AND THAT’S WHY SHE NEVER GOT MARRIED!

In an all-girls school, all the girls admired Miss. Leela, one of the very best teachers they had. One day, after much trepidation and tension, on a very select moment, they asked her, “Miss. Why aren’t you married?”

She wasn’t puzzled to get asked this question.

She said, “Well, you see I am one of the five daughters in my family.” Just before I was born, my father said something very hurtful. He warned my mother saying, “If it’s a girl again, I will just take that baby away and leave her at some place.” “As fate would have it, I was that baby girl.”

“That night, the father of the five took away the new-born and walked a good distance in the town. He left the baby below a street lamp and returned home. Early morning of the next day, the father went near that street lamp and was surprised to see that the child was still there. Nobody had taken the child away. The man picked up the child and returned home. The next night the father repeated the exercise. He took the child again to that distant street lamp and left her there. The next morning however the child was again seen lying right there. All this happened for a third time again. No one in the big town, it seemed, was destined to pick up and take care of the baby. Ultimately the father of the child accepted the will of God and gave up the plan to abandon this fifth girl child.”

“After another year and a half, the mother gave birth again to a child. This time it was a baby boy. Within a few months after that, however, one of the daughters fell terribly sick and succumbed to her illness. This was followed by the birth of a second baby boy in the house. Fate seemed to put the mother to new tests time and again. Either due to illness or due to accident, a daughter would die within a month of the birth of a male child. Finally it was only me and my four brothers. That was none other than the baby whom the father tried to abandon under the street lamp. And as time passed, the mother also breathed her last. So now there lived in the house four sons and a daughter, with of course the ageing father. All the children grew up and became adults.” The teacher continued, sighing heavily. “I am that very daughter standing in front of you.”

All the students were dumbfounded. They were listening to every word of the teacher. The teacher continued again. “Let me tell you the reason why I haven’t got married. My father is very old now. He cannot even eat his food on his own. All my brothers are married and live in different cities.

“Now there is nobody at home to look after him, to serve him and to attend to his needs. “Now and then, my father says, “When you were a new-born baby, I committed an unjust and heinous sin upon you. Please forgive me, how could I even think of abandoning you!”

Wiping the tears that were welling up from her eyes, Miss Leela turned away and left.