THE SINNER

A Story by Karthikeyan

Unemployment is the evilest thing in the world

It was the second year for Sanjay after completing his bachelor degree in Electrical engineering without having a job in his hand. He had one sibling who was younger to him by two years and his name is Sam. Sam was actually working in a reputed company which was 565kms away from their home. Sanjay's father was a Police inspector and his mother was a home maker.

Sam was now with his family because of vacation in his office. His parents treated him with great honor and provided him with what he desired. But they failed to treat Sanjay in the same manner. Especially his father's contribution was much more than his mother's. He treated Sanjay differently from Sam because of job and he always used to compare him with his younger brother. Because of these things Sanjay made himself isolated from his father. Wherever they went outside, the people used to ask questions about Sanjay's job and this made Sanjay feel even worse so he mostly avoided going outside their home.

Sanjay completed his college with an average aggregate but he was good at practical knowledge. He really wanted to work in a place which was related to his core knowledge so he applied for jobs which were apt to his core knowledge but his efforts didn't blossom, his resumes were rejected at all places, their parents asked to try some other ways apart from his core knowledge but he was strong in his thought. His continuous failure made his parents get dishearten, they were frustrated with him, as a result, they started to blame him for his failures and this thing heavily frustrated and made him feel unhappy.

On a particular day, the two brothers sat on the dining table and they were having an interesting chat. At that time, Sam, unfortunately, dropped a glass tumbler on the ground and the glass pieces shattered over the place. Sam asked his brother to stay there so that he will be back there with cleaning equipment. Sanjay stayed there as per Sam said and Sanjay tried to gather the broken pieces together so that it would be easier to clean off. At that time his father came there and he misunderstood that Sanjay was the one who broke the glass, in a great anger he shouted at him and at a one step ahead he slapped Sanjay on his face. Sanjay was totally shocked with his father's action but he remained silent. Suddenly Sam came there and admitted that he was the actual culprit. This made his father remain silent and felt sorry and wanted to apologize for his action, but Sanjay didn't stay there for a long. He took off all the broken pieces and started to walk away. His father understood his mistake and felt bad for his action.

In three days of duration, Sanjay searched a job and he started to go out for it but he didn't unveil what he was actually going to do. He used to get up early before his father so that he won't see his father and then he went for his job and he returned back late night. His father felt sad and worried a lot about that incident; he wanted to talk with him. But he really found it hard to spend time with him. Sanjay used to get back at late night and he went to bed, so he couldn't find time to share his feelings with him.

The days passed, his father was so sad to look at his son so he planned to make him happier and decided to surprise him with a gift. After long thoughts, he came out with an idea to present a shirt to him. So he bought a shirt for him in the early morning and he was actually committed to meet his superior officer in a meeting on that day so he attended that meeting; even though his physical body attended the meeting his mind was total with his son. After the meeting, they decided to have lunch at a hotel. The meeting troop arrived there and they completed their lunch. At the billing section while they were paying for the food. He noticed a quarrel over a dining table. The vendor was ill-treated by the customer, on a closer observation he found that the vendor was his son. He was stunned for a moment, he understood that the words he used to hurt his son resulted in this pathetic situation for his son. His eyes got wet at that time and looked at his son Sanjay’s eyes marched towards his father along with a smile on his face.

-Karthikeyan Palanivel