Tomorrow is another day__Rupali Nayar

It was a cold evening and the young man hurried along clutching his coat tightly around him. He had to get hime on time. He had promised to take his children out for the movie and he wanted to be in time to take a quick bath before they set off. Too bad that his car had broken down.

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His wife constantly told him that his children never saw enough of him and today the young man was in some way trying to make up for all the time he spent at work. But what could he do? He was the sole bread - earner in the family and that meant working twice as hard. Sometimes when he came home he was so exhausted that all he wanted was to crawl into bed without even talking to anyone, leave alone having dinner. He was lucky, he thought, to have a wife like Rita. She never complained about his late hourse and she looked after the home and the children very well.

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She had once been a famous dancer but had met with an accident that had seen her permanently in a wheel chair. Yet, she took her fate in her stide and never said a word about her life before her accident. Yes, the young man thought, he was lucky to have her and their beautiful kids. Their home was lovely too, thought the man as he walked one more rapidly. By now the wind was howling around him and the first drops of rain had begun to fall. Almost running, the man thought of the disappointment on his children's faces if he did not make it back on time. He looked at his watch. He had all of 10 minutes to get back home. By now the rain was almost blinding him. He was soaked to the skin, but his efforts at getting home doubled. Running across the road he narrowly missed being hit by a car. But this did not deter the man. Now he could see the lights of his home and when he opened the gate he found that he was completely out of breath. Pausing for a while he looked at his watch. It had stopped! It still showed that he had 10 minutes to get back home if he wanted to make it to the movies.

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As it happened he was late. His wife had been waiting and so had the children. Trey hurled themselves into his arms and he began to tell them about his difficulty in reaching the house, of his near accident and of the rain.

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Then he asked his wife what the time was. And when she told him, he was stunned. It had taken him more than two hourse to get back! He turned to his wfie and apologised. He should have started out earlier. But his wife looked at him and then at herself on the wheelchair. "I Was so worried about you. I couldn't have managed the house if anything had happened to you," she said. "We can always go for the movies, after all tomorrow is another day."

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