The Gospel Truth

VIII. "HE"

Amy understood instantly what did "HE" meant for. Vyom, the elder brother of Om, who had broken all the relations with his brother, was "HE". The "HE", who hadn't taken the pain to convey his blessings to Om or even Amy in the past seventeen damn years. In fact, both of the brothers had visited each other's city scores of times but a nominal distance of hardly five kilometers seemed to take an eternity to be zero and left untraveled. Some of the relatives came forward to push the relation of the two brothers to the normalcy but Vyom turned them all down and put the relation at stake, and now he, himself, was coming. After completing the MBA, when his son, Sanju, started his first job, in Chandigarh, he preferred to live with Om and his family. Even then the elder brother wasn't impressed and when Sanju approached his father for the betterment of relationship, he got the bitter treatment.

"But Dad, I am living here. Uncle and Aunty are very nice as I see. They are unpretentious as per my observation. How can you leave such family members?"

"It is none of your business, Sanju," Vyom replied.

"I think, it is; Dad."

"See; you are trying to teach me. I have some principles of my life and those are the same for all. Be it you or be it your uncle." Dad said contemptuously.

"Being dogmatic doesn't indicate that you are a man of principles. Dad, a person should always have a scope to change with the changing times."

"But I don't have."

"Try to, Dad, just try to....because the fallacy always leads a man to a cul-de-sac. And I am sure as hell that the principle which parted you away from your brother is not more than a fallacy." Sanju tried to retort. He knew his father but perhaps that was not sufficient.

Vyom never liked to get lectured from anyone and this was his offspring, trying to clear the concepts about his younger brother. This was not bearable at any cost. And Sanju paid the cost in his nearby future.

The more, Vyom listened to Sanju, the more incensed he became and finally he yelled, "Listen, son, I don't know what you have been fed there but it is sure as hell your level of thinking has now been upgraded very much. If you want to be progressive like your uncle, be then. But draw your boundaries first. Otherwise, pay attention to my final warning. You are there for your job only. Do the job and leave the place as soon as possible. Don't try to repair the broken relationship. Your increasing closeness with your uncle will take you away from me. And finally, try to be in limits while talking to your father." And he slammed down the receiver.

It was then the pressure of Vyom which forced Sanju to take a transfer to Banglore within a month only. He always treated the relation in a typical family drama movie style. His principles always dominated the love content of the family.

Nonplussed Amy asked, "On my birthday?"

Om just nodded.

Amy wanted to say something but she was unable to find her voice and that was all for the conversation. The rumors about her uncle had often suggested Amy that Vyom never liked her. He had orthodox thinking that Amy was to be treated like a girl child and not be given the excessive love, the freedom, the caress beyond a specified limit; the polar difference in thinking, as compared to her father. Vyom never ever was supposed to be avuncular to Amy.