Waiting

Waiting

The excitement had built up in the last few days; with mixed feelings Ramnath strolled about. It was time to leave; in about three hours they would touch the city of Mumbai.....
Papa I will not hear a word from you, both you and Mom are migrating with us. The argument between Ramnath and his son was almost concluding. He was a good son; although he married without his parents consent, Pooja was a lovely girl, as soon as they came home both Ramnath and his wife Tara melted seeing their son. He was the only family they had. Over five long years of parting had mellowed them too much to hold any grudge.
Pooja was an Indian, born and bought up in the United States. They knew little about her; but took an instant liking to her; she was chirpy and lively. The couple was staying with their parents in the city of Pune (a town near Mumbai) for almost a month now. The deal for their property came through quickly. Almost all their assets were amalgamated and converted to Dollars. Ramnath was surprised to find his assets make a neat pack.
They would never come back to India perhaps. There were not much regrets for the couple had lived on transfers; moving from one state to another on job assignments.
Mr. Ramnath had retired quite sometime ago. They had few relatives in the interiors of Maharashtra (a state in India). Virtually they could count the friends they had on finger tips; some had died and others moved out. They were tired, old and lonely.
With a heavy heart the old couple bade farewell to their only neighbors who would be moving out to their village almost the same time.
The Busy City of Mumbai (capital of Maharashtra) had changed from what they knew of it. Too fast for their gentle, slow living and old age, Tara was almost frightened of the crowd and held Ramnaths hand; who was feeling equally confused they increased their pace of walking to keep up with their son. He was in a frenzy taking care of the luggage; luckily Pooja was smart enough and knew her way around. The couple was admiring their daughter- in- law silently. Thoughts of the reaction their friends had given when Ramnath had mentioned about their migration with their son; kept coming back 'It is a foolish decision', 'you will be lonelier there', 'Don't leave your country in old age' and so on..... Were they jealous? Nobody understood how they missed their son; that this was their only way to be close to him. In the last five years there was no communication between them. He was an extremely busy man; he traveled a lot and was always on the move.
Samir suddenly appeared, Are you alright? He enquired; he was always so caring all the more now; as they would be finally living together.
Samir took them to a comfortable seating aside and asked them to wait there till he would finish the formalities, he had bought some refreshments, at such times Ramnath ignored his diabetes and nibbled his chocolate while his wife chided him; he was very fond of sweets. The wait would be long as they had reached much before time; it was a long journey, and would be very cold on the aircraft, they were going abroad for the first time. Every thing had gone fine up to now. They were quite bored and looked around for their son. Pooja was nowhere to be seen. Tara checked on her bag to ensure that the sweaters were in place.
They were getting restless and uneasy; suddenly a kind of fear had gripped them they looked at each other; were they doing the right thing? Samir suddenly appeared in the distance and waved out; some kind of gesture to relax as if saying it would take long. Ramnath felt as if he saw his son bidding good bye! He smiled to himself, he was imagining things. His wife looked nervous, understandable because it was their first air journey.
After sitting for an hour Ramnath escorted his wife till the ladies washroom, he was getting restless; he enquired from the gentleman sitting besides him if the flight to his destination was delayed, he was no good at reading the announcements made on television screens, after several hours passed he finally took help of a young man who seem helpful and gathered courage to approach an officer. It must almost be morning by now.
A sizeable crowd had gathered around them an officer was talking to Ramnath, for an hour he was explaining his condition to the staff but poor communication, lack of documents and to some extent the language problem was doing little to help.
The officer after listening to him offered a cup of tea to the old couple. He then told Ramnath that the flight he was talking about had taken off two hours ago. There must be some mistake.
They could not find their names in the passengers list; the tickets and passports were with their son throughout. The officer assured that they were surely not on their list. They were cheated!
Old, alone, stripped of their money, dignity and helpless.
He was their son, how could he do that? They had no address to contact him.
A tear rolled down Ramnaths cheek, Tara collapsed sobbing.