It was a bright morning, everyone was heading to their work, and markets were full of chaos. Suddenly a doorbell rang at Mr James' house who was then reading a newspaper while having tea. He called out to his wife Rose to check who was at the door. As she opened the door her eyes widened in shock as she saw her daughter- Jasmine who lived in America as a successful woman working in a big company. She was standing at the door with all her luggage. As she saw her mother she greeted her with a big smile saying "Hello mother it's been a while and still you look so young and pretty". As James heard Jasmine's voice he turned his head to cross-check whether he heard it right but as he saw her he was astonished to see his daughter who came from America unplanned. As Jasmine saw her father she ran and hugged him saying 'I missed you so much, father". She then took a seat beside her father and said, "It's been 8 years since I last visited and nothing has changed since then". Her mother who was still stunned by her sudden visit asked her ambiguously "Why did you come unplanned? Did you resign?". Jasmine answered "No Mother I just wanted to spend some time in my hometown as I missed you both so much" and laughed awkwardly. After an awkward silence James breaking the ice said "It's great to see our daughter back home after such a long time. We both missed you so much and were planning to visit America in the upcoming vacations. Isn't it so nice that she visited by herself, Rose?". Rose who found something fishy answered, "Yes of course James". Rose commanded Jasmine to wash up and come to the dining table for breakfast. After having breakfast Jasmine went back to her room and started to think of ways to tell her parents the reason why she came back. It was almost afternoon and Rose went out for some grocery shopping. On her way to the store, she met her neighbor Mrs Natalia, and greeted her. Mrs Natalia excitedly asked Rose "It's so good to see Jasmine back after such a long time. She is one of the most successful people of our neighborhood. Every youngster looks up to her as their role model. She has been working so hard since childhood. Now I think she came back to take a rest for a while." As soon as Rose heard this, her smile fainted out of embarrassment as she highly doubted that her daughter had quit her job and come back but still Rose answered with a smile "Yes she came for a vacation, she'll go back really soon". After a few days when Jasmine was out, her mother entered her room for cleaning. As she was cleaning the drawers she found some pills with something written but Rose couldn't understand it so she kept them back in the lower drawers. But as she was vacuuming she found a pamphlet lying on the floor which said COURSE FOR COOKING CLASSES. As she was reading the pamphlet Jasmine returned and saw her mother holding the pamphlet. She got scared and asked her mother to return it to her but her mother shouted at her angrily and said "If you came back just to pursue cooking as your career then pack your bags and return to America as soon as possible". Jasmine remained silent and controlled her tears till her mother left her room. At night at the dinner table, James pointed out to Jasmine by saying that why she became skinny suddenly but Jasmine excused her deteriorating health as a cause of stress from work. Days passed by and one day when Jasmine returned home in the evening she left her purse on the sofa and went out in the garden. At the same time, her father returned home from work and saw some papers coming out of Jasmin's purse. As he read those papers he was stunned to see a regular checkup report of Jasmine which she took after her surgery. At the same time when Rose saw her husband's expression, she took those papers from his hand. Tears flowed down their cheeks as they both realized that their daughter had been diagnosed with stomach cancer. When Jasmine came back and saw her parents weeping as they were holding her reports she suddenly snatched it from them. Rose grabbed her wrist and asked with tears in her eyes "Since when did you have this?? Is this yours??". Jasmine stuttered as tears flowed down her cheeks and answered "Yes Mom it's mine but I am cured now. I was diagnosed with stomach cancer last year and I was operated on successfully". Rose asked her how this all happened and they didn't even hear a word from her daughter about this. Jasmine answered "I was stressed so much by all the pressure from my company and also the image I had to maintain as a successful woman in our neighborhood that I had many sleepless nights. I also skipped my meals because of the load of my work. And slowly my health started deteriorating. I started feeling abdominal pain, loss of appetite, and loss of vomiting. When I went for a checkup I was found diagnosed with stomach cancer. I went for chemotherapy and after some time I was operated on successfully. I got 60% stomach removed and took my medicines regularly. But soon after the surgery I fell into depression which reduced my efficiency at work. I regularly made more mistakes and that also stressed me even more so I decided to quit everything and return to my hometown. I also decided that now I will start pursuing my hobbies and do things which make me happy instead of things which I did under peer and societal pressure." Her mother felt extremely guilty after hearing her daughter's painful story and realized her mistakes. She hugged Jasmine and apologized for pressurizing her to follow her dreams which was against her interest. The next day Rose enrolled Jasmine in a cooking institute. And after a few years Jasmine opened her cooking channel on YouTube on which she gained lots of positive responses. She also started taking care of herself and slowly became healthier.
THANK YOU❤
