Mirror Mirror

 Rahul was a dedicated employee. He worked overtime everyday and made sure he finished his daily tasks before he started home. Everyone liked him for his dedication and there was even a gossip that the top management was planning to promote him to a Project Manager level.

With an ever smiling face Rahul always made people around him glad. He was friendly with every colleague of his and life was going smooth. That’s when Swetha joined the company as a Test Engineer. Little did Rahul know that she was here to Test him. In one of the casual talks over coffee, Rahul recognized that Swetha was his 5^th grade colleague in school. Both of them were excited to know how life had brought them both back together. Though they never even exchanged a word during their school days, a new kind of friendship started blooming between them.

Swetha, being a very bubbly character, became the centre of attraction of the company. She too was a dedicated worker, and even though people advised her to start early, she would make sure, she derived complete satisfaction from the day’s work before starting home. Everyday, after work, Swetha and Rahul would discuss everything that they did that day. Their friendship grew. Swetha came to know that Rahul was married to his college sweetheart, and that they were expecting a baby shortly. Rahul came to know that Swetha lived with her parents and was planning to get married soon.

It was the company’s annual meeting and awards were given to employees who excelled in their respective fields. Swetha was awarded the “Best New Employee of the year” award. As she was collecting her award, she was asked to give a speech on what she felt about the award. She smiled, took the mike in her hand and just said “Thank You!”, before breaking into tears. She came down and sat next to Rahul. Rahul was not sure, what he should be doing. He took her out to the refreshments area and they both sat down near an ice cream stall.

She looked at him and asked, “Rahul, a woman is equal to a man right? She can do anything that a man can do, right?”.

Rahul smiled and said, “Yes, why are you asking this?”

Swetha wiped her tears and told Rahul about her real life. She said how, her dad lost his job two years back in the government employees strike. Since then, it was she and her sister who were expected to run the family. Though her dad who was a very good person at heart, he believed that girls were a burden. He had this belief that girls cannot do anything for the family, they were just an expense. To add to the woe, her sister who got married last year, had a fight with her husband and was back home. Though the family is comfortable now, her dad would always lament every evening that how he was unable to run his family and how these girls are useless. He always had this feeling that they will leave him someday.

She said, “You know Rahul, I always feel that I am failure at home. That’s the reason why I put in extra effort and work in office to get a sense of satisfaction to know that I am worth atleast something”.

Rahul understood her pain and that evening, dropped her in the bus stand and started home. As he entered his home, his wife stared at him with a dejected look. “Late today too?”, when will you understand Rahul?”. Irritated at her inhumane attitude, or atleast that what he thought, Rahul said he had dinner and went straight to bed. All through the night, he was thinking about swetha and all the pain that she had been hiding behind her smile. He slept with thoughts of how he will be able to help her. The sun rose, and Rahul had an idea.

He started early to office, completed his day’s tasks earlier than before and waited for Swetha to join him. Swetha regained her bubbly smile and came and sat near Rahul. Rahul started to discuss his solution with her.

He said, “Swetha, I feel, you are trying to escape your situation at home. Trying to stay late and gain satisfaction from work is good. But at what cost? If you had spent the same amount of time with your family, won’t it be better? I understand your dad’s concern. Take him out somewhere, bring him to office once. Let him see, where you work. Let him know that you care for him. Instead of trying to run away from what you do not like, try to change it and I tell you, you have the power to change it. A person who is able to win the best new employee of the year award within six months of joining, can surely change the situation in her family. Talk to your sister, you will surely be able to resolve the situation.” 

Swetha smiled, “I understand Rahul. But I am not able to break free from the mindset that home = failure”. Rahul said, “ I understand Swetha, lets get started from today, start early today. Take your sister to temple today evening. See how things change.” Swetha looked at him with a blank face. She stood up and said. “Let me try, Thanks Rahul”, and she left.

Before Rahul could get up, a thought pushed him to sit and contemplate. What was he doing with his life? Why was he working late every day?

He did have a wonderful marriage with his sweetheart, but all the love seemed to wane as their life moved on. Since theirs was a love marriage, his wife Diana, had left her family and decided to live with him, just like how he abandoned his family. Love was in the air for some initial days, but then somehow misunderstandings cropped up. Religion, which was never a divide between them, suddenly started taking an upper hand. His simple expectations, like even requesting her to keep a bindi, were understood as activities where he pushed his religion into her. Added to the woe, he was not sure, in which faith he should be growing his child. All these confusions, made him stay late, work hard, go home and retire to bed immediately.

What was he doing? He realized that he too was just escaping from his situations. He understood that everything that Swetha was facing was very similar to what he has been hiding away from. Now he knew what he should be doing.

He woke up early next day, prepared coffee and woke Diana up. Surprised to se the change in attitude, Diana hugged him and cried. Both got ready to attend church that day. As he was dressing up, he looked into the mirror. There was a label on the top corner which read, “Shwetha Mirrors”. He just smiled.

How true! Friends are truly mirrors! What did your mirror reflect to you today?