting on them, an in-house chef and a driver. They had an indoor swimming pool, a theatre, a gaming zone and a gym. Apart from this, they had five bedrooms and Rahul was the only child. He had always had a privileged life. His idea of having to rough it out was when the AC would not work, and when his personal attendant Satish would be on leave. It is not difficult to imagine what would happen to a kid of his age, when he would get everything that he asked for. Rahul had put on weight at the age of 6 and by the time he was 13, he looked like duck that waddled in his school uniform. Thankfully, as he was rich, he would never get teased in school for being fat, but was swarmed by friends all the time, in the hope that they could have a bit of his lavish life. With all the luxuries that he had, Rahul had turned into a spoilt brat as it is easy to lose value of things when you have them abundantly. 

His dad, Aaditya, owned an international clothing brand which had outlets in almost every good shopping mall there was, as well as stand alone stores in the poshest localities. He had a rag to riches story, and the way that he had come up was impressive. Aaditya’s dad had been a mere cobbler, earning enough to buy dinner at the end of the day. They lived a hand-to-mouth lifestyle. Nothing less and nothing more. Just enough to get them by to see the next morning. Having lived that kind of a life, Aaditya knew how to value things, but being a business man, he had little time for Rahul. He was away at business trips and meetings all the time, and was rarely at home. Rahul’s mother, Pallavi, loved Rahul a lot. She obsessed over him, boasted about him to her friends and gave him whatever he asked for. But eventually, she was never able to comfort him or provide him with compassion because as he grew up, he began to feel like she couldn’t understand him and his problems as they weren’t spending enough time with each other.   She was beautiful, almost all the other ladies envied her for that. And for her husband’s money, of course. But after marriage, she and Aaditya had become distant, they didn’t quite spend time with each other as much. So, Pallavi had resorted to being content with worldly things. Beautiful branded clothes and expensive jewellery, that’s all what was important to her. She became shallow and began to obsess over her looks. Slowly, the once loving and close family began to drift away from one another and got absorbed into their own lives. Rahul rarely got out of his room while he was at home, Pallavi busied herself in her social life and Aaditya didn’t have time for anything else but his business.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to end, as Geoffrey Chaucer said. Over a the next two years, Aaditya’s business began to run in losses and he eventually had to shut it down. He slowly began to run out of money and was not able to maintain the lavish lifestyle that they were used to. He had to sell his house to get some money and rented out a house in the outskirts of the city and soon they shifted there. The house was very small as Aaditya wanted to save money to restart his business. It was barely one room with the kitchen and bathroom attached to it. This loss almost destroyed Aaditya. Having built up something from scratch and then just having it taken away from you……it can be very difficult to deal with. Aaditya tried to hide his feelings and be strong for the family. Now, during these hard times, he was their pillar of strength, the one they looked up to for making everything right. Even then, one day Pallavi saw him looking out of the window as tears wet his cheeks. She walked towards him but when he saw her, he wiped his eyes away and went the other way. But she rushed towards him and held his hand. As he turned around in surprise, she embraced him tightly, her hands around his neck as she attempted to tell him through her actions that she could understand what he was going through. Not being able to control it any longer, a great tremor overtook him and tears raced down his face as he could no longer contain the loss. They fell to the floor in a dishevelled heap as his grief poured out in the form of uncontrollable tears. By this time, Pallavi started chewing on her lower lip and her eyes welled up with tears as she buried her face into Aditya’s shoulder. This was the closest they had been in a long time. All their memories of what it was like before marriage came back to them and that made sure to keep the tears flowing. “I just want it all to be the way it was before,” sobbed Aaditya, “And I’m sorry for being neglectful towards you and Rahul. I promise to make up for it.” “Shhh….” Said Pallavi, as she slowly patted his back, “Don’t worry about all of that. It will be okay.”

Meanwhile, Rahul was dealing with this very differently. He had not told any of his friends what had happened. But the newspapers eventually gave out the truth, and his friends instead of comforting him, deserted him. They started bullying him and eventually Aaditya had to pull him out of that school because they could not afford to continue paying the fees. Rahul had zero privacy in the new house as there was only one room. He stopped going to the local school and used to spend hours just roaming around aimlessly, thinking and overthinking about the current situation. Because of this he began to feel very lonely and slowly got into the wrong company . One day, while going to the market, Pallavi found him talking to some older guys in the locality, during the time when he was supposed to be at school. She was scared and immediately caught hold of him and took him home. Aaditya was surprised to see Pallavi entering the house with a very grubby looking Rahul walking alongside her. His face was all messed up because he had been crying and he started to snivel again when he saw Aaditya.

As soon as they entered, Pallavi looked at Rahul and burst out saying, “Look at what your son has been doing. I caught him skipping school today, and hanging out with some older guys in the locality. Aaditya you know what kind of people those boys are. I don’t want Rahul being around them anymore! Finally, Aaditya interrupted her and said softly, “Rahul, do you want to tell me why has this happened?” Rahul looked at his father as a tear slid down his cheek again. He did not say anything for a while before Aaditya spoke up again, “Hey, whatever it is, it will be okay. Me and mom are there with you and we will get through it together.” Not being able to control it any longer, Rahul ran into Aaditya’s arms as Aaditya held on to him and let his son’s tears soak his shirt. It seemed to Aaditya as if he could feel Rahul’s heart break as he clung on to him.

“I’m sorry dad,” whispered Rahul between his sobs, “I know that you have a lot going on but I can’t handle living like this anymore! I don’t want to go this school and I miss my old friends. Can’t you just make it all right again dad? Can’t we go back to our old life. I miss our house and I just want everything to be normal again!” He continued sobbing and talking but Aaditya’s mind had drifted away. He couldn’t believe that he had given up so easily. His wife and son had to go through so much because of him. He had to do something about it. “Don’t worry Rahul,” he said, as he tried to comfort him, “I can understand. Your mom and I also miss our house and I will try to make things the way they were as soon as possible.” Just then the lights went out and Aaditya said, “Why don’t you go out with your mother and warm the food with the help of a small fire? I will make some calls and be back.” “Yeah sure,” said Rahul as he looked towards his mom and she smiled back. He took her hand as they left the room and Aaditya sighed as he sat down on the floor, with his phone in his hand.

“I know you like corn Rahul, so I bought some for dinner,” said his mom with a smile, as they sat outside the house near the fire. They talked for a long time and Rahul felt like his mother had returned. She no more seemed like the shallow lady who used to sit in front of the mirror all day long. They laughed and cracked jokes after Aaditya returned and it felt like the times before Aaditya’s business had bloomed. They were starting to seem like a normal family again, and looking at them, nobody would say that a few moments ago, they were crying and had been going through bad times. They decided to always have dinner together every day, no matter what. After dinner was over, there was rice left which Rahul offered to go give to the neighbours. He surprised his parents as well when he said that. “Well, living here can change you,” said Rahul with a laugh, as his parents smiled at him. And it was at that moment that Rahul felt content for the first time. Eventually, Rahul got used to this lifestyle, and realised that he could have a happy life without being rich and that money couldn’t buy happiness. In fact, he felt more satisfied with his life than he did before and became more close to his parents than earlier. Slowly, Aaditya managed to set up another smaller business, which got them a reduced amount of money than earlier, but they were content with their life. They shifted into a big house and things settled down. Rahul didn’t miss his old house any more, because he had found a new home with his parents here.