The boat was almost filled to its full capacity. Among the people in it were vendors carrying their wares to the market, a marriage party; all going across the river. “It’s enough, there’s no more place”, the boatman cried, “I’ll take you across in the next trip”.
The boatman sank the oars and the boat started moving. There was a lot of laughing and shouting as the boat passed over the glistening waters. The boatman hummed a tune as he worked on the oars, when he saw an old women sitting silently in a corner. The woman was white haired and had very few teeth. “You’re going alone, I think”, the boatman asked.
“Yes”, she replied.
“You must be visiting someone across the river”.
“No”
“Perhaps you’re going to the market”
“No”.
“Well I don’t see any other need for a women like you, to cross the river alone”.
“I am going across to look for my son”.
The boat reached the other side of the river. Everyone got down and left after paying the boatman.
It was evening and people were already doing their return trips on both sides of the river. There weren’t much people in the boat now as it moved against the setting sun. The old woman got in to the boat with a very depressed face.
“Did you trace him ?” the boatman enquired.
“No, but I’ll find him tomorrow”.
“How do you know that your son is on the other side of the river?”
“I had a dream that he lived there”.
“What a son is he, to leave an old and helpless woman”.
“No. no, I lost him in a fair, thirty years back, when he was only five years old”.
The next day she again went across the river and returned after a futile search. This went on day after day. She told the boatman, how badly, she longed to get her son back. She told him of her lifetime savings of four thousand rupees and five sovereign gold jewels, all for him. She added that she hoped to find him at least before her death; she cried as tears rolled down her wrinkled cheeks, “Or else there would be no one to cremate me”.
One evening, she was preparing her dinner after coming back from a tiring search when she heard a knock at the door. She opened the door and saw a young man, “I’ve come to this place on an important mission. Can you please provide me with food and shelter for a couple of days. I’ll pay for it”, the man asked her. The old woman who generally never lets in strangers, somehow agreed and the man got inside.
“What is that which brings you to this village”, she asked him while serving him dinner.
“You see, it’s all very personal”, he replied.
“I am sorry, I won’t ask that again”.
“Its okay, there is nothing wrong in telling you, you are also like my mother. Actually, I have come here to look for my mother”.
“Look for your mother; when did you lose her?”
“Thirty years back in a fair when I was only five years old. I had dream that she lived some where here, suffering all alone”.
The old woman immediately reached out for his hand and cried “I am that unfortunate woman , I am your mother, I’ve got you at last”.
Mother and son, both seemed to be very happy. He started living with her and she took good care of him. She told him that she knew, she would find him someday and that she was now prepared to die anytime. Days passed and one morning and she discovered that her son was missing again. To her anguish, she also learnt that all her savings and jewellery were missing too. She wept silently. The cheat and theft were too great for her to bear. Yet as she wept, she sensed a strange feeling of solitude and helplessness, the same she felt about thirty years back.
The poor old woman thought that her fate was to die like an unwanted. Even if she were to find her real son; will he be happy to come back to her, now that she had nothing with her. Alas, why should anyone return to bear the burden of a lost parent. Losing all hopes, she gave herself to fate and stopped her search. She passed the days with great difficulty.
Exactly a week after his departure, she got a registered packet along with a letter. The postman read the letter for her, “Hope this letter finds you in good health. I am very sorry; I shouldn’t have done this to an old woman like you. Please don’t go about searching for your son and become target for people like me. There is very little chance for your son to be alive now and even if he is, you will never be able to trace him. I promise to stand by you like a true son, when you need the most. I am returning everything I stole except two thousand rupees, which I gave the boatman, as his share. It was the boatman, who made me do all this. I’ll soon return this amount too. Please don’t let the boatman know that I have contacted you after the theft, otherwise he would threaten me. Take care; I’ll come when the need arises”.
She thought for a while and then started to the riverside. The boat lay waiting and being mid-day, there were very little people in it. The boatman was surprised to see her.
“Hello! happy to see you after a long time, heard your son had come back”.
“Oh forget him, he’s a thief and an imposter, but now I am off to get my real son”. The boatman laughed and laughed, as the boat started moving. The old woman waiting for him to finish his laughter then sighed and said, “Lets hope I find him, he’s been missing for a week and has promised to come back when I need him”, she continued, “And you know, he loves rice pudding with fish curry”.
