Why Is Daughter A Boon ?

Sonali was a single mother of a four-year-old kid. She had trained as an air-hostess, after her marriage to a businessperson had broken off. She had always wanted to become an air-hostess, because she had a thing for travelling by an airplane.

Her marriage to Vikram, a businessperson from Ranchi, had broken off because her husband was having an affair with another woman. When Sonali confronted him on the issue of infidelity, he scoffed at her, saying that he was bored of her now and was bearing her expenses because he had committed to her in marriage.

Sonali did not like the way he said it. Therefore, she decided that she would call it quits. Vikram was just going through the motions in their relationship. Sonali had been the active partner.

However, when Vikram reacted like this to her endearments, her enthusiasm to continue in the relationship waned. She finally decided that she would take her daughter and go her own way. Vikram did not seem to mind Sonali taking their daughter because as it is, he did not love both of them. The bottom-line was that he did not want any social responsibility. His marriage to Sonali was a business deal for Vikram and his father, Shantilal.

Vikram's family had posed a condition before allowing him to be a part of the family business. He was to get married to a girl of his father's choice.

As Vikram, did not wish to branch out independently and wanted to live in the secure shadow provided by his family business, he decided to do as his father said. On marrying Sonali, he was made a 50% partner in the family business. Sonali was not privy to all this. She also was coming from a conservative family, who was forced into marriage by her mother.

Sonali's father was a minor watchmaker. Vikram's father happened to be his regular customer. As the latter bought a new watch every year from Sonali's father, a cordial relationship had developed between Sonali and Vikram's father. They both fulfilled each other's need. Finally, one day, when Vikram's father had gone to buy a new watch, he saw Sonali's father sitting sad and dejected in his shop. On being asked the reason for his sadness, Sonali's father told him about his dilemma.

Sonali's father wanted to retire from business and he was seeking someone to run his business for him, in return for giving his family a minimum amount each month for survival.

Sonali's father, Dinkar, had never liked Sonali from the time she was born. He was of a conservative nature and wanted a son from his wife. He wanted a son, who would look after his business, while he played a supervisory role. He was also accumulating money to train his expected son as a watchmaker abroad and bequeath him the business. However, when Sonali was born, he transferred that money into another account, for her dowry.

Sonali's marriage to Vikram was one of convenience. It was convenient for both sides (Shantilal and Dinkar).

After the marriage, Vikram's father, Shantilal, would get the latest watches from Dinkar's shop at cost price and would get a fat dowry for taking Sonali away. Sonali's father had paid dowry to get rid of her. Shantilal had suggested this arrangement when he had seen Dinkar sitting dejectedly in his shop. He had asked for something else too. After Dinkar's death, he would bequeath the shop to his son-in-law, Vikram. Dinkar agreed to all these conditions because he was getting rid of both his business and his daughter.

Vikram deputed a close friend of his, Ranjeet, to run his father-in-law's business while he became a partner in his own family business. Sonali was oblivious of all these dealings because her religion and culture did not allow females to know about family finances. Her father was very secretive about everything. He also did not tell his own wife about his financial dealings.

However, when Sonali got married, he started sharing all the details with Vikram. He did not know the game that Vikram and his father had played on his family. He had done it innocently, but now it was Sonali's turn to hate her father.

When Sonali decided to take divorce, she had already come to know the cruel game that Vikram and his father, Shantilal had played on her unsuspecting family. She was very angry and wanted to hit back. However, she was not strong enough to do so. Although, she hated her father, she also pitied him because his own son-in-law was cheating him. Vikram had started exporting watches from Dinkar's shop, without his knowledge. She came to know all this, when Ranjeet, the man whom Vikram had deputed to take care of Sonali's father's shop came to Sonali, after her divorce, seeking her hand in marriage.He had not gone to Dinkar, but had come to Sonali to ask for her hand in marriage.

However, after her experiences with her own father, Dinkar and her husband Vikram, Sonali had begun to hate the male community. Therefore, she refused the match right away. She thought, it was well that she had a daughter from marriage. She thought that if she had had a son, she would have killed him by now. She decided to channelize her hate towards males to gain something professionally. She had always wanted to be an air-hostess since childhood. Now she decided to fulfill her ambition.

She had to become strong to take revenge for the deceit that Vikram's family had played on her family. Her first goal was to change her father's mindset.

She took her mother into confidence to do this. Sonali's mother, Durga, who had taken up a job in a nearby temple, to provide for herself and her husband, after she discovered the deceit that Vikram and his family had given them, now decided to help her daughter. Sonali took monetary help from her mother, studied to become an airhostess and got a job with Singapore Airlines. Her salary was enough to support herself, her daughter and her old parents.

Still she asked her mother to continue her job at the temple so that she could meet her there to discuss things. Sonali had vowed never to enter her father's house, after she discovered the cruel way in which he had disposed her off in marriage. Sonali and her mother met in the temple, every Sunday. Sonali's four-year-old daughter also was with them. Both would spend their time with the child.

This was when Ranjeet decided to help Sonali. Although, she had declined his offer for marriage, he still loved her. His loyalties now lay more with Sonali, than with his employer Vikram. He decided to double-cross Vikram and his father for the love of his life, Sonali. That is why he had gone to Sonali to ask for her hand in marriage and not to her father, Dinkar.

Ranjeet started by maintaining a diary of the everyday happenings in the watch shop. He used to show this diary to Sonali, every Sunday, at the temple, where she met her mother. Here, they would decide their strategies. Ranjeet had decided to help Sonali get back her shop because he felt that Vikram had wronged her family. He also did it because he had started respecting her more after Sonali decided to study to become an air-hostess to help her parents. He knew they were on the brink and decided to prove that he had come to Sonali with his hand in marriage because he genuinely loved her. His help for Sonali was unconditional, as love should be.

Sonali contacted the family lawyer who had framed the contract conditions under which Shantilal and Dinkar were bound, with Ranjeet's help. Although, Sonali had started talking to Ranjeet, she always discussed work and nothing else.

Ranjeet did not like this. However, he did not mind it. In his heart, he knew the reason for it. He decided to show his love for Sonali by helping her fulfill her goal.

He was a qualified lawyer, but, due to bad financial conditions, he was loyal to Vikram. He decided to use his knowledge to help Sonali. He got hold of the contract, read it word by word and wrote down the interpretation of all the clauses therein.

Meanwhile, as the export of watches was growing, Vikram had to remain abroad for long periods. He decided to give Ranjeet the power of attorney to take decisions, which included financial decisions.

Ranjeet decided to misuse this trust.

He prepared a contract with a lawyer's help. He wanted help because he could not practice as a lawyer. He did not have a license. He had not taken out a license because he was always short of money. In addition, he did not know how to market his services. However, he had the knowledge of law, which he used to their advantage. He prepared a contract document, which returned all the assets along with the shop to Sonali.

This was done when Vikram asked Ranjeet to prepare a fresh contract in which he was going to make Ranjeet a 50% partner in the watch business, in return for his loyalty for so many years.

Ranjeet made the contract, got it signed from Vikram and lodged it in the court with Sonali's family lawyer's assistance. The shop now belonged to Sonali. All the profits of the business would go to an account opened in joint name of Ranjeet and Sonali. Sonali's name was first in the list. Ranjeet could not take any financial decisions without Sonali's permission. This arrangement was arrived at to help Sonali gain back her trust of males.

Ranjeet had decided to work as an employee his whole life. He had decided to work for Sonali and her family. He had run his parent's house all his life sacrificing his own professional life because his father was a drunkard and did not ever take responsibility. In an early age, he had lost interest in life. However, as he loved Sonali and considered her his family, he decided to secure Sonali's family. He decided to do what a male member of Sonali's family would have done. He decided to show by his actions, his love for Sonali.

After Sonali came to know about Ranjeet's personal life, she softened towards him. She did not like him taking permission from her for every small thing. Therefore, she made him prepare a contract, which made him an employee of Sonali's father Dinkar, and not Sonali. She decided to be the representative of her father. She would take the status of all the work done by Ranjeet, with her father's help. This arrangement went on for three years. Ranjeet had grasped the whole business by now.

Sonali found this out and decided to nominate him as the legal heir of her parents. Her father did not want a daughter from childhood. She decided to fulfill her father's wish. She decided to continue in her job as an air-hostess and keep herself away from her father's business. She trained her mother to do what she was doing up to now. Her mother would now pose questions about the business to Ranjeet.

Sonali had by now accumulated a neat sum to leave her father's house altogether. She took a home on rent, brought up her daughter and trained her to be a pilot. Meanwhile, Ranjeet also did not want anything to do with the business. He created a trust to help single mothers like Sonali. He knew that Sonali did not want anything to do with her father's wealth. Therefore, he had taken this step. Sonali's father Dinkar understood WHY A DAUGHTER IS A BOON.