Oh how the family's fate had changed

Fic, FYI.

How times had changed.

Back in the day the family was respected by everybody in the town, they bowed when they walked by the house. Not just the town, bigwigs from the surrounding cities would come in during the festivals to pay respect and hobnob. There was never a moment of peace, never a time when the house was not bustling with activity and excitement and action. Always a goat being slaughtered, always the gifted booze being served, always the large cartons of gift Mangoes being processed. The hearth was never cold, the servants worked in shifts to serve the guests.

But now nobody cared.

The children had gone abroad. Servant-children rubbing shoulders with normal people. The distinction had been dissolving. All that glory, respect, thousands of years worth of culture tradition and greatness gone in less than a generation. Everything stank. The house was falling apart. Shrubs had taken over in the corners of the yard, the remaining help in the estate was stretched far too thin to do anything about it. And they too were looking for a way out. They wouldn't be replaced, no way, kids these days they always looked for a shortcut. Go to America, go to Australia, anywhere but stay close to home and do hard work. But oh, at any opportunity to wipe the shit off of white man's ass, they'd jump at it. Those that remained were far too lazy to do real work. Thirty thousand a month, that's what some of the younger ones were asking for. As much as the factory paid, more than that. All they did was live in their dark dingy smelly rooms and mooched away the family money. One day they'd run out of all that, and come begging for any chance to be in the good graces of the family. Any day now, because it wouldn't last too long, this economic bubble where servants were making more money than the oldtimers, when just any random beggar from the street who didn't even know how to speak well and stank of shit could make funny faces in the phone and make millions. It was a scam, this house of cards would come crumbling down and what would remain is the old-timers. The fundamentals always stood the time that was a guarantee.

And the children, at least they should pay respect to the family's values and traditions but they didn't seem to care much either. In America they were doing who knows what without regards to the status in life of other people. No consideration of the possible implications. A servant had posted a photo on one of those websites. And those servants didn't look like it at all. Anyway she had posted a photo, of a child of the family eating dinner on the same table with her child. They were friends apparently. That girl, she was no friend she was after the family's finances clearly. Engineering is not what they did no matter what the degrees said, those people had a natural instinct to smell wealth and get to it anyhow. But what can you do, when your own children won't listen to your advice. Pray and hope for the best.