Srijit caught Sandhya watery eyed during their morning walk. He implicitly understood the reason, and comforted Sandhya saying, “We’ve an arduous struggle ahead!” Soon they made their way back home.

A decade back they had struggled to get their child Sushanto admitted to the ‘best school in the city’ and Sandhya had felt elation at the bright prospect of a good schooling for her son. Sushanto excelled in studies and co-curricular activities alike during his primary classes.

The boy was extrovert by nature and appeared to be popular in the neighborhood. On a few occasions, Srijit was told by some of his neighbors that they in fact knew him only as the father of Sushanto. Srijit took pride in those assertions. He worked in a Software company and generally liked keeping to himself.

Like a normal boy in the neighborhood Sushanto went out every evening to play games with his ever-growing number of friends. His return to home, at times on late hours, led to much consternation and disquiet in his family. Being the sole child of a working couple, Sushanto had a reasonably cushy childhood and had access to almost everything that a normal middle class family could afford to provide their children with. At times probably even in excess to their limitations. 

Unlike his parents and family, and under the influence of the prevailing societal conditions, Sushanto’s outlook towards success in life began centering on affluence, flashy cars and all the modern gizmos and amenities that life can offer in these modern times. One day, while accompanying his dad in their small car, he was found ducking the gaze of a friend by hiding himself in a low position. He later revealed to his father that he felt ashamed of their small family car. Gradually the needs and wants of Sushanto began to grow manifold leading to disharmony in the family life on a continual basis. The discomfiture of Srijit was all the more because he came from a humble background and never ever resorted to blackmailing his parents to coerce them to buy things that would fall in the category of luxury. One such outburst had led to the situation in which Srijit found Sandhya this morning during their walk. 

Recently Srijit had experienced a dream. In it his deceased father, who loved his grandson immensely and vice-versa, cautioned him not to attribute ‘their failure’ on his affectionate grandson who is NOT obstinate. The couple did ruminate on the prevailing situation and proffered counsel to mend ways to their ‘special’ one, but their ‘outdated’ viewpoint had failed miserably to provide ‘course corrections.’ 

Srijit and Sandhya had never envisioned that ‘Parenthood’ could be this challenging …