I Hate You

Tanvi was in school. She was five years old then. That evening, when she got back home she couldn’t find her mom. “Mom, where are you? Dad!  Where is mom?”  She started screaming.  Sometimes hiding a truth cannot be called a lie. Dad did not want to upset his little one saying, “Mommy left the city for a six months training course. You cannot see her for the next six months.”  Instead, “Your mommy is in an official meeting and will be back tomorrow,” Daddy lied. Truth would have been better because that tomorrow never came. Tanvi started yearning for her mother. But she was good enough in hiding her tears.

Two weeks later, When Dad gave her a letter from Mom; she grasped the letter and ran towards the balcony. She opened the letter, touched every word and read those words aloud. “To my daughter, with plenty of kisses”

“Mom, why did you leave me? I am angry on you,” she murmured and dipped the letter in a jug of water.

Perhaps it was the only way to show her anger and sometimes  “I hate you” is the best way to describe, “I love you, I miss you, I yearn for you and I want to hug you.”

That evening, with tear filled eyes, she took a paper and wrote one of the shortest letters in the world.

“Dear Mom,

I hate you

Tanvi”