The Riverbank
(This short story explores, through the lives of two families, the truth that parents can do their best to educate, guide and prepare their children for the future, but they cannot control every turn that life takes.)
Usuf Mir
“Parents can give their children education, guidance and opportunities, but they cannot control every turn that life takes. Sometimes, despite all our plans, life writes a different ending.”
Phagam was a beautiful village situated at the foot of the mountains, some distance from the city. On one side were green fields, and on the other flowed a river in quiet, steady motion. A row of old trees stood along the riverbank, where the village elders would often sit in the evenings. Life in the village was simple, but people still shared one another’s joys and sorrows.
Salim and Aleem lived in the same village. They had known each other since childhood, but with time, their lives took different paths.
Salim was a poor man. He owned a small piece of land and had a limited income. He had seven children, five sons and two daughters. Despite his poverty, Salim never considered his children a burden. He left for work early in the morning and returned home tired in the evening.
He sent his children to school, took an interest in their studies, and taught them religious and moral values at home. After dinner, he would often sit with them and say:
“We may not have much wealth, but a person must have good character. Gain knowledge, work hard and never take away another person’s right.”
Salim educated his children according to his means. One left school after tenth grade, another completed graduation, and another went on to postgraduate studies. As the years passed, both daughters were married, and the sons gradually moved forward in their own lives.
One became a professor, another found employment in the Education Department, one joined a bank, and another secured a good position in a government department. None became extremely wealthy, but all became independent and lived with dignity.
Salim also grew old. He could no longer work as he once had, but his home remained full of life. His children, daughters-in-law and grandchildren surrounded him. Someone looked after his medicines, someone cared about his meals, and someone would sit beside him and listen to his old stories.
A traditional seat had been kept for him in the house, where he would sit in the evening and watch his children coming and going. His children respected him, and the villagers also held him in high regard.
People would say:
“Salim raised his children in poverty, but his children made his old age prosperous.”
Aleem, on the other hand, was financially much better off than Salim. He believed that having fewer children would allow him to give more attention to their education and future.
He had a son and a daughter. Unfortunately, his daughter died of an illness at a young age. After that, all his hopes became attached to his only son.
He wanted his son to receive a higher education and become a doctor.
For this reason, Aleem decided to leave his ancestral village and move to the city. He built a house there, enrolled his son in a good school and spent generously on his education.
But life does not always follow the plans people make.
After completing twelfth grade, Aleem’s son appeared for the medical entrance examination but did not succeed. The son developed an interest in engineering. After some thought, Aleem accepted his son’s choice.
His son studied engineering and, a few years later, became a successful engineer. He found employment with a private company. Preparing plans for construction projects, inspecting buildings under construction and reviewing different stages of construction were among his responsibilities.
Aleem was outwardly happy with his son’s success. He appreciated his hard work and proudly told people that his son was an engineer. Yet somewhere in his heart, his old dream of seeing his son become a doctor remained.
Whenever his son went to inspect a building under construction or reviewed construction work, Aleem would become quiet when he saw him. He had no doubt about his son’s ability, but a faint sense of disappointment still remained in a corner of his heart.
Then one day, the same work took his son to a seven-storey building that was under construction.
He was inspecting the construction work on an upper floor with some of his colleagues when he suddenly slipped and fell several floors to the ground.
The accident was so severe that he could not be saved.
When the news reached Aleem, it seemed as if his whole world had collapsed.
The son for whom he had left his village, and for whose future he had spent the best years of his life, had suddenly been taken away from him.
Aleem could not bear the shock. He lost his peace of mind. He would often sit silently, refuse to speak to anyone, and sometimes suddenly call out his son’s name.
One day, Aleem suddenly left the house.
At first, his family thought he might have gone to the home of a friend or someone he knew and would return after a while. But evening came and he did not return.
The next day, they began searching for him. They visited the homes of relatives, friends and acquaintances in the city whom Aleem used to meet. For two or three days, the family searched different parts of the city, but there was no sign of him.
As the days passed, their anxiety increased. They could not understand where Aleem might have gone.
Then, one day, a thought suddenly came to Aleem’s wife.
“Could he have gone back to his ancestral village?”
She immediately thought of Phagam, the village where Aleem had spent his childhood.
Finally, she decided to go there.
When she reached the village, she looked towards the riverbank and saw a man sitting silently beneath an old tree.
It was Aleem.
He was staring continuously at the flowing river.
His wife slowly approached him, but Aleem showed little response.
After a while, without taking his eyes from the river, he said softly:
“I went to the city for my son. I thought I would give him the life I had never had.”
He fell silent.
Then his eyes returned to the flowing water.
“But life took him away from me.”
He became silent again.
The same river beside which Aleem had spent his childhood was flowing before him. The same mountains, the same trees and the same village were still there, but Aleem was no longer the man who had once left this place with dreams of a better future.
Salim, meanwhile, had remained in the same village and grown old living his simple life. His seven children had built lives of their own, yet his home remained connected to them.
Aleem had moved to the city for his son, dreamed of giving him the best education and devoted his life to his future. But one accident had taken away both his son and his peace of mind.
The river continued to flow. And the evening quietly descended upon Phagam.
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