-“The road to success is always under construction”

As Meeta heard this line for 150th time in her life, she whispered to herself, “Not again!” Sitting in a counselling class in her 1st day of college in B.Tech, she realized it was a mistake choosing Bio-science as a career, that too in engineering. If only her parents ever had listened to her for one time over her uncle, she would not be in a department that she had never wanted. But the state engineering rank had already let down her parents and they couldn’t risk giving the power of making decision for her life herself further.

       -“Yes, I did it, I can’t believe it!” Meeta screamed out of excitement as she saw her name got selected in one of the most prestigious institutes in India for masters after working hard for 2 consecutive years. And guess what? She did it in her once most unwanted subject, Bio-science! Tears rolled down her eyes in excitement as she rushed to his parents. “Really? Oh my god, this is unbelievable, god bless you my dear”, Meeta’s mom said and went back to checking her facebook feed again. “I knew you would do it, you have so much intelligence”, said her father in a normal voice and he went back upstairs to chant hanuman chaleesa. “Wait, what?? That’s it??” Meeta’s subconscious mind told to herself. “Why are they so cold? Aren’t they supposed to talk to me and celebrate my success?”

       Meeta smiled and looked up to the sky. The moon was shining at its’ highest. Meeta can relate herself to the moon often. Like the dark patches on the moon, which tells that nothing is perfect in this universe, Meeta realizes often that however hardness it takes to climb a mountain, however risky it is to make a decision, however lively it feels to get selected in a good college, it is always the one doing it, feels it the most, no one else gives a damn, not even the parents. But she didn’t know how to feel. She couldn’t really shake off the fact that her parents weren’t really happy or at least seemed happy that she had been selected. And in fact in that subject in which they wanted to put her into. Although Meeta had eventually liked Bio-science, but didn’t she deserve a good gesture from her parent? Why, for one moment, her life can’t be perfect? This made her cry hard, but low enough so that her parents didn’t hear it.

“Meeta?” called her father.

“Ohh papa! What are you doing here?” Meeta got a little surprised as her father never comes to the roof at 11 of night.

“Can you come in for a moment dear?”

Meeta wiped off her tears with hands carefully so that her father wouldn’t notice her crying. As she went back from terrace in downstairs, something startled her. Meeta couldn’t believe in her eyes what her father just gave her. ‘The journey of an ordinary girl with extraordinary dreams by Meeta Banerjee’ the book reads. Meeta looked straight to her father’s eyes with surprise. “Yes my dear, you got it right. It’s your own book and what else could be the perfect time to give it to you?” Meeta took the book from her father and opened it. Her hands were shaking. The book’s cover was of violet color upon which her name and book’s title were shining in golden shimmer color. She opened the first page that reads ‘Before you start reading’ by Sumit Banerjee. What is this?!! Why is her father’s name there? She again looked at her father. He smiled and nodded that gave the clear indication to read it.

   -“When I first saw my girl, I knew that she is the only one who can make me proud. She was so lively, beautiful and sharp girl that I set the bar very high for her at a very early age. When she didn’t meet the bar, I took all the independence from her, not realizing it is okay to fail sometimes and how stubborn I was being to let her put into a college to study a subject she never wanted. But she never protested. I knew this was not giving her any happiness. If any other girl would have been there in place of Meeta, she would have broken down. But Meeta never gave up. She was surprisingly doing well in her academics. When she had a bad day, I knew it from hearing her voice. But when I used to ask her, she would tell nothing. She once had fever; I got to know it from her friend after she almost fainted in her hostel room. She was in love with someone who didn’t love her back; she talked to me day after day like nothing happened. I got a love letter addressed to him from her bag in her absence when she came home for weekend. She was betrayed by her friends in exchange of being honest and helped them whenever they needed. It is that moment when I realized my daughter cannot be set into a bar, every time she exceptionally raised it. But, more than that, I was ashamed of being such a father who could not be her comfort zone where she could come and share her pain with me and her mother. This was a good realization for us. We took a decision that day that whatever her result is; be good or bad, we will be giving this book to her because we knew how much she wanted to get her own book published. She doesn’t know that we are sending it to the publisher. The reason for writing this intro is to let her know that she can tell me everything without being judged and I will be there for her always. I am sure my girl writes far better than me. So turn the page and start reading.”                             –Meeta’s father                                                                                 

As Meeta completed reading it, she couldn’t resist herself hugging her father and crying.

“And that ignorance before sometime after hearing your result, well, that was an acting to not let you guess what surprise we were about to give you”, her mother said and smiled.

She realized she got the perfect gift for celebrating her success.