Dying To Live... Living to Die

Inu's eyes twinkled with exuberance as she fed the one-year old. The day she had been intently anticipating had finally breezed in. As she dotingly fondled the baby's forehead she was awe-struck to see the contrariety of the white skin vibrant under her own sooty flesh. She gazed outside the window... it was same through which Puchki had informed her about the gratifying news some two hours ago. She was now desperate to get back home. She knew it would have to be today...Granny had been home for more than a week. Puchki entered the room as the sky turned into a brilliant blue bespeckled with black and purple. Inu smiled at her friend as she prepared to leave. The baby had dozed off in her lap. She carefully tiptoed out of the room after transferring the sleeping infant in Puchki's arms. Her heart fluttered as she rushed towards her home. Even the five minutes walk seemed like hours to her in her elation...She finally reached home, a dilapidated hut made up of thatched roof and mud walls. She had expected the door to be open but it was tightly shut. She knocked frantically until her father opened the door, his eyes expressionless at her arrival. Granny was nowhere to be seen and her mother lay scrambled on the cot, her clothes in disarray,her hair tussled and her face concealed in the darkness of the room. Inu looked around for a flicker of joy in her parents' eyes but all she could do was stare into blank faces. She slowly brought out an object wrapped in a filthy glittery paper from the left pocket of her frock. She then questioned her mother who did not utter a word... She implored her father who was carrying a pitcher filled with boiling water outside the door... he too didn't reciprocate. As soon as her father came back inside, she ran outside unwrapping the little object she had in her hand. It was a plastic milk bottle she had brought out of her year long earnings for her darling new-born sister 'Chiku'. She had decided the name the day she got the news of her mother's pregnancy. She had lived alone for seven long years! A sister would surely have filled the vacuum in her little heart. Her apprehensions and anticipations evaporated and dwindled as she looked down at the pitcher kept at the doorstep...She stood benumbed at the sight...the blood bismirched pulp of a baby's carcass... her face smudged... limbs barely visible...A deafening scream reverberated as the bottle dropped down from Inu's hand, welling her eyes for eternity!