A Pinch Of Poison

read till the end. not just the end. :-)

A newly wed girl named Arti came to her new home with her husband and mother-in-law. After a few days Arti felt like she couldn’t live with her mother- in- law under the same roof anymore as her mother-in-law was old-fashioned and had different opinions about things which caused them to fight a lot.

 

Months passed but her life with her mother-in-law didn’t change. Her mother in law used to interrupt her or suggest to her about how to do things. Everything was starting to get worse.  Now she just couldn’t bear to live with her anymore. One day she explained her husband about all the things that were going on and her husband supported his mother. Being frustrated, Arti left for his father’s house.

 

Arti went to her father and she told everything to her father who was a renowned ayurvedic doctor. She wept and said, ‘ Papa, please give me some poison to give to my mother-in-law because I will not go there till she is there.’

 

Her father tried to console her and said, ‘Dear, if you give her poison and she dies, then police will arrest you first and then me. I think it will not be safe to do so.’

Arti replied, ‘I don’t know anything. You have to give me poison to kill her. I don’t want to see her or have her anymore in my life.’

 

After thinking for a while her father said, ‘Ok, I will do as you say but I can’t see you going to jail, you have to do as I say. Do you agree?’

Arti replied, ‘Ok, but what do I have to do?’

 

 Now her father brought to her a small pack and said, ‘You have to add a pinch of salt to your mother-in-law’s food every day. Due to less quantity of poison she will not die immediately but she will get weak and after 5-6 months she will die and people will think she died because of weakness.’

 

Father continued, ‘But you have to be very cautious that your husband doesn’t get a hint about it because if he doubts then you will have to go to jail. To make sure that he doesn’t get to know anything, you have to stop fighting with your mother-in-law from now on and you will treat her with respect and care and listen to her silently even if she treat you bad or taunt you. So tell me will you be able to do all this?’

 

Arti thought that it was just for 5-6 months and after that her mother-in-law will die so she agreed. She took the small packet of poison from her husband and left for her husband’s place. After Arti returned to her husband’s house she started to add a pinch of poison to her mother-in-law’s food daily. Also she changed her behaviour towards her mother-in-law. Now she used to listen to her taunts and scolding silently. She finally started to care about her mother-in-law and used to do everything for her.

 

After some weeks even Arti’s mother-in-law’s behaviour also started changing towards her. Gradually she started to like spending time with Arti and give her blessings. Arti continued adding pinch of poison to her food and months passed.

 

But now the environment of the house had changed. Arti and her mother-in-law’s fights were now like a bad past. They both cared for each other now. They had food together, gossiped, and they wouldn’t go to bed unless they spent a bit of time together.

 

Five months passed away. They both started treating each other like daughter and mother. Now, Arti thought about the poison she was giving her mother-in-law. She couldn’t accept the thought of poisoning her mother in law. She didn’t want her to die. Arti was concerned about her health. Thinking about the same she went to her father to get the medicine to cure her mother-in-law.

 

She said to father, ‘My mother-in-law is very sweet and I don’t want her to die. So please give me the medicine to reverse the effect of the poison you gave.’

Her father laughed and replied, ‘Poison? What poison? I had given some digestion medicine for your mother-in-law!’

 

MORAL: Parents should not let their child to ruin their life or let them choose the wrong path on the rage of anger. Parents must direct them in the right direction and help them change the situation in the positive one. However, if we want to see change in other people, we must bring a change in ourselves too!