Life changing event – Shema leaving the house

                          Life changing event – Shema leaving the house

Shema left Verma family and fled with a guy! That was the news in the neighbourhood that spread like fire. “Oh really but why?”, “ Its unbelievable!”, “ she should not have done that!” . “That’s mean “ , these were the reactions of the neighbours. But why was everyone reacting so much?

Well, lets introduce Verma family here. Verma family consisted of Mr. Verma, Mrs Verma and their 4 children. Yes , it was a happy , well to do, prosperous family one could say. So who was Shema ? Shema was Mrs Verma’s sister who had come to stay with her from village so that she could get some employment in the city. The Vermas were very kind hearted as Shema was always treated with love and respect in their family. In return, Shema also took care of the Verma family like her own. The children used to address her as “Shema didi”, and she also took very good care of them. Right from preparing the morning breakfast and lunch, helping in the household chores , buying the groceries and everything , the whole charge of the house was in a way taken by her. Mr and Mrs Verma were also relaxed and after sometime, Mr Verma even arranged for a good job for her at a nearby social service centre.

As Shema was hard working and quite bright she worked sincerely and was made the supervisor of the social service centre. On the home front, she being an expert was managing everything too well.

Often Mr and Mrs Verma would talk to Shema about her marriage but she denied that she dint want to marry and that she was very comfortable with this family. It was not that she dint have any men in her life or that men did not like her , but her whole focus was only on 2 things 1) her job 2) taking care of the family. She had become the backbone of the family.

There were happy times when the whole family, used to go for picnics and exertions. The family loved her way too much, completely trusted her , even the children were too fond of her.  Examination time of the children was however an ordeal time as well . Shema used to get up at 5 ‘o clock in the morning, wake the children up and give them milk and literally order them to study for their examination. She had also prepared posters with lines of her favourite song written on them “ZINDAGI HAR KADAM EK NAYI JANG HAI” (“ Life is a new battle at every step”), and hung them up in Children’s study room so that they could get inspiration. Then she would hurriedly go and get vegetables from the nearby market, come and prepare breakfast and make the children ready for the school. Both the parents also took good care of the children and with Shema it was an added support as she was the asset of the house.

She would drop them to the school as well and would fight with the conductor in the school bus as most often the youngest child of the Verma family could not get any place to sit in the bus and literally had to stand on the steps of the bus on the way to school which was very risky. They had complained in the school as well regarding this but the school authorities paid no attention to them as they always made an excuse that the kids on the route were large in number and they had  made a favour in accommodating the child in the already full bus.

In times of sickness, when Vermas took  any of the children to hospital to get admitted , Shema stayed overnight as attendant in the hospital. Such was the closeness that she had with the family. Since she had her life too to live, whenever being asked for marriage , she said she will never leave the Verma family till her end.

 All the friends , neighbours, colleagues , relatives everyone sometimes misunderstood her as the mother of the children such was her close bond. On the work front also she got  promotions and she rose to the level of officer in  social welfare department. SO what went wrong? Everything was picture perfect wasn’t it? But time changes and so does things.

Unfortunately, Mr Verma had a massive heart attack and he expired, leaving his family behind him all shattered. As Mrs Verma and Shema were the strong support for the family , they found great consolation in Shema. Shema was a physical , mental and emotional support for the Vermas .  Mrs Verma took leave from her office for sometime  , while Shema attended her own office regularly so that their source of income doesn’t get hampered anyway.

After a few years, Shema’s  office got transferred to a new branch where she got in touch with Umesh, an office boy. Though Umesh, was much younger in age than Shema he was a robust man , good looking to some extent as well. He was a widower and was being survived by his two younger daughters Kriti and Chinky. Umesh grew very friendly with Shema and came to know about the tragedy that took place with the Vermas after losing Mr Verma. He was a very shrewd person and as he belonged to a much lower strata of society he thought of trapping Shema in his love. He knew that SHema earned very well , had accumulated a good bank balance and how emotionally attached she was to the Verma family. He played his cards well and thought of a plan. He befriended the Vermas and started coming to their house on some pretext or the other. He also had an bad eye for Verma eldest daughter Laxmi and became friendly with her too.

The Verma family which was a strong , sufficient and prosperous family had lost its strength after the demise of Mr Verma. Ofcourse , due to circumstances family bond weakens up and a stranger can take good advantage of them. So that’s what Umesh did. Umesh wanted to take a hold over all the property, finances of the family. As Umesh had totally won the confidence of Shema, he lured her to get married to her and that they both would acquire the household of the Vermas.  He even brought both his daughters and began staying with Verma family. Mrs Verma’s second eldest daughter Muskaan who felt things going a bit weird pointed out to Mrs Verma that she felt something not right with Umesh. She became aware that he was trying to trap the family somehow. Mrs Verma discussed the matter with Shema and to their shock Shema confessed that she was truly in love with Umesh and wanted to marry him. Mrs Verma asked Shema that in this moment of crisis what made her decide so…..to which she replied that Umesh was the best choice for her. They tried to make her understand that he was not worth her, she was his boss at a much better financial position, he was already married with two children and was only trapping her so that he could arrange for their marriage finances. Shema really got annoyed on hearing this from her sister.

Just after a week the incidence took place , Mrs Verma got retired from her job. It was raining heavily that evening and by the time she came home she was completely drenched. As she came home, she asked Shema to prepare some tea to which Shema replied bluntly that she was leaving the house. Mrs Verma and her kids on hearing it had a big argument with her , they tried to convince her , to make her understand, even pleaded her to stay. She was on the verge of making a wrong decision in her life. But  Shema had already made up her mind. She called up Umesh on the phone to come and pick her up, took a few clothes wrapped it all up in a cloth and left the house while it was still raining. Umesh was waiting for her on his bike outside and Shema left with him just like that without even saying goodbye. After an association of 10 long years with the family she just left without any remorse or regret. The whole responsibility of the children came upon the shoulders of Mrs Verma alone, who felt Shema kind of betrayed her and that too on the day of her retirement. Luckily, Lakshmi was employed and  had a good  job to herself. Muskaan was also studying in a medical institute. Life had changed for all of  them. Shema not only left them all but had betrayed them. Noone had stopped her from getting married but fleeing away like this was not expected from someone who had such a close bond. The whole family had always loved her and supported her throughout their lives.

Verma kids faced a lot of challenges while growing up and problems as well. Had Shema been around things would have been different. Later, the daughters got married to families which were not very nice to them. Their brother, under the influence of depression,  never used to attend the college and became an introvert personality. The youngest child also could not withstand the pain and could not do well in her school and career as well .

They came to know about Shema, that she paid for her sins as well. As expected Umesh was only after her money. His daughters treated her like a servant and never accepted her like their mother. Shema made all efforts to keep her husband and daughters happy and even got a government accommodation for them. The whole family had rose from rags to riches . Umesh exploited and dominated Shema and all the expenses of his daughters were being borne by her.

The Vermas had learnt it the hard way….from the betrayal of Shema….Shema’s leaving the house …….