Festival of Hope

“Mom, won’t we celebrate Christmas this year?”, Asked Jason to his mother.

--- “why not dear? We’ll celebrate”, his mother replied with a forced smile and a hidden pain inside of her.

--- “yeehh! I’m going to tell Ryan”, Jason said delightedly.

Lisa went to her work but couldn’t concentrate as her mind was filled with a great void and it had been like this all the time after Varun’s death. Lisa broke down as a result of her husband’s accident, but she had to cope with the situation, and whenever she felt sad, the faces of her children came to her mind and provided her with some endurance towards life. She remembered how they used to celebrate Christmas at their house in London. There used to be a big Christmas tree at the hall of their big mansion that she used to decorate with so much care. It was adorned with lights, bells, chocolates, tinsel, candies, gingerbread tied to or hung from the branches of the tree with ribbon. The whole city was decorated with lights and joy, and her family was decorated with happiness and bright smiles. All of these were turned to dust in an instant.

When her husband died, the younger son Jason was a little boy couldn’t understand what was happening around him. One day suddenly he could not find his father when he was going to play as his father was his companion of playing. Since that day he constantly is asking his mother where father has gone. The older son Ryan apprehended the situation, but he wished if he was like Jason then he also did not need to perceive and feel the pain of losing his father. But like a responsible child, he’s always been there for his mother. The family was used to live in luxury, but poverty hit them hard and opulence slammed its door against them. They were going through a baffling and restless condition, so Lisa couldn’t think much and came to India with her sons to their old house in Kolkata. Oh, didn’t I talk about the other part of their family?

The family has its roots in Kolkata that Varun and Lisa left after their marriage. Varun was a bright student since childhood unlike his elder brother, Nitin and after completing his study he decided to go abroad. His father would give him permission but as Nitin was not as bright as him and he even didn’t cross the line of graduation, he was jealous of his younger brother and somehow convinced his father not to send Varun to foreign before getting him married. But after his marriage to Lisa there was no other excuse to make him stay, hence Nitin gave up at last and Varun went to London. Varun’s mother was kind of dissatisfied with the fact that he did not return from London to his mother but when she learnt of his death and saw her grandchildren for the first time, she could not hold her tears. After all, losing a son is the most painful thing to a mother. Everyone said, “the people of the house have returned to the house”. The parents became so happy to get their family back together again, Nitin’s wife said to Lisa, “we’ll become best friends, we’ll not let you feel any inadequacy”, and Jason got a new friend in Diya, daughter of Nitin. But Nitin’s heart didn’t melt. He thought that after Varun’s death his family lost everything and now, they’ve come to occupy the property of the family.

One day, he saw Diya and Jason playing with each other and Diya got injured by falling off the stairs. He came running and scolded Jason telling him not to play with Diya ever again. It was a small injury, if it’d happened by something else Nitin might not be this much concerned but as it had any involvement with Jason, he made it a big issue. Jason ran away crying. Then Diya said, “Why did you scold him father? He was saving me from a major injury”.

--- “What?”

--- “Yes father, I mistakenly dropped my doll down the stairs, and I was running after it and my ankle sprained, then I was about to fall and something major could happen, Jason saved me”.

Nitin felt an instant sense of guilt, not only because of scolding that little boy but being rude and arrogant towards him this whole time. He thought, “this little boy conquered my mind at once that could not happen all these years”.

Later he went to Jason and said, “I’m sorry dear, I rebuked you for no reason. Won’t you forgive your uncle?”

--- “My mom says that the ability to forgive people is a great thing, so I’ll forgive you”, Jason replied with a big smile.

--- “Very good. Now tell me what do you want for Christmas? I’ve heard that you used to celebrate Christmas with so much grandeur”.

--- “Yes, I love Christmas. I only want you all together on Christmas eve, nothing more, uncle”.

Lisa came to know that afterwards, she said to herself, “Right, this is what Christmas is about. It does not need any splendor or glory, it is itself glorious in its contentment. It’s about families getting together forgetting all grieves, sorrows and losses”. This year their Christmas might have less artificial lights, but the inner light was lit in its fullest.

--------- by Aditi Sarkar