Youth Lost - A Short Story
Youth Lost
"What happened to the young generation?", exclaimed Sisir. Sisir was a retired school teacher. He served in a town school for 22 years. After retirement he settled in his village Udhampur. Sisir had two daughters and a son. All of them were married and lived in the town. Only Sisir and his wife Sangita lived in the village house. They were enjoying enjoying their village life a lot.
Mrs. Sangita loved to talk to the village women. After kitchen when she would find time, she would go to a neighbour's house to have a conversation. Sisir's joy was boundless. From morning till night his only work was to approach his friends and chat. Mihir, Shyamal,Lakhim, Toton, Nepal, Titu etc. - the name-list was too long. They talked about various matters, like childhood stories, town life, village life, school life, profession etc.
The most talked about topic was about there childrens. Sisir's two daughters, Maher and Shila, were employed in multinational companies and his only son was a deputy magistrate. Among his village friends, everyone's daughters were housewives, except Shyamal. His daughter Shukla was a school teacher. Among the sons Lakhim's son would run a grocery shop, Mihir's son looked after his father's large estate, Shyamal's son was a farmer, Nepal's son was Mason, Titu's son was a Civic Police, but Toton's son did not work. He was preparing for UPSC exam from a town lodging. These topics were their most favorite.
All the friends were retired from their works and so chatting and gossiping was their main work then. They met in the village tea-shop and it was favourite place as talking while relishing hot tea with snacks made the time enjoyable. Most of the time Sisir bore the expenses. He was much wealthy than the others. One day while they were talking at the tea-shop, Toton rushed in. He was almost breathless. On enquiry he informed that Jatin, a neighbour, took his son to hospital as he attempted suicide. Hearing that everyone got surprised and shocked. At that time Sisir remarked, "What happened to the young generation?"
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