“In this world filled with hierarchy and levels at every stage, I’m nothing but a tiny speck. My name is Vijayalakshmi and my job is to process coconuts for extracting oil. Being a rather simple task, I don’t make much but the hard truth is that I don’t have any other means to earn even this. I am seventy-three now, looking at the last days of my life in utter gloom, with each day feeling more painful than the other.
The reason you ask? Well, I had a son who I brought up with all the care a mother could offer. Despite being a lower-middle-class household, I made sure to never be stingy when it came to his education or any other needs. He was my world, and all I wanted was to see him happy.
But like they say ‘One should definitely be careful in what they wish for’. It was just a matter of a few years before I saw my beloved son, flying high, with a degree and a corporate job. He was very happy, of course, but at that point, I’d apparently become a ‘burden’ to him. In his perfect life, he didn’t want a mother weighing him down, and therefore took off to another city cutting off all ties.
It was heartbreaking, to say the least, but what’s tougher is to actually live every day being dead on the inside. Things further took a turn for the worse, when my husband passed away a few years ago. So today, it’s just lonely old me, in a world that’s filled with a billion people. What I long for in the days to come is for my internal suffering to come to an end- either in some miraculous way by reuniting with my child, or bidding an early adieu to this life. And I sincerely hope it’s the former. I want my chapter to come to a close, with me truly smiling for once, and not faking it like I have been all these years!”
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