Satyavati, a true friend

"What do you know about my friends?" asked Viku with a grunt! "I live in the city with classy people unlike you who is a country brute! I will do what I want with my friends!" Satya had no answer for that question. She was a little hurt that Viku had insulted her in front of all these people who were phony and pretentious. All she wanted to do was protect him. Make him understand that the women falling upon him, the men making him foot the bill were opportunists. But Viku was blind with ego and pride. Currently he was the only one in his entire village to have had made it to Mumbai, the city of dreams. He was proud of his brains. His ability to be an officer in India's most prestigious bank at such a young age.

His status was such that mingling with people such as Satya, his neighbour in his village was now below his dignity. Infact he hated her sight and her big mouth.

This was not how Viku and Satya were when they were young. Satya had always been a good neighbour and infact Viku's best friend. Satya's mother passed during child birth then on and even after her step mother arrived to their home Satya managed to take care of the entire house and the numerous children her step mom had. She was the kind of big sister everyone desired for. Satya's father was a greedy man who lived frugally. He used words to warn his family from spending more and used stick when they crossed the line.

Satya knew how her father functioned. She used tricks and techniques to save money without her father's knowledge and spent it on all of the kids needs. Satya's step mother and her children adored Satya for all that she did for them.

Satya's love and affection did not stop with her family. She went so far to provide for her friends needs. Viku's father could not afford to provide his ten children more than basic education. But in the late 50-60's typing was the secret weapon to get governement jobs. Viku had finished his matriculate exams and was desperate to learn typing. When he told his worries to Satya she managed to sneak in some money into his hands. As a result Viku mastered the art of typing and ended up with a job in a bank.

All through the begining of his career he somehow never lost his true himself. He was the same Viku who loved his family and friends. And one fine day it happened. Somewhere between moving to Mumbai to take his position as a newly promoted officer and making new friends he lost his old himself. Suddenly simple things that made him happy seemed boring. People he knew all his life seemed cheap and unable to jell with. The disgust reached such heights that he eventually stopped visiting people in his village.

As years passed things changed for Satya too. She was married and she moved to a small city near Mumbai with her husband. Her husband was a hotelier and earned enought to support her and her four children. Then one fine day she got a letter from her mother mentioning Viku's mother's death. Having lived most of her life next door she took her husband's permission and left to attend Viku's mother's funeral.

It was a very sad day for Satya as she entered the house. She saw everyone's but Viku's face. She thought it would be indecent to enquire about Viku and kept quiet. The next day she heard from Viku's sister that Viku had just arrived from Mumbai. Satya was shocked to hear that Viku had not come the very day his mother passed away. She decided she would find out the reason when she met Viku.

On the last day of mourning Satya saw Viku standing among bunch of people. Seemed like they had accompanied Viku from Mumbai. Satya went towards Viku and greeted him but Viku continued talking to his friends. Satya touched him and he shoved her away. Satya felt bad and confused at the same time. She did not understand the reason for Viku's behavior. Later in the day Satya went to the river to wash her clothes and there she saw Viku with his friends. They were smoking and drinking non stop. Satya was shocked and with anger she approached Viku and asked him why he was behaving awkward and weird. Did he not understand that friends who drank when they should rather mourn along with their friend at this hour for his loss were not friends but worse than enemies?

It is at this time that Viku slapped Satya and said the words,"What do you know about my friends? I live in the city with classy people unlike you who is a country brute! I will do what I want with my friends!"

That was the end of it. From that minute on Satya vowed to never visit or talk to Viku.


Twenty five years later Viku was married with wife and two children, one son and another a daughter. His daughter who had reached marriageable age was his cause of worry. Seems like she had started associating with a lot of boys. And in one incident she had fallen in love with some guy who was not of their community. The news had spread and many prospective grooms had rejected his daughter Suni. Viku was desperate to get his fast growing daughter married.

Viku's wife insisted that if they did some pooja in their village then their daughter would get married. Since things had not gone his way he decided to try his wife's way. He arrived to his ancestral house in the village and made preparations for the Pooja.

Somehow on the day of Pooja he heard from one of his realtives, Venkat that there was a boy who was an engineer in Europe and coincedentally visited Viku's village at the same time. Venkat mentioned that the boy was looking forward to meet some good girl and get married. venkat asked Viku to approach the boy's parents and try his luck.

Excited Viku asked the someone for name of boy's parents, and his residential address. As he heard the detail it struck to him that the boy was none other than Satya's son. Viku was shattered and decided to let go of the proposal.

The day passed by and in the evening when Viku returned to his home with his family he was surprised to see Satya with her son and husband. At that moment he wanted to run and hide somewhere but he did the opposite. He faced Satya with courage. They greeted each other and got down to the matter. Seems like Satya had heard about Viku's daughter's story and felt sorry for them. She did not feel it was right for any father to go through what Viku was going through. Somehow she convinced her son, Raja to atleast meet the girl and then decide.

Hearing this Viku burst into tears and fell on Satya's feet. He told her he was sorry for how he had treated her. He told her that soon after the bitter experience he had seen his friends fall off and leave him when he was in a financial crisis due to some loan problem at the bank. He told her that he wanted to meet her and apologise but he did not have the courage to do so.

Satya stopped him right there and let the boy and girl talk to each other. Fortunately both Raja and Viku's daughter Suni liked each other. Raja preferred to not dig into past and so did Suni. Soon after their marriage was scheduled and the event happened with great pomp.

This one story is very dear to my heart because it involves characters that I know. I have heard from my mother about Satya's insult and Viku's misdoings. I have seen them both avoid each other for years. I was there when Satya came with Raja and her husband to our ancestral house. We were used to seeing her but what we were not used to seeing was her in presence of Viku.

When she explained why she was there I for all could not believe any of my sensory organs. To be honest if I were her I would think about venegance. I would have had mocked Viku for acting so proud and snobbish. Her gentle character, her ability to forgive, her patience, her compassion absolutely stunned me. To this day when I am really angry at someone I think of her and the way she forgave Viku.

If not much I smile and talk to the person I have hard feelings for and try not to keep anything in mind. She for me and this story is a constant reminder of many things such as, do not forget but atleast try to forgive, know that life is like a cycle what goes up has to come down, and that love and good deeds can change everything.

Today Satya is no more. But her one good deed gave life to her friend Viku, future to his daughter, Suni who is happily married to Raja for the past ten years and has two kids.

As for Viku, every day of his life, at least that's what I have heard, I believe he first garlands Satya's photo, bows to her and then to God. He keeps her alive in his memories and mentions her to everyone as his true friend, his good samaritan.