The story is about a small middle class family of Mrs. Kalyani Iyer who has recently shifted to Bangalore after the sudden demise of her husband. She has 2 daughters Swati- her own daughter and Padma- the step-daughter. Padma has always been an eye sore for Kalyani. She cursed the day Padma was born even though both were born on the same day. Every time she saw Padma, Kalyani would be reminded of her husband’s betrayal.
It all happened 20 years back when she delivered Swati. Mr. Sharat Iyer who was supposed to be on her bed-side was away citing that he had a meeting. Actually he was with his other wife who was also delivering but with some complications. After few hours when he walked into the clinic with Padma, he noticed that Kalyani was still unconscious after delivering Swati. He kept both his daughters together and waited for Kalyani to wake up. Sometime later Kalyani woke up to see 2 kids in the cradle. She stared at Sharat inquisitively. Sharat told her about his mistake and how his other wife died while delivering the infant. Kalyani was shocked to listen to all this and hated Sharat till his deathbed. Now that he is gone she had forgiven him as holding grudge would not mean anything. From that day she hated Padma and treated as a perfect devilish step-mother. On the other hand, both the daughters were very close to each other and had the heavenly sisterly love flowing. Swati used to treat Padma as her elderly sister. Swati was doing her graduation while Padma’s education was stopped by her mother after 12th citing it would be a costly affair for 2 girls to do graduation and there was no need for Padma to study. Padma never complained. She has always been the obliging daughter taking care of all the household chores. She used to get her share of love from her father and Swati. Still she always craved for the motherly love and care. Swati disapproved of such behavior towards her sister by her mother but it all fell on deaf ears. Swati was determined to do something about it but what, she didn’t know.
One day while unpacking the luggage, Swati happened to get her hands on her father’s diary. She called Kalyani and showed it to her and asked: “Shall we read what Dad wrote?”
Kalyani agreed and both sat comfortably on the bed to go through the diary. Swati asked if she should call Padma also to listen to it. Kalyani rejected the idea and instead asked Padma to get 2 cups of coffee for them. Before Swati could protest she asked her to start reading. Diary had mostly events pertaining to his daughters. How one is treated like a princess and other like a servant. He had also mentioned how he feels miserable for not being able to do anything. After going through many pages at one page Swati stopped. Kalyani asked what happened. Swati was not reading aloud and all the excitement while reading previous pages was gone. Kalyani saw her eyes were moist. She asked her, “What happened darling? What is written here?” Swati handed the diary to her and left the room crying.
Kalyani was shocked to see what happened and picked the diary slowly to see what made Swati so upset?
“Kalyani, it’s been so many years that I wanted to let you know the truth. But I’m scared that I might lose you after your 2 heart attacks. I can’t keep the secret anymore, so I am writing it down. Someday hopefully I will gather enough courage to hand over the diary, for you to know the truth. Padma is your own daughter and Swati is your step daughter.”
The moment she read this, the world came crumbling down in front of her. She felt a big lump in her throat, she was going to choke. She could not bear the fact the Sharat has cheated her yet again. She was furious, angry, disappointed thinking of how badly she treated her own daughter; her own blood all these years. She could not bear it. She controlled herself to read further.
“After your delivery, when I entered the room, I saw you were still unconscious. I thought I will explain and you will accept both the infants graciously. But you could not bear the truth. So when you asked which baby is yours, I lied to you, I thought after few years when you would get fond of your step-daughter, I will let you know the truth. That time it would be impossible for you to hate Swati and both will get equal motherly love. I hope to tell you soon and see my both daughters happy.”
Kalyani broke down and started sobbing uncontrollably. After sometime, she went out and saw that Swati was at porch crying. She went and sat next to her. Swati turned and hugged her tightly and started crying. She asked her mother, “Will you start hating me, now that I am not your daughter?”
Kalyani hugged her even tightly and said, “No, Never, You have always been my daughter and always will be. I can’t see a drop of tear in your eyes. You will always the apple of my eye” both started sobbing.
Kalyani saw that Padma came with coffee for both of them and was about to leave, when Kalyani called her. Padma could not believe her ears, this was the first time ever she called with so much love. She turned back to see Kalyani smiling at her with moist eyes.
Kalyani came closer and hugged her and started kissing her like a baby. Padma could not believe her luck. Kalyani was so wrecked after knowing the truth that she was begging for forgiveness from Padma. Padma also started crying but with happiness. They both hugged each other for long time and then happily went inside. Kalyani promised to cook herself a nice treat for both her daughters.
Meanwhile Swati went to her mother’s room and picked the diary before someone else sees it. She came to her room and thanked the god that everything went as planned and her mother didn’t recognize her handwriting. They are a happy family now.
