Father & Son - A short story

Kuldeep was sitting in a Deluxe bus but he was imagining himself as flying on wings because he was so happy & just wishing the bus to reach the destination by speed of his thoughts which have already reached Bombay & he was imagining himself with his dear lovely wife Sunanda & his newborn son.
Today morning he got the massage that Sunanda has given birth to their son. He was feeling delighted & so proud to be a father.
It was his seed which has developed in form of a son in the womb of the woman he loves most dearly.
Kuldeep was working at Pune in a multinational company.His wife was with her parents at <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1lace w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Bombay</st1:City></st1lace> for the delivery. She went there few weeks back.
This was their first child.
He was remembering their marriage & how he met her.
Kuldeep met Sunanda during his college days .She was just one year junior to him.
They were grouped together for a two weeks project .She was vivacious, lovely, fun loving & most pretty girl in the group. Kuldeep himself was a tall, dark handsome Boy with an outgoing friendly nature,
Soon their group friendship turned to personal friendship & courtship.
Kuldeep was the only son of a high class Brahmin engineer.
His grandparents used to live with his parents as his father was also the only child of his grandparents.
When he came home for Diwali two years back, his mother talked about his marriage & told him that they would like him to marry his childhood friend Pooja, she was daughter of his father’s friend.
They were very good friend & were from same caste.
Pooja was few months younger to him & they used to live in same campus where both their fathers work.
It was expected by both families that they would get marry after completion of their education.
But as it happened so that Kuldeep fell in love with Sunanda & it became a very intense relationship in a short time.
The barrier to their marriage was also their different caste, Sunanda was a Punjabi girl, his father was working in <st1:City w:st="on">Bombay</st1:City> but their roots were in <st1lace w:st="on">Punjab</st1lace>.
When he told his mother about his intentions to marry Sunanda all hell broke loose .His parents have chosen Pooja and have given their word to her parents.
Ultimately he himself talked to Pooja & told her of his love for Sunanda. Pooja gracefully accepted this & told her parents.
They also kindly withdraw the proposal but his parents as well as grand parents were still angry with him as they felt that he was not honoring their word.
Sunanda’s family has no objection to this marrige.
Ultimately he married Sunanda in a civil court & started his life with Sunanda.
Pooja also got married .
But his parents still didn’t accepted Sunanda as his wife & they didn’t welcome Sunanda when they both went home after civil a marrige to take their blessings.
So he left for Pune with Sunanda & started his life separately from his parents.
And today after two years he was now a father.
He thought of his son; how he would like to raise him, play with him, protect him from all the wrong, teach him, Share life with him.
He would face all risk but prevent & shield his son from all that.
He felt that he may give his life if needed to protect his son.
Though he has yet to see his newborn son he was feeling a entirely different but very deep& strong bonding with him.
He was brought back to present by a sudden break of bus.
Suddenly his thoughts turned to his father, realizing with guilt that when he himself was bourn his father must also have been so happy & must have had same feelings.
His mother must have been on seventh Sky as is Sunanda. feeling today ,as every mother feels.
He realized that by not keeping in touch with his parents he had done a great injustice to them.
Every parent have great love & feelings for their offspring which is very especial.
It is self generated ,every father start dreaming dreams for his son as he is thinking ,so his father must also have had those dreams and Wishful thinking for him.
.Even if he married according to his choice he should have tried to understand their feelings & should have tried to diffuse their anger.
Presently the bus stopped .
He got down from Bus .
The nursing home where Sunanda was in Bandra but When the Taxi driver asked address he gave address of Dadar his parents’ house.
After Two years he was standing in front of his parental home, He pushed the bell The door was opened by his father ,his father looked surprised to see him standing in door ,He bent down & touched his feet & said with feeling - Papa how are You ?you are looking Weaker ,Where is mum ,Presently mum came from inside kitchen & was looking happily surprised to see him.
He told them that he has come to ask their forgiveness & take their blessings on birth of their Grandson and want them to visit hospital with him to see their grandson.
And he will not listen no for answer
But there was no need to say this His father & mother both were delighted to hear the good news & presently his grand father came & said not only they but we are also coming to hospital to see our great grandson & even you can’t stop us.
We may be angry with you but still in our heart we love you dearly and would love my great grandson even more than you.
You know the Hindi saying Suud is dearer than mool (interest is dearer than original money) Take us all to hospital to see the youngest m ember of our family.
Kuldeep nodded happily to this.