Religion And Progress - A Short Story

 Religion And Progress

   "Cure him, we will worship your idol every year", said Trisha, wife of Mihir. They lived in the village of Taratola. Trisha was of 50 years and Mihir of 60 years. Their family consisted of the year three sons, their wives and children. Mihir was a hawker. He would sell ground-nuts to different villages. His income was decent. He looked after his family well. 

   Mihir's wife Trisha was a housewife. They had three children - Tarit, Bapon and Shyamal. All of them after their high school education, took up the same profession of selling ground-nuts. Their income was good. In a few years, they built a large pucca house of four rooms. 

    By and by, all the three sons were married. At first Tarit, then Bapon and at last Shyamal. A few years later, Tarit had three children, Bapon two and Shyamal two children. Then the financial problems started to appear and that led to family quarrels. One day, on sharing family expenditure a bitter quarrel took place. That separated the three brothers and their parents. It was decided that they would cook separately and each brother would give a certain amount of money to their parents who would also cook separately. That restored peace in the family.

  Then again another incident happened. Mihir one day suddenly lost his sense. All the brothers at first took him to the local hospital. But having his condition deteriorated, the treating doctor referred him to the town hospital. The news of the referral made everybody afraid, especially Trisha. She promised to goddess Manasa that if Mihir was cured, she would worship her idol every year. Though she did not have any money and did not know how she would get that, yet she made the promise. Two days later news came that Mihir was recovering. After ten days, having recovered fully, Mihir was brought home. 

    The sons got relaxed that bad-time was over, but they did not know that it just began. Two days later Trisha informed them of her promise. That was a bolt from the blue to them as they did not have any savings and Mihir's illness wiped out their cash. So, it was decided that they would borrow Rs.10,000/- from a leander who would demand high interest. That week the idol-worship was performed. The sons sighed as one hurdle was over. But Trisha could not sleep at night. She would remember her promise, "Cure him, we will worship your idol every year." She just thought "where that oath would lead her family.

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