Mangilal And Sons

Mangilal was very happy today. His wife had delivered a baby boy. It was his seventh son. He was very pleased with the fact that he had not got even a single daughter. In the whole village he was the only one having seven sons and no daughter. Most of his neighbours had got son after three, four or five daughters.

He had nothing against girls, but it was costly to bring up a girl and a lot of money had to be spent on her marriage. Parents had to always worry about the safety of daughter and even after her marriage their responsibility never completely went away. Sons, on the other hand, started earning early and took care of parents in their old age. Daughters left for their in-laws’ place and did not have time to look after their parents.

His wife had, however, been insistent on having at least one daughter. Her logic was that she will help her in household chores, at least till the time she left for in-laws’ house. By that time, she will have daughters’ in-law in the house to take over household duties. Luckily her wish had never been fulfilled.

….

Mangilal did not have any other children after his seventh son. In the meantime his sons were growing fast and started helping him in fields. They also started taking up odd jobs in the off-season. There was no dearth of work in the area.

One by one his six sons got married. On the insistence of his sons, he had to divide the ancestral property among sons. He was left with his own share and that of his youngest son, who was very close to his parents. Mangilal was nearly seventy by this time.

….

Five years later.

His youngest son also got married. After some time, he also demanded his share in property and got it.

Mangilal was left with his own share in property. He realised that he needed to supplement his income from agriculture, even for meeting bare necessities of life. He needed to find some other work.

He was almost seventy-five now. Since he had done hard manual work in his life and had no vices, he was still in good shape. Although, he had not done manual labour for others for a long time. At least, since his sons had started contributing towards family kitty.

….

There was no dearth of work in the village and nearby villages. Mangilal got work tending to garden of a relatively well-off village family. It was backbreaking work for a man of seventy-five. Yet he worked hard as he did not want to give any reason to family to replace him with some much younger man.

Mangilal had known the owner for a long time. Although, their houses were two kilometres apart, they seldom visited each other’s houses. He had always sympathized with the family as they had two daughters, but no son. He also knew that elder daughter was village Pradhan. However, he had not had much interaction with other family members of the owner.

He had been working for almost a week, when elder daughter came to the garden.

She saw him tending to the garden. “Uncle, I don’t think you should be working at this age.”

Mangilal was afraid that she might be thinking of replacing him. He said, “I think I can handle this work.”

Lest she take it as contradiction, he added, “Of course, I am more tired in the evenings than my younger days.”

She looked at him and went inside the house without saying anything.

….

A few days later.

Mangilal was working in the garden. Lest he be accused of age-related lethargy, he used to put in extra effort in the work, although he used to be extremely tired by the day-end. Garden was looking good. He stood up from his work to admire the garden.

Just then, the owner’s daughter, the village Pradhan, came to the garden. She looked at him and the garden, “I think you need not work with us anymore.”

He was shocked but did not show any emotion. Why should outsiders help him when his own children had abandoned him. 

He asked her, “Any specific reason?”

She replied, “The only reason is that I don’t want you to slog at this age.”

There were many questions in his mind. But he knew there was no point in asking them as it seemed she had already taken the decision.

He said, “Ok, I won’t come from tomorrow.”

In reply, she handed over some papers to him.

He looked at them and looked at the girl quizzically.

She replied, “I have pursued with the government and got old age pension sanctioned for you. You won’t be required to work for others anymore. However, you can visit us any time to meet us and admire your work in the garden.”

For once, Mangilal was left speechless.