A Guilt Not to Remember

Real-life events or incidents teach you lessons school never will.

It was a nice morning for me. I didn’t wake up early in the morning. But this was the only good thing that happened to me that day — I hadn’t woke up early hours. In October of 2011, we were building a new house and the hard work was going on and on. We were not in a situation to hire workers, so we had to do it ourselves. My grandpa, my uncle, and I worked like labor (I’m not sure what you mean here — I only know labor is giving birth) to build the house. We are born builders. That was something my grandpa always said.

My grandpa never tolerated my late wake-ups. So, he was already angry with me that day. And as a teenager I was, I didn’t care much about his anger. Lost in my own world of imagination and cold weather was freezing me. The day before, we had built a sink, and the next day, we found its not in symmetry. My grandpa was demolishing that sink’s wall using a hammer and chisel. I came around and stand over there just looking at him. His lecture about late-waking ups started and I was thinking, why he dismantles this newly build a wall of the sink?

Suddenly, he stands up and takes an iron rod placed beside him. And I was still thinking, now what he does with this iron rod? No use. But I could read the anger on his face. Maybe because he was done doing dismantle the sink’s wall thing. But soon I see that iron rod swings in the air and hits me on my thigh. The pain was enough to bring me to get off my thoughts to reality.

I was so scared. What happened? I was able to ask in a low voice. With a loud voice, he said, you are not a/the boss here. How dare you put your hands in your pockets and stand on my head? not actually on his head but near him. How dare you? and with this, he hits me three more times.

But this time I was prepared, my hands were ready to sacrifice and came in front to save me and got all pain. I didn’t felt the pain instantly because my heart rate was very high. I couldn’t understand what was going on. I was trembling. I was not crying but tears were rolling down my face because of pain.

My uncle ran towards us after he had heard the loud shout. He saved me from another hit by taking me along with him. Then, grandpa was still looking angry but went back to his work. Tears were still in my eyes but I was not crying yet.

So, here is a thing, In countries like America, it is a crime/its illegal to hit kids at home (at home is unnecessary for me — everywhere is illegal). But in countries like India, it is a way to teach manners. In the USA, after this incident, you can call 911 and they will rescue you from this situation. But if you made a call about this to the Indian police, policemen will come. Slap you and say, listen to what your parents said?

My uncle was trying to persuade that grandpa was not actually angry with me but my late wake up made him angry. You should wake up earlier and blah..blah! I was not in a mood to listen to any more lectures. I was looking at my hand which was red where the rod hit and then roll up my pants leg to see my thigh. It got a blue-greenish mark where the rod kissed. I realized that my legs are still trembling. It was the first time, I saw this kind of rage from my grandpa.

Ahhh…. my uncle and I both heard this loud groan. We both ran inside to see what happened? My grandpa was holding his finger and in no time, we understood that he had hit his finger with a hammer that was on the ground. No blood anywhere but we could see he was in pain.

One part of me was happy because Karma hits back. And the other part of me was unhappy because my grandpa was in pain.

The End

No one harmed in this story except me. Yet grandpa got pain by hammering on the finger itself. In my country ‘India’, you got no childhood if not beaten up by parents.

This is common and a civil right for parents I think. Some rich guys who didn’t get beaten up, make prank videos with their parents and live their childhood at a young age.

My grandpa and I share a bond that is still strange to me. Recently, my grandpa confesses that he feels guilty for that day which urges me to remember that day. All I said to my grandpa is, “you did nothing wrong. Although I was lazy and I have already realized this thing.” I hold grandpa’s hand after saying this made his eyes moist. I want to hug but I don’t get courage because he is like my strict teacher to me my whole life.

Note:- I am not a professional writer. But I hope that you enjoyed this one.

Love You Grandpa ❤️❣️

Edited by: TanyaIv

Written by:- Vicky Jangra