Coming back home!

While cleaning my daughters' bookshelves, I came across a notebook where they had written English essays while they were in secondary schools and junior colleges. This one, "Coming back home" is from my elder daughter Ruchika's notebook when she was in junior college. It was really nice and touched my heart, so I thought of sharing with everyone. Here it goes:

It has been almost ten years since I last went home. New York had almost become my second home. I was too busy juggling career and family, to realize all that I had left behind. It seemed like it was a picture perfect life I had. All was going well, all pieces of my life juxtaposed in place harmoniously. I was at the peak of my life.

But as they say, life comes full circle. Just when you have it all in control, life takes it out of your grip and leaves you helpless. I was travelling to Germany for a conference, when I experienced the preliminary symptoms of what would turn out to be a slipped-disc. It was an acute pain that spread across my entire back within seconds. I was frozen in my seat, helpless. Powerless. I got myself admitted in a hospital in Germany shortly after I landed. The last thing on my mind was the conference. I could not care less about all the days of preparation, board meetings and what might be the state of my fellow colleagues. I wished I was home, with my wife and girls. I would have gotten better in their company. At home.

Suddenly like a photo album of memories, my childhood flashed in my mind. I was in India. My mother was talking to me, telling me to write back home once I settle and find a home in US. It was to be my maiden flight overseas. My parents had sacrificed a lot of things in life to see me through to that day. To see the smile on my face, to see me achieve success I always wanted. I came before anything else in my parents' lives for as long as I can remember. They believed my future mattered more than the greatest riches of the world. Education was one and the only thing that can never be bought or sold. Such were the words of my father. and so he would say, never compromise it for anything.

Now when I thought about them in my hospital bed, tears trickled down my face. Tears of guilt and regret. I had lost ten precious years I could have, with the two most loving people in the world for some mere momentary pleasure. Life is not in our control. Anything could happen, anytime. What if I wasn't able to ever see them again? What if something happens to them? Will they ever know their son still cared about them, thought about them, albeit ten years after forgetting them. I could not let this happen. It took a setback in my life to make me realize what was the most precious thing to me. My parents, my real home. I almost gave it away for mere riches. What a fool I was. As I thought about my parents, I fell into a slumber.

When I next saw sunlight, I wasn't alone. My wife was sitting by my side. My two lovely daughters were also with her. I could not have asked for a better medicine than that. Nina, the elder one said, 'Dad, we wanted to be with you.' I couldn't stop the tears flowing down my cheeks. They had never seen me cry and came rushing and hugged me.

At that moment I knew, my father would have wanted to hear something similar coming out of my mouth. 'And I would love to give the same joyous surprise my children gave me', I said to myself. That must have been the wisest decision I had made in my life. It brought me home!