Maya

He wiped his teary eyes and kept the portrait of his beloved in the store room. Rakesh continued smoking a cigar while finishing his official work. He thought of the little unclean boy he met yesterday in the middle of the road. He said to himself, "It is due to such rascals, that our country is ill-reputed." 

  Rakesh is a Ceo of a company and belongs to an influential family. He has a tendency to loath the poor sections of society. He might be rich but isn't kind enough to help the needy. 

 One fine morning, while doing his breakfast from a cafe, a poor boy banged the window and asked for food. Rakesh was infuriated and asked the security guards to throw the boy away. The poor unprivileged boy was hungry and mistreated by the guards. He went away sobbing.

******

The next day, since Rakesh's car wasn't working, he thought to take a walk around the beautiful city. Little did he notice that the same little boy was following him. However, ignorant of this, he continued walking by the lane. 

   The little boy walking behind the tall, muscular man grabbed the office bag and ran away. Rakesh, quite baffled by what happened, was screaming at the top of his voice. He shouted, "Catch, that rascal. He is a thief." Nobody could catch that little rascal. 

  Rakesh followed him to the slum and tried to catch him. Meanwhile, he was quick enough to call the police. Finally, he was successful in reaching the shanty house of that rascal that too in a slum. He was disgusted by the fact that he had to step in a slum to catch a thief. Meanwhile the police also reached the destination. 

*****

Rakesh tightly holding the little boy with his hard hands slapped him twice on his cheeks. The little boy was wailing and called his mother. 

Rakesh said loudly, ‘Yes, you rascal! Call your mother. I want to see what kind of upbringing she gave you.”

“Mind your language. I don’t care who you are,” said Maya, stepping out from the kitchen.

 Rakesh and Maya. The two were considered to be the best couple during the college days. They loved each other dearly, but maybe Maya loved him more. Tears rolled down from Maya’s eyes as she saw Rakesh. 

******

 Rakesh who stood there went numb and was shocked to see her after so many years. He stared at her beautiful black eyes for two -three minutes. She is still the same as when he left her. Maya  after gaining her confidence, ‘I hope now you know whose son is this?”

Rakesh was silent as he could not believe his eyes. After swallowing his shame, he screamed, ‘No! This can never be my son. You are lying, you beggar. You’re perhaps attracted to my wealth as you were earlier.’’

“I am appalled to see that you haven’t changed a bit. I left my career, college, family all for you. And what you did? You left me. You abandoned me when I was pregnant. You made me believe that you will marry me. But You were and are a Liar.”

****

 It was difficult to believe which one was the truth. But the way Rakesh felt uncomfortable, it was believed that it was his misdeed. The fact that the little boy was his own son was a bitter pill to swallow. He was abashed in front of the police.

 He suddenly started to act weird and screamed, ‘NO, NO, NO, NO, NEVER.’ A sudden guilt, shame, anger and frustration struck his heart and in an agitated mood he snatched the pistol from the police’ hand and shot the little boy. Maya’s face was covered with blood. In order to save her son, she came forward and lost her life. Rakesh shattered at seeing this. He fell down beside her and said, ‘I never wanted to kill you, darling!’ Maya’s last words to him were, “You already killed me when you left us.’’  She slowly moved her face to his son and said,  “Your Maa, loves you.” And she closed her eyes forever. 

 Rakesh was down in the dumps as he had nothing left in his life except money.