Like My Daughter

When Vikas, a big flirt, stopped his car near ladies tailor, his friend Raman asked in surprise, "What do you want to do here?" Vikas said, "My daughter Mini is now entering adulthood but her behavior is still childish. She wears anything without thinking about her own safety. I am taking dupatta (A length of material worn arranged in two folds over the chest and thrown back around the shoulders, typically with a salwar kameez, by women from South Asia.) for her." Raman said, "So you feel your daughter is now adult and what you do there in tea shop at roadside?"

Vikas said, "That tea shop comes in a shorter route to my daughter's school. The shop owner has a beautiful daughter. I went there once and saw her. Since then, I go there daily thinking that someday that man may not be present in shop and.." Raman stopped him and said, "What a dirty mind you have. She is of same age as your daughter." Vikas, while folding the dupatta, said, "Let me take you to that shop today during lunch."

Vikas, while ordering tea from the shop, saw that the girl was looking at dupatta. Vikas called the girl and said, "If you like it, you can keep it." The girl felt embarrassed. The shopkeeper said, "No sir, how can we keep it." Vikas said, "I bought it for my daughter. She is also like my daughter." The shopkeeper got convinced and thanked the man.

Raman was shocked listening all this. On the way back to office, he asked Vikas about that incident. Vikas could not explain anything. Only his own words 'like my daughter' were echoing in his mind. Later in the evening, Vikas went back home and saw that his daughter was horrified and sitting on bed. His wife was holding her. The clothes of Mini were torn and was covered with the dupatta that he had bought in morning. But, he had given it to the girl of tea shop. Confused, he asked his wife and daughter of what has happened. He was dumbstruck listening to what his wife told him.

She said, "Today Mini was coming from the shorter secluded route. A car stopped near her and two men tried to kidnap her. She resisted and shouted for help. At some distance, a shop of tea was present. The shopkeeper ran for rescuing her. Seeing the shopkeeper, those men pushed Mini towards road and ran away in their car. The shopkeeper covered Mini with this dupatta and brought her home. When I gave this dupatta to the shopkeeper, he declined and said, 'A man gave it to my daughter, and she is also like my daughter.'"