In the video: Dr Joshua Tribiani was sitting on the chair. There was a desk on his left hand side. There were four books on that desk. The books were kept in a way that their titles and author names were clearly visible. Dr Joshua began his speech:

“After reading these books that are more than hundred years old, I have concluded my research. And today, I shall reveal the truth about Octaland event. My purpose here today is to be completely honest with you guys and avoid every prejudice that stops me from revealing the truth about Octaland tragedy.”

The camera zoomed out a bit and a crowd of several people sitting on the ground appeared in the video.

Dr Joshua continued his speech:

“Back in 1865, the Island Octaland was a completely rural place. There were neither roads nor railways for proper transportation. It was a complete barter system with no concept of money. The place was more of a village. Our great grand fathers were mostly farmers as agriculture was the most prominent way for survival. Anyways, Tribianis had recently settled there since they were survivors of wars.”

I gained interest as this man appeared to be informative and reasonable. His speech continued in the video:

“Gabriel Tribiani was a servant. Okay, let me clarify that a lot of people exaggerate here by calling him a slave of Hector, so you must know that they all are wrong. Gabriel was just a servant and nothing else. He had a wife and four kids. Two sons and two daughters. Let me back up a little, it was 1905 Gabriel was around forty years old. He was working as a farmer for the evil landlord Hector. Now who exactly was Hector? I’ll come to that later. Right now, I must tell you that Gabriel was a very poor man. His income wasn’t enough. He worked twelve hours a day and in return he would get six apples and one dozen bananas per day. Other than that, he was given old and torn clothes for his family, from his master Hector. But the issue was not his income. It was that part of land that belonged to him. He was fifty percent owner of the land. Now there are different theories on that. Some say that the other fifty percent belonged to Hector; some believe that it was some unknown family’s property and some also believe that it belonged to head of the state. However, there was no official head of state at the time. Only the person with power was claimed to be the leader. Anyways, the part of land that belonged to Gabriel was one of the few sources of his income. So what happened one day was that the evil landlord called Gabriel one day to his place? You know who I’m talking about here, Hector. Hector wanted Gabriel’s piece of land. He was greedy. He wanted to rule Octaland completely by emerging his power steadily. So anyways, he invited Gabriel for tea. Gabriel was a little confused and panicked. So when he figured out Hector’s plan, he stood up and simply refused. Now as he was leaving, the doors of Hector’s house were closed. He was offered a huge amount of wealth. The kind of wealth we cannot imagine. And in return Hector wasn’t just demanding portion of land, he was demanding something really horrible. Something that is not even easy to mention. You all know what it is but while describing it, our souls get shaken.”

The people in crowd were nodding their heads.

I got a little surprised and curious as to what he wasn’t able to describe. I hoped that he would mention it anyway but he skipped it and moved on with the tale. I heard Dr Joshua saying:

“Well, what happened further was what you all know. Gabriel simply refused Hector’s offer. Hector then threatened to kill him and leave his family alive to suffer. But Gabriel was firm with his decision. He was not a coward. He refused and quit his job as his servant. Now people exaggerate the fact that he remained unemployed for several months. His family was dying of thirst and hunger and the money they already had highly met their needs. These are all fake stories, and we must not exaggerate while trying to make Gabriel our hero. He already is a hero and he doesn’t need any false stories to be one.”

I paused the video as I was feeling kind of emotional right now.

Oh, my God! I whispered. So this was the background of this incident. I had never heard this part of the story.

I resumed the video and the speech continued:

“So, what actually happened was that he was jobless for just one week. On one hand he had the offer of becoming a completely wealthy person but he had to sell his faith for it. It had to cost others’ lives. Since he was an honest and moral person, which was why he felt obliged to stay hungry like that. And when the day came, it was 20th of April when Hector and his men captured him. But before that, he had sent all his family members and the other families that were in danger to some other part of the same island. They all were hiding somewhere else when Hector and his men kidnapped him from his house. For several hours, they interrogated him demanding other families’ whereabouts. Hector’s plan was to kill them all, so he could own their possessions.”

I stopped the video right there. I was getting all confused with the story. To clear my mind I spoke out:

What was Hector’s deal with the other families? What did he want from them and why was Gabriel protecting them?

The only answer I got was that Gabriel was doing the right thing. He was just trying to save other poor families from Hector’s cruelty.

I resumed the video anyway. I now listened to Joshua’s words very carefully:

“But Gabriel was firm with his integrity. He tolerated all the pain and suffering. They broke his fingers, cut his skin off and did other stuff I can’t even describe.”

Dr. Joshua’s voice got tender as he described this:

“Gabriel did not speak up. He remained firm and showed them that he’d die out of their hands rather than risking others’ lives. And then on 21st of April he was executed. So my brothers and sisters this story teaches us many lessons but the important thing is that we must not get extreme. Gabriel Tribiani was not an extremist. He was not a racist like us. I’m sorry to say that but it’s true. We all have become racists today. Today we are willing to stay singles for the rest of our lives rather than marrying someone who is outside Tribiani circle. This is all unfair. This is all wrong. Gabriel Tribiani would have never encouraged whatever we are doing today, which is why I request you all to become moderate. This attitude will not lead to anything good. You people should marry outside our limited family circle and treat all outsiders equally.”

I got to admit, I admired this person very much. He had become an inspiration for me. But right now at the moment, I was feeling really upset about the heartbreaking story of Octaland. The incident was appearing before my eyes as if I saw it with my own eyes.

***************

Meanwhile at my old home, my mother was sitting angry and upset as usual at the dining table. My father came and sat next to her on the chair. She stood up the very moment he sat and walked towards her room. My father got annoyed and spoke:

“Oh, come on Alison, for how long are we going to keep doing this?”

She didn’t respond but she stopped walking. My father stood up and said:

“We can’t keep doing this? Our family is already tearing apart.”

She turned and spoke:

“And you are responsible for it!”

“I know why you think that but you need to understand that Aaron is also responsible for this.”

“No, he’s not. He just followed his heart. His heart was already broken. He only tried to cure it.”

“Alison, please stop it. He married someone outside our family, I was fine with that. But he picked someone from Hector’s generation, now that was simply unacceptable.”

“Well, in that case, I’m also not a part of this family anymore. I will leave this house as I have no love for you and neither for our cold blooded son who knows nothing but to destroy and ruin others.”

My father held his head and spoke:

“I can’t believe I’m listening to this. If it weren’t for Aaron, our family would still have been in peace”

“I don’t care what you think. Either you call Aaron back and accept his wife as our daughter in law; or else I’m leaving this house forever.”

***************

I had just returned from work. I was standing outside my apartment and was about to ring the bell but I stopped. I turned and walked back towards the stairs.

Now as I was standing downstairs I asked myself:

What is bothering you?

The answer that came in my head was:

The sacrifice of Gabriel Tribiani. I just couldn’t stop feeling upset about him. I mean I wasn’t obsessed with the tale but I was just kind of sad about the fact that how I had been ignoring this story my whole life. This was my family history and I should have had respected it.

So anyways, I made a phone call. I just wanted to share my grief with someone. Tom answered my call:

“Yes Aaron, how are you?”

“Not so good. Uh, can you come by if you’re free? I need to talk to you about something.”

“Really? What about?”

“It’s hard to explain on the phone. Why don’t you just drop by?”

“Alright, I’ll be there in an hour.”

“Sure, thank you!” I got a bit delighted hearing this.

Several minutes later, I was sitting at the restaurant where I was supposed to meet my friend Tom. I was having a cold drink and was thinking about the kind of courageous man Gabriel was. I admired the fact that everyone called him ‘The Hero of Octaland’. And it was correct. He deserved this title more than anyone else.

Tom came by and greeted nicely. He kept his bike’s keys on the table and then sat next to me. He asked:

“So, what is it?”

“I am a little moved. I finally learned my family’s history. The Octaland tragedy.”

“And that made you upset?”

“Yes, I mean it was… Well, first of all you need to know that there’s a part of that story that I still haven’t understood yet. I just know that Hector had something to do with those poor families and my ancestor Gabriel saved them.”

“So what is it exactly that’s bothering you?”

“Nothing’s bothering me, it’s just that Gabriel Tribiani was a great man. He was a pious and virtuous person whose sacrifice cannot just be ignored.”

“Tell me from where did you learn this? Today!”

“I heard an educated person’s speech. He is a distant relative.”

“Are you sure that he was speaking with authentic reports? I mean what was the source of his knowledge?”

I was left speechless. For a second there, my entire admiration and motivation of the day was multiplied by zero.

“Do you understand what I’m asking?” he rephrased.

I did not respond and instead changed the topic of discussion:

“So, how’s your job?”

He felt a bit weird but answered anyway:

“It’s fine. Everything is usual!”

“I see!”

What had happened was that my perspective had changed entirely. I had to now make sure that the source of Dr Joshua’s knowledge was something authentic and reliable. Now the real question was, how I was going to do that?

***************

The next day, I was at my apartment with my wife. She was cooking in the kitchen and I was going through the electronic books that I had borrowed from my relative. And that was the moment when something unexpected yet delightful happened.

Our doorbell rang. I stood up and went to answer the gate. Quite surprisingly it was my mother. She was standing outside holding her bag and suitcase. I was so happy to see her that I had no words to comment. So she began anyway:

“I have left our house. I want to settle here with you.”

“Oh my God, really?”

“Yes!”

I picked up her stuff immediately and helped her move in. I was at the same time a bit confused as to why she left our home. As I had moved her entire stuff into my room, I asked her:

“So what happened?”

“I have left your father…and your brother.”

“But why? I mean was there a fight or something like that?”

“There are plenty of reasons but the most important of all was that I missed you. You are the son I have always been proud of.”

Lindsay came at the very moment and she greeted my mother happily.