The Lonely Boy - Chapter 1

The Beginning

Photo by Amir Moharrami on Unsplash

No Maternal Bonding

Three months after Arman was born, his dad, Nanda learnt that his parents were diagnosed with end-stage stomach cancer probably due to all the spicy food they had eaten during their lifetimes.

They were bed-ridden and were, in effect, two more babies for Arman’s mother, Geeta, to take care of.

This was too much for her and she summoned her mother, Damini, to her aid and she came and whisked Arman away to her house, which was about 500 kilometres away.

This began Arman’s tryst with loneliness with him being deprived of the opportunity to bond with his mother by way of breastfeeding.

The ‘Foster Mother’

This made Damini his foster mother but it was funny that she was also Geeta’s foster mother.

Damini and her husband, Raj, had been expecting their first baby when his father had unexpectedly and suddenly died. His mother was superstitious and wrongly believed the necessary mourning called for this baby to be culled.

She didn’t realise that mourners were only expected not to try for a baby till a year had elapsed since a family member had died.

Babies already conceived weren’t meant to be killed. But being too foolish to realise this, she got hold of a foeticide, laced Damini’s drink with it and gave it to her saying that it was good for the baby.

The gullible Damini gulped it down and was fine for a few days. Then, she felt searing pain in her abdomen and had to be taken to a hospital.