अपना-पराया
Summary
A soldier, traveling home after years away, stops at a roadside inn. He is exhausted and eager to reach his wife and child, whom he has never seen. After settling in, he tries to sleep but is disturbed by the persistent crying of a sick child in a nearby room. The soldier, frustrated, orders the innkeeper to make the woman and her child leave immediately. The innkeeper pleads for the woman, explaining she is poor and has nowhere to go, but the soldier insists. The woman, desperate and heartbroken, finally emerges, places the crying child at the soldier's feet, and says she is leaving the child for him to dispose of as he wishes. The soldier, suddenly struck by her words, stops her. He asks where she is going, and she replies that she is going to find death. He then asks where she came from. She tells him her husband has been away at war for five years and has not returned. She is traveling with her child, hoping to find him. The soldier, realizing she is his own wife, is overcome with emotion. He picks up his child, kisses him, and begins to soothe him. He cannot bring himself to tell her who he is. The story reflects on the nature of war, duty, and the arbitrary cruelty of human conflict. The soldier had earlier spoken at length about the senselessness of killing strangers in battle, questioning why men are praised for killing. He contrasted this with the simple life of farming and family he desires. The narrative also includes a philosophical reflection on following one's conscience over social judgment, emphasizing that a righteous person should not be swayed by praise or blame, but should adhere to truth and justice, even in a world where deceit often prevails.
Conclusion
The story powerfully illustrates how war and rigid authority can erode basic human empathy, turning a soldier into someone who would evict a sick child and his desperate mother in the dead of night. The soldier’s initial insistence on his own comfort, driven by a sense of entitlement and the need to assert control, directly clashes with the woman’s vulnerability. However, the narrative’s crucial outcome is the moment of recognition and reversal. When the woman places her child at his feet and declares she is going to die, the soldier is jolted from his self-absorption. He discovers the woman is his own wife and the sick child his son, whom he has never seen. This shattering revelation forces him to confront the consequences of his own actions and the dehumanizing nature of the conflict that separated them. The story’s implication is that true understanding and compassion can only emerge when one is forced to see the human face behind abstract rules and distant orders.