Unfulfilled Promise

She was tired and exhausted as she entered her room. A young girl of just nineteen was forced to face the harsh reality of life. No one felt pity on her neither came forward to help . She felt lifeless as if her soul was scratched out of her body . She was shattered within as she felt strong hatred for herself.

Suddenly her eyes fixed her father's photograph kept on the side table. She was not able to face her smiling father and so turned the frame down.

Her promise echoed in her ears.

"Baba I will be a doctor one day. Promise. "

The promise that she made to her father. She vowed to be a doctor. A doctor serving people and boosting up the family's pride. After the death of her brother she was the only hope left for her parents. She was a brilliant student since her school days. When her photograph got published in newspaper for securing first rank in the whole district her father danced and kept the cutting of the paper. She was confident that she would crack her entrance exam too. She worked hard to fulfill her parents dream. They worked hard to earn two square meals for her.

Even they slept with empty belly only to give her meals so that she doesn't get distracted from her studies due to hunger. But destiny had planned something else for her. Nobody ever imagined that a girl of such extra ordinary intelligence would face such a fate.

The first wave of covid-19 took away her father. The same year she cracked her NEET entrance exam in her first attempt. She felt helpless and dejected. Due to pandemic even her mother who worked as a maid was jobless. It felt that being poor was the greatest sin and also poors don't have right to dream. She got a call from the college but she had to leave her seat as she was unable to deposit the fee.

But her meritorious performance earned her a scholarship and luckily she got admission. Her happiness knew no bounds as she attended her first online class with the help of a friend's mobile. Both she and her mother were hopeful that now the dark days would end soon. She started giving online tuitions and earned enough to arrange meals for her mother and herself. This happiness and peace was short-lived as second wave of covid-19 hit the country. The deadly virus now gripped her mother. She was scared and rushed to hospital along with her gasping mother.

She wailed loudly and asked doctors to help her mother. She was shocked to see that even doctors worked when forms were filled and amount was deposited. This was a thunderclap for her when she realised that these doctors were just humans running after money and no saviours. Now she wanted to save her mother. As she sat helpless in the corridor her promise reverberated in her ears

"I will be a doctor, baba. "

But today she has to choose between the promise and her mother. She got up and went outside the hospital. After few hours she deposited the amount and treatment started giving her a ray of hope.

Now she was not able to face her father. It filled her with deep pain and agony. She was able to bear the torment of selling herself in the Kamathipura but the torment of unfulfilled promise shook her within. She was left with no options. She chose her mother over the promise she committed to her father.