It was a carefully laid plan which couldn’t have gone wrong. The 3 brothers were very well placed and highly connected. And the 3 sisters married into poor homes were helpless and 2 of them widowed. It was their mother's 1st death anniversary function and the 3 sisters (60+ in age) came to the venue after a long journey of over 4 hours. They were tired with bodies aching and mind clouded. As soon as they entered, the 3 brothers surrounded them with a piece of paper and asked them to sign it. With the place swarming with relatives and their minds tired with the journey they signed the paper. Little did they know the folly of this simple action and when the picture got clearer the enormity of the situation hit them.
The father of these 6 siblings had not left a will and after the mother’s death ideally the property should have been divided between the 6 siblings equally. But the brothers plotted and chose an opportune moment - the death anniversary of their mother when the house buzzing with relatives would deter the sisters from creating a scene. They then got their 3 sisters to sign a paper which said that they would never claim a part of their father’s property. The property worth 2 crores rupees or more was solely the brothers’ inheritance. The entire conspiracy was planned with immense precision, there were clerks from the court present while the paper was being signed to act as witnesses and stamp the paper so that no one could challenge it.
This is a true incident which has unfolded within my own relatives.
I was amazed and saddened when I heard of it, how can your own blood siblings be so heartless and cruel? Does the love for money blind you to such a great extent that you are compelled to cheat your own sisters? Whatever happened to sibling love, sharing and caring, a so called part of our “culture” and “tradition?” Or is the "maintenance" of culture and tradition only a task to burden women? The sisters could have challenged the piece of paper but in the small town that they lived in, their influential brothers would have made their lives miserable and moreover they didn’t have the will or stamina to run around courts at the age of 60.
The incident is appalling not because of the enormous amount of money involved. It is disgusting because of the manner in which the whole plan was executed in cold blood. Have you ever seen one of the Nat Geo series where they show a tiger silently watch its prey and then strike at the right time? The attack is aimed straight at the neck and it kills the prey in one shot. That’s what this whole incident reminded me of. These brothers resemble animals in the jungle sauntering around, on a lookout for a helpless creature to satiate their greed and hunger. On second thoughts, maybe even animals won’t attack their own brethren in this manner.
In spite of their prestigious degrees, high posts and enormous bank balances they are nothing more than petty rogues who hoodwinked their own sisters. I wonder if they wish to carry the money to their funeral pyres, I wonder if they can still sleep at night, I wonder if they can look at their reflection in the mirror without shame and if they have any respect left for their own self. The world might call them brothers I call them thieves, not because of the wealth that they conspired to snatch but, because they looted their sisters of trust, love and faith.
While an intervention by law might solve issues like these, it is heartbreaking to see how gender colors and disfigures sibling relationships as well. The brothers are ready to share the wealth among themselves but not with the sisters, an obvious discrimination based on gender. When married women have to face prejudice within their own families then what can one expect from the families they marry into?
No comments:
Post a Comment