Page 11 - TEARS OF SUFFERING

TEARS OF SUFFERING

bottle away and picked up a cane. Raising it as high as he
could, he delivered a whooshing lash on the boy’s butt.

Zangmo couldn’t mollify her husband as he would never
accept the fact that the boy was too young to do anything
significant yet. So, she went around, pleading with the
neighbours to defend her son from the clutches of the
wicked man, but the neighbours paid no heed to her.
Terrified, she sat in a corner, listening to her son wail.
She closed her eyes to drain out the heart-jerking tears.
“God, have mercy on my son.” She looked up and
chanted prayers.

Endless trauma bothered her, but she showed
remarkable endurance. Later, she lamented for having
trusted the man. If only she could turn back the clock.
Irrepressible sobbing brought wild regrets, but it was too
late. She had married the man with the hope that she
would keep her son happy. She wanted to do everything
under the sun to keep him happy. So, she resigned herself
to fate.

Greatly traumatized and facing such an intolerable
situation at home, the boy bunked the classes. His
truancy drove his teachers to despair. They tried all the
means they knew to stop his truancy and even considered
corporal punishment, hoping he might revive classroom
attendance. The poor boy didn’t progress; his friends and
teachers despised and neglected him now. A forgotten
victim of violence at home, he couldn’t devote much time

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