Eye of the Storm (Swaragini FF)

Epilogue

Annapurna sat at the dining table and looked around at the faces of her family members that sat around the table for breakfast. It had been almost two weeks since the flight crash scare. She felt that god had protected her son, ensuring that Sanskar changed his flights, taking a previous night flight instead of the morning flight one as he had planned earlier.

A lot had happened in the past two weeks. Ragini had left the Maheshwari house. She had realized that she was on the wrong path and wanted to start her life afresh. The shock of losing Sanskar, for that short period, had also thawed the relationship between the two brothers. She could now see the love and bonding between Sanskar and Laksh that had gone missing for many months now. Laksh had also taken the changed relation between Swara and Sanskar really well. She could no longer see the pain or any untoward feelings in his eyes when he looked at them, all that was present now was true happiness seeing them happy. But the biggest change was in Sanskar. The peace and the happiness that shone through his eyes and on his face was truly a sight to behold. While she had wanted her old Sanskar back, today, she would not trade this new Sanskar for the old one – because he was happier than he even had been – and that brought a slight tear to her eye, which she wiped off surreptitiously.

As children grow up, they want to handle their problems on their own. They don't want to burden their parents and at times, feel that they are best placed to solve their problems. But a child's problems can never remain hidden from the parent, despite how much the child may try to cloak them and in the same way, despite how capable the child might be to fight their own battles, sometimes the parent can bring in invaluable experience from their own trials that the child is yet unexposed to.

Annapurna had sensed not just the winds blowing through her household, but also the storms brewing inside both her sons. She had also understood the difference in the nature of their storms. She knew that as in nature, their storms to would need something external for the storms to lose their destructive power. It wasn't a reflection of the weakness of the eye powering the storm, but just the principle of nature. In nature, she knew that storms only calm down when the are exposed to either cold, or the water/moisture powering the winds dries out.

She knew that the storm brewing inside Laksh was the one driven by obsessive and unchecked desires, it would only be calmed down with cold indifference. Any anger, active resistance would only add more moisture and strengthen it. In the same manner, she knew that the storm brewing inside Sanskar was continuing to be powered by pain, loss and guilt. He needed those very emotions to be dried out and to be washed by new more positive emotions of love and affection. While Swara didn't love him, she would only add to his pain and to his storm, by being around him, and hence needed to distance herself. When her feelings changed, Annapurna was more confident that Swara could and would help him calm the storm, now with her love.

To a casual observer, and for a while even to Swara, she knew she would have appeared selfish – and more so when it came to Laksh. But then, isn't every mother selfish for her children's happiness – then how could she not be for both her sons. No mother loves her children differently, but as in nature, is she not a bit more protective of her weakest child? Not because she doesn't love her strongest one as well, but because she knows that the strongest one is more capable and can take care of himself.

Swara broke her thoughts as she came around to serve her breakfast.

"Thanks" Annapurna replied "Swara, some day we should sit together. I would like to tell you some of the things my mother-in-law would tell me. I am sure you will find them interesting" she added softly. Swara smiled and nodded before going to serve Sujata.

Annapurna looked around at her family again. There was happiness and contentment shinning through. She took a deep breath. Yes, the winds in her house had calmed down. They were no longer violent or harmful. No, they were now filled with warmth. 

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