Continuation of the story : From my book

Yesterday I wrote about the author’s thoughts on ‘Love.’

Today someone asked, “And what of Marriage?”

He answered you were born together, and together you shall be for evermore.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love:

Let it be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.

Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.

Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.

For only the hand of life can contain your hearts.

And stand together yet not too near  together:

For the pillars of the temple stand apart,

And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.

This is about marriage.

Will be continued 🙂

365 days Writing Prompt: Four Stars

Write a review of your life—– or the life of someone close to you— as if it were a movie or a book.

I  will write about someone who was very close to me. He was born in a village in Bangladesh, the name of the village is ‘Aburkandi’, how they chose the name is something I don’t know.

From very early in life he was a brilliant student, he didn’t have to pay tuition fees in school, he received a scholarship for all of his education.

He moved to a small town to continue his education, luckily his half brother lived there, so he lived with him until he finished his undergraduate degree.

After completing his degree he went to Calcutta( now Kolkata)to look for a job, he was offered a job at the post office, a few months later his services were borrowed by the ministry of defense for two months. His performance impressed the authorities, who decided to keep him.

He moved to Delhi where he went up the ladder of success and soon was promoted to the Assistant Secretary of defense.

His sister-in-law was impressed by his performance and felt her sister should be married to him. At first the parents declined their argument was they didn’t want two daughters to be married in the same family. Undaunted the sister-in -law kept pushing the marriage proposal until the parents gave in to her demand.

Soon after the young man was married to his sister-in-law’s sister.

While working the young man studied law, he felt it would be helpful in his job and it did.

He was interested in learning languages,besides Arabic, he learned Urdu and Persian. Since English was the medium of instruction he learned to speak the language fluently.

He had a number of children, he was always interested to see his children well-educated. His eldest son turned out to be a disappointment, he was one of those parents who didn’t like to force his children to do what they did not want to do.

He loved his children and always did what was best for them.

He fell severely ill, at the age of forty-seven he died, leaving behind his wife and  children.

: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/365-days-writi…mpt-four-stars/

 

Five sentence fiction: Marriage

 

Marriage

Samina was waiting anxiously to get the results of her final master’s degree exam, she made up her mind to join the teaching profession at the same time she knew she had to get a degree in education.

She registered in the education degree program, she was successful, the next thing was to get a job, while she was busy looking for one,her mother was planning to get her a good husband, Samina reminded her mother she wanted to work for sometime, she really thought her mother’s choice may not be good for her.

Mother and daughter argued daily about this particular topic, Samina made up her mind to move to a different city for work.

Luckily she found a job she liked, also there was provision for housing, things were working well she was happy, the teaching environment was beginning to bother her,the headmaster gave her extra duties which took up most of her time, besides teaching she had to supervise the kids for breakfast, lunch and dinner, she practically had no time for herself, she quit her job and thought maybe she should take her mother’s advise to settle down.

Her mother was elated, without wasting any time she selected the right husband for her daughter, the preparation for the big day took two weeks, on the third week Samina fulfilled her mother’s desire, as far as I know the bride and the groom are happy and contented!!

k: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/05/29/five-sentence-fiction-marriage

 

 

DP Daily Prompt: Qeu Sera Sera

Do you believe in fate or do you believe you can control your own destiny.

I am not sure what I believe in, in fate or I can control my own destiny. The song “Que Sera Sera “, is a favorite song of mine. I heard it a long time ago.I didn’t really think about the lyrics,then or even now.

Today’s prompt makes me think  do I believe in fate or do I believe in controlling my own destiny. I believe in both.

My fate exposed me to various things I could do with my life, study or stop studying. I controlled my destiny by choosing the former. I kept going until I felt my brothers have contributed towards my studies long enough,I should see if I can get some help in way of  a scholarship to study further. Fate helped me to get what I wanted and I controlled my destiny by making sure I was successful each time.

I felt I had studied enough it was time for me to look for a job. I got the first one I applied for,eleven months later I made up my mind to leave the job and look for another.My second job proved too taxing for my health and well-being , I quit that one for good. 

I always knew I was qualified enough to get a teaching job in the city,I was not disappointed.

Marriage changed the picture, I relied on fate solely,wherever my husband found work I’d have to go there,which is what I did. There was no room for controlling my destiny. So like Doris Day I thought “whatever will be, will be.”

Yes I have children,they don’t ask me, “will I be handsome will I be rich?” If they did I’d  only say whatever will be,will be.”You will be what you want to be.

Once again I have decided to control my destiny by registering for on-line courses, it was something I had very little knowledge of, here I am once again controlling my destiny by continuing with the courses.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/prompt-que-sera-sera/

 

Lucky: Flash Fiction

Salim was a bright young man,he loved to study,he helped his classmates with their homework,whenever anyone needed help in anything Salim would volunteer.

His parents loved hearing everyone in the neighborhood praise their son so much, Salim did his job thinking it was his duty , he wasn’t interested in getting any remuneration.

He became quite famous by his good deeds, parents of girls in the community were interested to have him as their son-in-law, Salim was not interested to get married, he felt he had plenty of time to tie the knot,he gave little importance to marriage.

Salim’s parents were eager to get him married, they were anxious to have a grand kid, the parents without Salim’s permission selected a bride for him,according to them she was very pretty,educated and comes from a wealthy family, what more could anyone want, Salim gave in and was married within a month.

Salim’s wife’s personality was completely opposite to his,she was rude, uncooperative,she argued with him day in and day out,his friends and relatives felt terrible, they said among themselves, that a man like Salim should have been lucky, how could he have such a horrible wife?

DP Weekly writing Challenge: A synopsis of my memoir

I spent eleven years of my life as a happy go lucky child with very little to complain. Suddenly at age twelve  things were different, I wasn’t carefree anymore. My most important person my Dad passed away.

I with the rest of my family had to move to a place which never felt like home. My mom had difficulty making ends meet. We were scared not knowing what the future holds for us.

Suddenly instead of Dad my eldest brother took over the  family affairs. He was inexperienced, young and lacked patience which was crucial for the head of a large family.We moved from our Granpa’s village to Comilla .  We were hardly settled in our new home, when our eldest brother decided to get married. No one in the family was prepared.

To make matters worse my older brother tried his hand in business, which was completely out of his league. Within a year he lost all the money Dad left for us.

I was barely fourteen but understood what a difficult road lay before us. My second eldest brother was an accountant,he came to our rescue. Whatever he contributed wasn’t enough to meet the family’s needs. My fourth brother agreed to help out.

We were doing fine but we lost all our enthusiasm  in life, we spoke softly, we tried to focus on our studies. We believed education will bail us out of our misery.

Slowly but surely we were moving along hoping the coming days  will be brighter.

I completed my high school exam successfully. I studied four years in two different colleges. After completion I went on to do my masters degree followed by an education degree. For me the years were passing ever so slowly, I needed to work to support myself to avoid being a burden to the rest of the family members.

After completing my education I took the first job offered to me. I taught for eleven months. I then moved to the bigger city to try my luck. I got the job I wanted but was unaware there were some strings attached, the position included looking after seventy-five kids ranging in ages from five to twelve.

I found myself waking up at 5 a.m and going to bed at midnight. This took a toll on my health. I could not complain , I decided to bide my time and leave this place at the first available opportunity. It came when I received a scholarship to study in England. The administration put a number of road blocks on my way to freedom. I was able to break those barriers by my firm resolve.

I went to London for a year and, completed the diploma of ,’Teaching English as a Foreign language.”

When I came back there were jobs I could get but there was a catch none of the places had living quarters for teachers. I stayed six months at home, I was waiting to get a place to live in the city where I intended to teach. Luckily I got one but it didn’t last long because it was a girl’s college hostel and some of the students didn’t like us(other women and I)to live in the hostel, because we were not students.

There were five of us we managed to rent an apartment on the fifth floor. There was no elevator in the building, once we came back after work we never went out it was difficult to climb those stairs more than once.

After a few months I was married to a physician who lived in Montreal. I stayed with my husband’s parents in a remote village which was accessible only by boat. Seven months after my marriage I came to Montreal to join my husband.

My husband was not allowed to practice in Montreal because he was not a Canadian citizen. To be eligible to practice he’d have to wait for two more years, this was the condition only In Quebec.

Our destiny moved us to Gander, Newfoundland , fortunately my husband was able to practice there because he was an immigrant. We made Gander our home hoping to move back to Montreal after two years. A year later my husband’s boss who had promised to hand over his practice to my husband died in a highway accident. A year and a half later my husband had a myocardial infarction. After this incident we gave up the idea of moving out of Gander.

I taught In Gander for a while. My husband had health issues particularly with his heart, we decided to move to the capital because the facilities were much better.

My life after age twelve until I completed my education was the worst years of my life. It was better after I finished my education and started working.

Young people face more challenges today than me, ours was different we were not bombarded with technological advance.

http://sabethvillewordpress.com /2014/03/11/march-11-weekly writing challenge-a synopsis of my memoir/

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/dp-weekly-writ…s-of-my-memo

DP Daily Prompt: Trains,Rails, Automobiles Or Something Else entirely different by Ranu

Rowboat (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have chosen a rowboat for this prompt. My husband’s family lived in the village. Two days after my marriage, I was scheduled to travel to the village, where my in-law’s lived.

This was my first experience on a rowboat. My father was not too enthusiastic taking us to his village because of transportation.Here I was on a narrow boat,the ceiling touching my head. I was a new bride and therefore it was not appropriate to complain.The pace was slow,I wasn’t aware how long it would be before I could free  myself from the pressure of everyone around me.

The boatman was taking his time rowing,he was used to this. He felt great, he was feeling important,my husband hired him.

After about two hours we reached the place where we were to disembark. The wharf,where we were supposed to get off looked like a slimy mound of earth. I was terrified,this was my first time,and I was wearing a sari not the best attire to alight on a slippery path. Embarrassment aside I asked my brother-in-law’s help. With his assistance I was able to walk on the path and reach the building. I breathed a sigh of relief when I crossed this hurdle!