In 1916, when the small town Arasikere was in deep slumber, a child was desperate to hop out of his mother’s secured and protective womb to view the bright world outside, being unaware of what was in store for him for his future. Yes, that was how little Balu’s birth happened. His parents were poor daily wage workers who toiled to make their ends meet. The child was christened Balakrishna but fondly addressed as Balu. By the time of his birth, his father was already battling for life with a severe stomach ailment.
Hailing from an impoverished family, Balu began to grow in a poor class ethos, in the warmth lap of few mothers of the locality as his mother could not take a day off as she was the only bread winner of the family and who was constantly on heels to feed her child and also to attend to the needs of her ailing husband too. As Balu turned a year older his father’s ailment too turned to be a monster, threatening every moment of his survival. The doctor who attended on him referred him to another hospital for further diagnosis tests to be conducted on him. As bad phase arrives with loads of hardships, Balu’s mother too fell a victim to the torturous phase. She struggled to earn that extra income to meet her husband’s medical expenditure, but in vain. Driven into penury and as the monthly rental for her single room shelter too remained mounted, sooner, her family were mercilessly shown the door. The frail desperate mother with Balu in her arm wondered places to seek some financial aid and shelter but returned with sheer disappointment. Balu too seemed inconsolable, wailing for his mother’s attention and also her sick husband who was seen squatted on the footway too looked weary and restless. The visibly devastated lady appeared to be in a trance state of mind as her pale eyes aspired for some kind of mercy attention. The beset child who vehemently cried to grab his mother’s attention too failed as his hapless mother appeared too tired to pacify him. She stood motionless in the same place hours together until a nearby residing lady milk vendor, Rangamma noticed her plight and walked upto her and invited them to rest for a while at her nearby home. Balu’s mother eyes sparkled and glowed with a ray of hope. Rangamma enquired her grievances and Balu’s mother briefed her of the enormity of her endurances. Rangamma who gave a patient hearing allowed them to rest on the porch of her home and also offered them some food and water. Balu’s mother envisaged a positive vibe and hoped to see some light at the end of the tunnel. After ascertaining the situation, Rangamma offered to help her, but, her generous help was rather a conditional one as she expressed her desire to adopt Balu in exchange for the financial aid. Her intention shocked Balu’s mother who pleaded her to show mercy and also promised to reimburse the offered money at some stage soon after her husband’s health recovery, but, Rangamma was adamant and never seemed to budge. Silence ruled the situation and a pall of gloom shrouded the place for sometime and the beleaguered mother sat dumbstruck for a while as she could not convince Rangamma and she also empathized with her ailing husband who laid muttering and writhing in pain throughout their conversation. Life seemed a spectre to Balu’s mother as the situation appeared a death-knell and which demanded her of on ultimate decision, either to sacrifice her child to save her husband from the clutches of death or abandon her ailing husband to the cruelty of embrasing an horrified death and thus remain united with her son. Ultimately, she opted to sacrifice her child, dreaming and hoping a better prospects for him and thus rescue her husband who was struggling at the jaws of death. Within minutes the wailing and tiresome child was transferred unto the arms of Rangamma in exchange for few bucks of Rs.8/-. Burdened with pains of sorrow and her heart bleeding to die, the shell shocked mother parted ways and slowly moved away with tears from the grasp of her child’s tiny hands, who desisted to even let his mother move, stretched his tiny arms screaming, to convey in his speechless language “ma, don’t leave me, take me back”.
It was already dark by then, Rangamma carried away the child into her home. The most unfortunate mother with blood-stained heart of burdened grief vanished into the darkness along with her ailing husband never ever to return back hot even to have a glance at her child. What went wrong no-body knows, even little Balu. As destiny rules, the beginning of little Balu’s life seemed indeed end of everything, as the warmth and cuddling of his mother never happened and Rangamma remained a custodian mother of Balu forever. The worst part of his life was that he grew up with his parents name being undisclosed to him.
A MESSAGE:- One is born to live, so fight back the woes to win over the challenges of life.