Hope

Hope”

Her phone blinked suddenly, and again she saw the "Notice" message to clear her outstanding dues. 

She breathed heavily with a sigh. Again this alert!

Plus, times were really hard. She was down to her last 1000 rupees and all the job interviews were simply going flat.

What will happen? "How will me and my family survive the entire month with so little money?" 

Dad!

Yes Dear! 

How much money do you have?

Roughly around 700. Around 200 rupees in the bank, and I withdrew 500 for household expenses.

She breathed heavily again. There was a time when 500 rupees were spent in her family ‘just like that’ in a jiffy, and now they have to keep track of each and every penny.

The COVID situation, which caused massive layoffs in the workplace, also deeply affected "M" (the main protagonist of this story). 

But not only her job. It’s said that when hard times come, they come in a series of events – one after the other.

M’s father lost a huge chunk of money in the stock market. M’s brother's start-up collaboration just went through a massive loss, and of course, not to mention the large chunk of loans that he took from the market.

To run her household, ‘M’ also took loans from the bank – but now she is unable to pay the EMI. Notice after notice followed. She even took loans from a few of her friends and family members, but she is unable to repay them. 

She again breathed a sigh. Not knowing what to do. 

Never had she thought in her life that she and her family would be going through this sort of misery, where loan sharks were just waiting to pounce on her and her family.

In times like these, she often wondered if it was a good thing her mother died, because she wouldn't have been able to bear all of the family's events.

This thought filled her eyes with tears. 

Even the last family heirloom and jewelry were sold to pay off a few EMIs and keep the household running.

‘M’ was feeling ashamed to take help from her friends anymore. They already helped him enough.

"I told you to stop worrying and having panic attacks"—here her brother’s harsh voice broke her reverie.

"Everything will be fine" – I have got a few assignments – from next month, things will be better.

Her brother meant well, but "M" had kind of become tired – she felt like a losing battle with herself.

It’s not that she was completely idle because of a lack of a job. "M" was a good CV writer and did a couple of freelance assignments to sustain herself. The amount that she earned was not very large, but was at least able to cover a few household expenses and the medicine for her aged father. 

Today, she has a few assignments to work on, but she feels drained out and doesn’t have the energy to work. 

“Dad I am going out and will be back in a few hours.” – said ‘M’ while leaving her house.

Given her limited funds, she knew that she didn’t have many options to explore. So, she went to the bus depot to take a ride on 9B (bus number 9).

This 9B bus would take her on the trip till the end of "New Town" from her locality in Kolkata, India. 

Whenever she felt low, she would catch this 9B and go to New Town and return on the same bus. For a few hours at least, her mind would catch some different thoughts while wandering down the aisle and seeing people and surroundings pass by her eyes through the glass window of the bus. 

While waiting for the bus in the depot, she saw a very miserable-looking homeless urchin sitting close by. His looks revealed that he may not have eaten for ages. For a moment, ‘M’ forgot her worries and went to the food kiosks near the bus depot. 

She brought a couple of food items and water for the urchins. She was just praying that he didn’t go elsewhere, otherwise all the food items would go to waste.

Thankfully, the urchin was sitting in the same spot. She gave him the food and water and handed a 20-rupee note ($0.25) to him. (In India, with 20 rupees, low-cost meals are available).

Luckily, she caught her bus on time. The driver and the conductor greeted her. They had seen her a couple of times before and treated her as a regular passenger.

Although ‘M’ had been feeling very low since the morning, somehow at that moment she was feeling good. And especially when she saw the urchin eating the food that she brought for him, it kind of gave her a sense of satisfaction. 

Anyway, the bus started its journey. "M" got her favorite place near the window, and was caught in the labyrinth of her thoughts while the city seemed to pass away before her eyes. The best part of the journey in 9B was that it crossed through pools, lakes, fancy roads, green woods, and hotels/restaurants. All these visuals would make her happy. Although only for some time.

After the fruitful journey, the bus reached New Town. The driver said that the bus will halt there for 25 minutes before embarking on to its return journey.

"M" had ample time till then. There were a couple of good food kiosks and restaurants at the New Town bus depot. She went to her favorite kiosk for some tea and sandwiches.

It was always her regular order. Even the kiosk owner knew it and served her in a jiffy.

While having her tea, she browsed through her phone. Ignoring all the EMI notice messages (she didn’t want to lose her mind that time)—she saw an interesting message. It was about some "online lottery" in India.

Her initial reaction was to delete the message. But she thought of opening the link and reading.

There were some initial registrations (including here bank account number) to be filled and the option to buy 3 lottery tickets for 500 rupees.

"M" was very skeptical because she only had a thousand rupees in the bank and about 400 in her purse.

She went through the reviews also, and it seemed safe because many people had played and won in the online lottery.

"I have nothing to lose anyway," "M" reasoned briefly. It will be difficult in any way to run the household for the entire month with so little money. Let’s see, maybe God will help me.“ She exclaimed!

She purchased the lottery after completing her registrations. The time of the lottery was midnight in India.

Anyway, it was time for the bus to leave the New Town depot. She started her return journey without thinking much about the lottery ticket she purchased. Her mind kind of returned to the same turmoil of her bank notices. Thankfully, she had two different accounts, and her savings were in the second bank account.

While browsing through YouTube on her phone, she came across an interesting fable—wherein a pregnant deer was attacked by a hunter and a hungry lion at the same time in the forest. At the same time, there was thunder and a rainstorm, and the deer did not know what to do. At that time, the deer thought that she should focus on giving birth to a new life, and she concentrated her efforts on that. Meanwhile, a massive lightning and thunder storm caused a forest fire, and the hunter missed his arrow due to the lightning (which caught his eye), killing the hungry lion. At the same time, the deer, without thinking of anything else, gave birth to her fawn. 

Somehow, this fable inspired "M" a lot. She knew that nothing else was in her control, so it’s best if she focuses on the work that she has on hand. Her unfinished CVs of the clients She had better complete that and maybe she could demand some advance payment from her client. She returned home and resumed her work with renewed vigor.

It was by midnight that she completed her CVs. And she almost forgot about her lottery.

In the morning, suddenly her phone blinked again. An Alert! “Must be some bank notice again” sighed “M” 

But it was not the notice message – suddenly she saw the alert that INR 1 Crore & 75 lakh transferred (out of 2 Crore) in your account.

‘M’ was baffled. She immediately checked her account and discovered the transfer of INR 1 crore and 75 lakh (from online lotto). She was still not ready to believe it and called her bank's customer service. Once it was verified from their end, ‘M’ screamed with joy and hugged her father and brother.

Just like hard times come in a series of events, even during good times, it happens the same. She also got a message that she had been selected for a job (an interview which she had attended many months ago).

How she and her family would pay off the debts and invest the remaining funds was something to think about later. But for now, she just wanted to breathe a "joy of relief" – and let the stillness of the atmosphere get into her skin……