SHORT STORY: The old man dies

The old man died before noon today. He had been suffering from cancer since one and a half years.

I stood and watched as relatives milled around the dead body. The more industrious amongst them were preparing the body for cremation.

The old man had owned a sanitary ware making factory some years ago, but competition by bigger companies forced it to shut down. The man had some savings in investments in the stock market. But a sharp downturn in the market left the stocks worthless.

The old man had married a second time after his first wife had died after giving birth to a daughter and a son. Both turned out to be lethargic souls. From his second wife he got four daughters, before he gave up hope of having another son.

The son was the only one amongst six offsprings, so despite the dismay and strong jealousy of the second wife, the duh of a son had a good time. When the sanitary ware factory shut down, the old man got him a small job as a cashier in a local garment shop using his contacts. He also got him married off to a buxom girl who bore him twins. The son had a good time. When asked by his friends how he was, the son used to say that he was doing the job for "time-pass."

As I stood looking at the dead body of the old man, many thoughts passed through my mind. The useless son would have a hard time now. The old man was no longer there to provide for him, his wife and his twin offsprings. Though nasty souls whispered that the old man had manipulated some accounts in the housing society and got big money as kick backs from a mobile company for facilitating the installation of a tower on the society building. Perhaps, he had amassed enough money for the son to have a good life with his buxom wife, after all.

But he would face problems from the old man's second wife. She was bound to create problems about the inheritance. Her hatred towards her husband's first wife's son was pathological.

I saw one of the daughters pass by sniffing. The daughter had balked at the thought of leaving the city and move to her husband's town (where he had a garment shop) after marriage. Her industrious father (the old man) had handled her problem well. He took the son-in-law into confidence, charmed him and convinced him to move to the city. He also got him a job in the city and offered him his scooter for use. But the job slipped away soon. The father-in-law had then helped him then to sell gas cylinders in the black market.

The son-in-law would face problems too, I thought. The cylinders-in-black initiative was the brain-child of the old man and with him not around, I doubted the 'business' would last much longer.

Let us wait and see how things turn out. Life is funny. isn't it? Anyway, the old man has been cremated now.