fहndi - Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya

much money that they could go to thecity and get treatment from the doctorsthere. But whenever they heard of any saintor sage from the nearby villages they wouldgo and offer their obeisance to them.After fifteen years of marriage whenthey had relinquished all hopes of a child,a miracle happened. Bhagirathi waspregnant. This heartening news at this stageof life instilled a new life in them. Ramrathalmost became crazy with joy. He took careof Bhagirathi with utmost effort, wouldnot allow her to do any household chores."You remain fit and healthy, don't liftany heavy thing. If you feel like eatingsomething do tell me, I will make." Thisuntimely happiness made even dim witRamrath more intelligent.Bhagirathi used to laugh and felttitillated by such behaviour of Ramrath,still she did not like him doing householdwork. On this account they would oftenhave tiffs.As the time passed Bhagirathi gavebirth to a baby boy. The whole house wasfilled with unspeakable joy. There was noold experienced person in the house to tellthem how to bring up the child, butBhagirathi was such a sweet temperedwoman that all the old women of thevillage would come and help her. Both ofthem named the child 'Suraj' but with timeit got distorted to 'Sarju'.With time Sarju grew up, became adarling boy of three years. He would followhis mother wherever she went. Then camethe day when their whole world wasshattered and they were filled withunspeakable sorrow.After finishing the day's workBhagirathi had gone to the village pondto get water and wash utensils, Sarjufollowed her. Otherwise also it was nota new thing. Sarju mostly remained gluedto his mother all the time. But that daysomething unusual and unexpectedhappened. Like other days Sarju did notreach home following his mother. Theystarted searching for him in every home,each pond and each ditch but Sarju wasnot to be found. Bhagirathi and Ramrathwere very agitated, they looked for Sarjuin all pits and gadhoras lest he might havefallen in one of them. As they could notfind him in the village they started lookingfor him in nearby villages and complainedto the village headman. The headman wasa good man and he could not bear to seetheir agony.The case was taken up at thegovernment level, and more extensivesearches were made. They came to knowthat their child was seen with a boy ofnearby village. That boy didn't have a goodrecord; he was arrested earlier for pettytheft. After serving the jail term he hadrun away to the city. He remained therefor quite some time but last month hewas seen in the village again. Somehowby putting pressure on his parents hisaddress was found; but by then it was toolate. He was found in Mumbai, but fora few thousands he had already sold thechild.When further investigations were madewith the help of these leads, once againfgndi •April-June 2013 :: 129