Writing out that very important document in which you’ve got to assign your property to the most deserving inheritor, is one of the toughest challenges faced by any parent. Every parent wants to meet his/her children’s expectations justly, but many a time this is not all that easy. Mr. Chintan is one such father who’s in a moral dilemma regarding the issue.

Mr. Chintan, the owner of an apartment in one of the posh localities of Kolkata, has a son and a daughter. Abhay, the son and the older child, is a top ranking officer in one of the most reputed MNCs of the country. He’s one of the highest paid officers of his organization. Sonu, the daughter, is divorced and largely dependent on her father. Her husband cleverly escaped compensation at the time of divorce and it was only after divorce that she took up a job to support herself. With her earnings, she manages to meet her personal expenses. She came to her parental home after divorce as she has nowhere else to go.

Abhay was a peculiar mix of good and bad. Being financially very comfortable, he always helped his father in financial issues. He contributed well at the time of any family crisis. In fact recently, Mr. Chintan underwent a major surgery for which Abhay shouldered the expenses. This is about the good side of Abhay, but his bad side is a matter of major concern. Being in an officially high position, he declared himself the boss of the house too. He was of the notion that by contributing financially to the family at the time of need, he was doing them a big favor for which each and every member of the family should be indebted to him. He considered himself a superior human being and the rest of the family inferior. His Hitlerian ways and inflated ego made it difficult for anyone to even engage in a friendly conversation with him, leave aside staying with him.

As Mr. Chintan is old, his concern for the security of his daughter after he’d be no more, has turned into anxiety. Usually parents entrust sons in taking responsibility of their daughters under these circumstances, but Mr. Chintan had no confidence that his traumatized daughter would live peacefully with her brother and his family. He realizes that Sonu does not have the capacity to build a house of her own. He decided to give her his apartment to ensure her some security in life. He reasoned that being in a financially good position his son had the capacity to buy or build a property with his own money and he did not really need his father’s property.

But some relatives and Abhay raised an objection saying that Abhay being the son, deserves his father’s property more than the daughter. Also Abhay feels that since he helped his father financially, he deserves to inherit his property. Abhay asked his father to transfer the ownership to him and that his sister could stay in it with him. But knowing his son’s nature, the father knows that he’ll not take care of his sister well. He fears that frequent disputes will ruin the peace of her already traumatized mind and she might be driven out the house for not obeying the Hitlerian orders.

At this juncture, the father is entangled in a moral debate. The son is correct in his own way and the daughter needs protection. Should ‘gratefulness’ take precedence over responsibility and compassion?

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