Rohan shouted angrily, “I won’t go to school with this torn bag anymore, Mom! Everyone teases me, saying—‘Are you the younger brother of Chacha Chowdhury?’”
He threw the school bag onto the bed with a thud.
His mother said quietly, “Sit down silently.”
Rohan sat down quietly.
Slowly, his mother took out an old trunk from under the bed. From inside, she pulled out a worn-out notebook and said, “Today you will read this book to me.”
Rohan was surprised and asked, “It’s empty! Whose is this?”
His mother smiled gently and said, “This belonged to your father, who left this world before you were born. But before he left, he left many words… and this torn bag.”
Rohan looked on in astonishment.
His mother continued, “Your father had a very ordinary job; he wasn’t wealthy. But he was educated and full of dreams. We had no money then, but we had hope. One night, he opened a notebook and wrote—
‘One day my son will go to school carrying this bag. He may not know that his father’s only dream was to send him to school.’
Your father bought this bag with his first month’s salary. He used to say, the bag’s value is not outside, but the books inside should be valuable.”
Rohan gently touched the torn bag and said, “I won’t throw this bag away anymore, Mom. This bag is not just a bag; it carries a father’s dream.”
That night, his mother quietly sat on the balcony, tears in her eyes but a peaceful smile on her face.
Rohan sat by the window, trying to sew the torn bag anew, as if trying to mend his father’s dream with his own hands.
Moral:
Expensive things are not always a source of pride. Sometimes, old, torn, and neglected things embody a father’s entire life story—the first step toward building a child’s future. Silent sacrifices give light that guides us throughout life.