A Family break up after 37 years of marriage. El Kay Mawkin

      My father in law tried to counsel his daughter as well as me to not to sell our only flat , since we were growing old .

      We had taken a loan for a new flat and I had a good job going ,so we never bothered about his concerns .

      Little did we know , that things would change drastically very soon and we would have to stay in a rented property and always thought of a wise counsel given by my father in law .

      Chapter 2

      2006-2016- life goes on

      2006 was a great year for our family ,when our son was going to USA for his studies and I had booked another 3- bedroom flat at Gurgaon in a society for RS 38 lakhs .

      My job as a General Manager with a leading healthcare group was still on , hence , I could easily get a bank loan for buying this flat .

      Before my son went to USA ,our family.visited Mata vaishno devi temple to say our thanks and seek the goddess’ blessings for my son’s success abroad .

      44 years ago my father had taken me to the same temple, after I scored meritorious marks in my class X during 1968 .

      My father was an atheist and never went to a temple or did any prayers at home .As children we saw our parents working hard but we were not aligned to any particular religion as such .

      My mother would get up early in the morning and she said short prayers after her early morning bath .But we had a faith in Vaishno Devi all along our life .

      A little odd , it may seem , but it has been true all along .

      At times we feel weak ,fearful or defeated in our life because of several reasons and approach a higher being for help .It could be our senior mentor or still a higher being who protects us .

      Whenever we felt we were happy and comfortable in our life , we always went to Vaishno Devi temple to always bless our family and also to keep our heads in balance ,

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      We all went by air,this time , till Jammu( a part of Jammu and Kashmir towards extreme north of India ) and took a cab from there till Katra ,( the base city from where we start climbing the hills leading to the temple ) or take a helicopter , which we had booked online .Also we booked our rooms at katra and at what we call Bhawan ,the place where Devi resides .

      As senior citizens ,my wife and I had a problem climbing the tough hilly terrain , so we took a helicopter till a point near the temple( called Sanjhi Chatt) ,from where we all walked or took ponies .

      The ritual is to have a bath in icy cold water as and when we reach there and stand in the queue for walking upto the point where Durga Goddess resides .

      There are three PINDIS ( I don't have exact translation of pindis in English but there are three heads lying there as small rocks ) where Durga ran to her safety on a lion when chased by Lord Bhairav ( a villain God ) ,as the story goes .

      Previously ,we used to get through a sliding tunnel with our feet in ice cold water upto the place .As the number of pilgrims increased, authorities made a long queue system to have our Darshana.

      We, in India , have a lot of goddesses like Durga ,Kali ,Parvati and others but practically , in our society women had always been given a low status compared to men in the society , which is another oddity in our society ,

      The women were not required to be educated since they had to manage homes before 1947 .They would learn cooking and stitching and how to manage a home properly .

      Many educated families sent their daughters to schools and colleges but largely ,women folk were kept away from high school education .

      This used to be true till sometime in history but after India gained independence in 1947 , women’s education came to the forefront.

      Women started working as teachers ,as fighter pilots ,as members of parliament and in all other such positions occupied by men previously .

      But all said and done ,they live a highly insecure life even today in our society .

      School or college girls feel insecure walking alone on the deserted roads, especially at night even in metros like New Delhi.

      Young uneducated boys are on their look out and Rape them or molest them .

      Situation on this front is going from bad to worse and police inaction as well as social disparities are responsible for it .What surprises and shocks one is when small children are also raped in villages and cities ,

      And we all pray for women gods but do not pay respect to our own women in our society .How very funny !

      Although my own parents were different in this respect and they always gave equal education and care to all their children whether boys or girls.

      We followed the same trend with our children but my daughter always hated patriarchy and authority exercised by men in our society .

      Before my son left for USA ,he did a stage show at a well known Delhi auditorium .His show was based on Elvis Presley songs .My wife bought white shoes and white coat with golden and silver stars and white pants for my son , just as Elvis wore .My son had grown long sideburns and hair like Elvis those days ,

      The show was a great success and my son directed his band ,performed as Elvis and coordinated everything for the show .

      The hall had a capacity for seating 200 people and a large number of people were sitting on the footsteps , to watch my son sing .

      Sitting in the audience, I felt proud of my son and realised that my son had many qualities as a stage performer ,as a singer ,as an instrument player and as an arranger of musicians and overall coordination for his show .Arranging money ,arranging instrumentalists , conducting rehearsals and finally directing the show and performing himself on the centre stage .Wow!

      Music was to become his biggest passion in the coming days .

      Since we had sold our flat at Rail vihar ,we had to vacate the flat and move to another big three bedroom flat in sector 55 at Gurgaon on rent , till we got the possession of our new flat .

      A lot of farming community had started selling their one acre plots to real estate builders at upcoming gurgaon and took possessions of one or two flats in the society and the rest were sold out .

      A lot of funny named societies were coming up in sector 55/56, like Nagina ( means snakelike ) which changed its name later on .Shiv Shakti ( Prowess of God shiva ) and so many other names .

      We moved into a society flat called PARTH ( meaning a student or disciple ) and had booked a flat in under construction society named Prerna( meaning inspiration )

      We had paid advance money to the owner of the flat but when we went to see its status ,we met with a huge shock .So many families had booked flats in this society, awaiting possession for the past two years .They all discouraged us since the builder was evasive .

      We were conned and spoke to the owner .

      I had a lawyer friend at my previous company and she helped me frame letters and sent by registered mail to him and I was able to get double the amount of money , I had paid to the owner as an advance for the flat .

      We looked for many more flats but the cost of these flats has gone up and was now beyond our budget .

      We shifted to Parth society flat for three months and ended up staying there for ten years .

      Many a times, it happens in our life and God Almighty smiles at us from the heavens , since we don't know our future course of events .We plan for something and completely different events face us in our life .

      This society had around 40, three bedroom flats of 2200 sq ft area each , which made the rooms quite spacious with big balconies outside all the rooms .A well maintained park was developed by the society at ground floor for children