The word gratitude is now almost extinct
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Nowadays the word "gratitude" has become immortal. Because, the use of this word is almost non-existent now. How will it be applied, now no one ever feels grateful to the benefactor. Acknowledging the benefactor's benefit, no one wants to be grateful now. As children we used to read in the Bengali grammar book the passage "Ek katha Prakash" -
"The benefactor acknowledges the benefit that" is grateful
"The benefit of the benefactor does not admit of the "ungrateful" act that harms the benefactor
Believe me, I didn't remember that last word very well. "Krittanna". What a silly name. The use of this word in Bengali language was less. Originally it is a Sanskrit word. In our childhood the use of the word krighna was less because people were not so inhuman as they are now. Such a person does not harm the beneficence even if he does not acknowledge the benefit. So it could not be applied.
English has only two words "Grateful" and "Ungrateful". Believe me, the word Kritghna was once so rare that Bengali language was obsolete even in English. "Nimkaharam" or "unscrupulous" is also used in Hindi to mean ungrateful.
There is no sin in the world so bad as to be reprehensible. Killing a person and committing a crime are almost the same.
In our family, I have seen this kind of abuse many times in my life. How people can stoop so low is beyond me. Let me talk about two incidents very briefly
Ingratitude, my father picked up an orphan from the football field and placed him in his family and placed him in the seat of his younger brother. My father did everything from that boy's education to job-marriage. Having been nurtured in our family for forty long years, that man did not help my father at all during his illness when he separated with his family. My father was not even invited to that man's daughter's wedding. What can be more ungrateful!
Thanks to my father, my father used to bear any big expenses of my brother's family "marriage, Shraddha, treatment of someone's illness, operation" etc. Apart from this there was no limit to the number of occasions that he used to get money from my father. That father's cousin and his sons once abused my parents very badly. It was misbehavior with heinous acts like hiding father's bank check book, hiding documents to seize paternal property. However, before his death he apologized to his father for his actions.
A sister of an ungrateful father tried to commit suicide by hanging a rope around her neck, unable to bear the marital turmoil. Luckily the rope snapped and survived. Then the father brought his sister and niece home and sheltered him. They are also nurtured by father's food. That father's sister never returned to her husband's house. My father brought up his daughter from a very young age. After studying, working and getting married, that girl one day committed the greatest injustice with her father. Father's sister and that niece abused father only for money.
I paid for the job of an ungrateful elder sister of mine. A lot of money. Although I gave it as a loan, I did not want to take the money back. So after getting a job, my sister started doing various schemes so that the money would not be returned. He started misbehaving with my parents. Seeing that the matter was going beyond tolerance, I sent through someone that if he misbehaves with my parents, I will get the money back and I know the way to get it. Anyway he corrected himself after that. But even after 13 long years, I still haven't received that money, I never expected to get it.
I am ending today's writing here by sharing a very recent incident. Just a couple of weeks ago, a very trusted member of our family betrayed our family. This man has been receiving various benefits from our family for long twenty three years. In other words, his family lived on our money. The man we trusted like a blind man wore a rope around his waist while forging my mother's check and withdrawing lakhs of rupees. We saved the bank manager from going to jail by calling the police just before handover. Although he was saved from jail, we severed all ties with his family. I didn't give this man to the police just for the sake of his two children. One is 6 years old.