Sanjay and his wife are one amongst the thousands of working couple in the IT industry, Sanjay is a Product Manager in a leading consulting firm and Sanjana is a Project Manager is a leading product company. Time sharing and time slicing are the two key agendas which always comes when they meet, both are so busy in their own lives, as they get to meet only at the coffee table that too once or twice a week, somehow they managed to have a kid, Pappu, who is 5 years old. Pappu has been given all that he has asked in his life and also things that he has not asked for. Both Sanjay and Sanjana tell themselves that they are working hard to give a secured life to pappu ...
Pappu is under the care of a maid, who works for "money" and who will be taking care of him on his daily routines. Pappu will get a chance to see his parents once a week, if he is too lucky. He used to wonder how Tarun's dad and mom are always with him and why is his dad and mom not to be seen at home, his little brain could not dig too much and find a reason for that, he knows "that is what it is". Sanjay used to come home only by 9:00 PM or 10:00 PM, quickly takes a shower and goes to his room and start taking his daily conference calls, Sanjana works in shifts, so most of the days either she will be sleeping in the day time or will be out of home in the night for work.
Pappu was waiting to talk to his dad and mom for almost a month now, but somehow he could not find them together, he wrote a letter to his dad and then kept it on his table saying "Daddy, I want to talk to you and tell you something, I wish you were here with me today". Poor chap does not know how to send an email and also he does not know that his dad does see only emails and nothing other than that. Days rolled on to weeks and Pappu was waiting for a reply from his dad. After a long wait, he wrote a similar letter to his mom and kept it in her handbag, again poor Pappu did not know that his mom does checks only her laptop bag and hardly uses her hand-bag.
Pappu got used to miss his dad and mom and he almost forgot that he needs to talk to them, the only time Sanjay and Sanjana visit Pappu's room is, when Pappu is sleeping. One fine day, Pappu got his dad's cell phone number, and dialed him, unfortunately Sanjay was in a meeting and hence he cut the call, unknowingly Pappu called him up again and again and since the number in the cell phone flashed "Home calling ..." Sanjay picked it up wondering who could call him from home, on the other end it was Pappu, and without even listening to what he is about to say, Sanjay replied "I am very busy dear, papa will come home and talk to you", and cut the line.
Pappu was waiting for his dad to full-fill his promise, but unfortunately Sanjay did not the time to meet Pappu. Sanjana had to go to Delhi for a conference and hence she left to Delhi one fine morning, leaving just a wet kiss on Pappu's forehead. Sanjay too had a meeting in Mumbai and he too had to rush to the airport early, so he came to Pappu's room and gave one more kiss on Pappu's cheeks and went off in a flash. It’s the maid who is now the in charge of the house. She called up some of her friends for a "party" and she was enjoying with all the other oldies in the backyard. Pappu was starving like anything and noticing that there is no one at home he decided to make his own corn flakes.
He did not know how to operate the oven, nor he has practice to switch on the gas stove, since it’s an auto-ignition, he managed to lit the fire and took a milk packet out, started to pour it into a vessel and kept it on the burning stove, poor kid did not know when to take it off, so within moments when all the milk in that container started to bubble out, he got panicked and tried to take that hot vessel out with his bare hand, hot milk splashed all over his body and face and Pappu was screaming with pain, this being a festive season of Diwali, with the noise of those occasional cracker bursts, his scream went un-noticed. Maid returned home after an hour just to witness the horrifying scene of Pappu lying in a stream of blood and all his top layer skin peeled off.
Within minutes both Sanjana and Sanjay's cell phone rang and luckily they were about to board their flights, moment they heard this news, they both rushed home. In a hurry both forgot to note down the name of the hospital where they have taken Pappu for treatment, Sanjay rushed to his room to pick the maid's cell phone number, and at that point in time, he saw the letter written by Pappu to him, the letters in that letter appeared to be blurred because of the accumulation of tears in his eye lids, he for a moment kicked him hard on his thy and rushed to Sanjana's room, where she too happened to see a similar letter in her hand bag, both of them felt the pain of not taking enough care of Pappu. Somehow they figured the hospital and rushed in.
Group of doctors were attending poor Pappu who was moaning "Daddy, I want to talk to you ... Mummy I want to talk to you ..." the furious doctor screamed on top of his throat and asked who are Pappu's parents, with a sense of fear and embarrassment both of them raised their hands, only to get a severe dose from the doctor, for leading a kid to such grievous burn injury. He told them that it’s a second degree burn and this cannot be cured without a plastic surgery, money is not at all an issue to them now, all they want is to get their Pappu back in shape. Sanjay wrote a blank cheque and put that on the doctor's feet and begged "Please save my son", the doc too knows that this is an emotional outburst. He gave him a not so comforting reply "I will try my best and leave the rest to GOD".
The doctors operated on Pappu and he was stated out of danger. After nearly three days of waiting outside the ICU, both Sanjay and Sanjana got their chance to meet Pappu. Pappu was extremely delighter to see his parents together and the first thing he asked them was "Oh, your offices are leave today is it?", that question was more like they getting 1000 whip beats at a time, both of them hugged Pappu and cried buckets, Pappu with all his innocence said "Happy Diwali Mom, Happy Diwali Dad ...". Running a race behind money is a never ending race, you cannot reach your destination if money is your target. Life is made up of so many beautiful things and money does not get a place in that list. A balance should always be there in life, and at any point in time, our Personal life should take more precedence than our Professional life, Job is just a part of our day, but family is the one thing which makes a "day".
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