Preamble: During Blogchatter's A2Z challenge during the month of April 2024, I am writing mini stories on various subjects and characters on each day of the month except on Sundays. The name of the protagonist shall begin with the alphabet assigned for the day.
Every girl in the college was envious of her. She came from a comfortable economic background with a senior bureaucrat for father. She was also good in studies and was very pretty in appearance. There was always a spring in her walk and her dazzling smile was a passport to most hearts. Although her real name was Preeti, the boys called her the 'Queen'.
In spite of all the attention she got from the students and teachers, Queen did not allow all this to go to her head. This was during the sixties in India. A time when the most the boys could do to express their admiration was to give the girl a flower or two. It was a given that when the time came to acquire a life partner, Queen would wed someone chosen by her parents in an arranged marriage.
The parents of Queen were also keen to get the best possible match for their darling daughter. They finally zeroed in on an engineer, son of a Superintendent of Police and employed in a prestigious public sector undertaking. The boy, Vishwas was handsome, well qualified with bright chances to visit Germany for training. Most of the machines were purchased from Demag, a company based out of that country.
The wedding was a grand show with the presence of many bigwigs in society. The young couple settled down to a happy marital life. Initially , Queen did not notice the tell tale signs of her husband being an alcoholic. By the time she was sure of it. they already had two children, a girl and a boy. It was not long before Queen realized that most of her husband's earning was being spent on liquor. Initially she covered up for him and did not reveal the sad state of affairs to her parents. Eventually, there was no other alternative but to tell them. She had to save her children from starvation and also meet the basic needs of the house.
As Vishwas had a dashing personality , with the gift of the gab to project himself in good light, he continued to get promotions and reached the position of a senior manager. But socially and in his personal life he had reached the lowest ebb. After starting out as one drinking high class liquor, he had come down to the level of patronizing cheap bars. Many of his alcoholic friends were workmen working in his own company. Preeti had ceased feeling like a queen since ages. With marriage, her whole life had taken an unexpected slide for the worst. She was diffident and embarrassed about meeting old college mates to whom she was still the 'Queen'. Preeti made conscious efforts to avoid meeting any of her old friends.
When her daughter was old enough to be married, all the wedding expenses were borne by Queen's parents. Vishwas was completely sidelined during the event. He just about made a brief appearance and disappeared. Three years later, the inevitable happened. Vishwas who was grappling with cirrhosis of the liver succumbed to the disease. No one seemed to have missed him, not even his bosom 'drinking pals'. Preeti and her daughter who had suffered the most on account of an "alcoholic head of family" was in a way relieved. Drunken men would no longer be coming and knocking on their door in the dead of night.
Strange are the ways and the twist and turns of life. Who, from those dazzling college days could have ever predicted that the 'Queen', envied by one and all, had such a sad future in store for her...?
NB: This post is a part of challenge #BlogchatterA2Z
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