The Good in Every Bad....

Sitting on the back carrier of her brother's bicycle, Ansha hoped none of her classmates would see her right now. She felt a bit embarrassed to be riding behind her elder brother instead of having her own bicycle. Ansha and her brother Avi had the typical love-hate relationship that many siblings share.

After crossing about a mile on the roads and through alleyways, the bicycle finally reached its destination. Avi opened the gate of their house. Ansha got off the bicycle and started walking inside, but for some reason, she hesitated. Avi joined his little sister when she hesitated to step inside. Holding hands, they entered the house together.

Loud, disturbing sounds echoed from inside the house. It wasn’t the first time Ansha had experienced this. The pattern was familiar, yet it scared her a little more each time. Ansha’s father and her stepmother were fighting. Their fights were nothing unusual—just the kind of arguments between two people who hated each other deeply.

The fights didn’t always stay between the parents; they often escalated, and both Ansha and her brother Avi became targets of their anger.

After each fight, the children were blamed. If you think this was mostly coming from the stepmother, you’re probably right—but not entirely, as their father also blamed them for the couple's issues.

Imagine being 10 years old and getting blamed for your parents' fights.

In a loud and cutting voice, Ansha’s stepmother said, "Because of these annoying kids, you’re always out of your mind," pointing a finger at both of them.

Apparently, Ansha's father never opposed his wife when she blamed the kids. Instead, he would try to calm the situation by agreeing with everything she said.

Ansha was a child, but she never really got the chance to be one. She didn’t get to play with friends in the colony, participate in extracurricular activities at school, or receive the love and pampering from her mother like other children her age did.

Ansha was only seven when her mother died from kidney failure. As a seven-year-old, this must have been an incredibly hard and unbearable time to deal with. But Ansha never got the chance to cry out loud. She was a mature child, one who knew how to handle unforeseen situations. She never reacted like other kids her age. Her way of showing emotions was always subtle.

"I know my mom died, I know she was sick. I asked God to save her, but maybe God loved her more than I do. No! I definitely love her more. Maybe she has a different purpose to serve as an angel now," Ansha thought to herself when she saw her mother lying lifeless on the hospital bed.

Ansha witnessed her father's breakdown as he did everything he could to save her mother. Avi was also crying, as any 12-year-old might. But for Ansha, it was as if she already knew this was going to happen.

How could a child be so wise?

Seeing her father and brother in such a state, Ansha decided she would take care of both of them.

No matter how wise she became, she still struggled to believe that her mother wouldn’t return.

With this thought in her mind, she ran towards her father’s assistant, Meena, who also served as a part-time babysitter.

Ansha thought of Meena very fondly. To Ansha, Meena was a companion and guardian.

"Aunty, is it really true that when people die, they never come back?" Ansha asked.

Meena replied, "Sweetheart, when people die, they disappear, but they’re always in our hearts. So, they never really leave you when they love you."

It was a great explanation for a seven-year-old to understand, but as mentioned, Ansha was too wise to accept this as the complete truth.

With time, Ansha realized it was better that her mother had died, as she no longer had to endure pain and suffering.

As time passed, Ansha approached life with a spirited attitude, always looking for the bright side and searching for the good in every bad situation.

Despite the blame game and the tense atmosphere at home, she still tried to see the bigger picture.

"If blaming me and my brother will stop the fights between my parents, let’s just take the blame for the greater good," Ansha thought during another tense moment at home.

At this point, Ansha acted maturely, but not wisely. She accepted blame for things she never had a hand in, just for the sake of a happy family and a little love from her stepmother.

Love was of utmost importance to Ansha. She longed to be loved, cared for, and respected, just like other children are by their parents and relatives.

As Ansha grew up, she maintained the same attitude toward life—living without harboring hurt feelings, even though she was hurting inside. She did everything possible to make her stepmother happy. She was a good kid, she studied hard, and she did everything her stepmother asked, all in an effort to earn love.

Unfortunately, she didn’t realize that her stepmother was not someone who would easily soften or recognize the love Ansha showed through her actions and words.

Talking about her stepmother, Ansha used to think of her as someone who was inherently good, but whose tough circumstances and troubled past had made her a hard person.

Initially, things weren’t that bad, but only for a period of six months, to be precise.

Ansha never blamed her stepmother for the fights and the heavy atmosphere at home. She believed it was her father who always started the fights.

A few years later, she would realize who was really to blame, but for now, she blamed her father’s anger and aggression.