26^th January! Republic Day for India!

The afternoon was dusky, pleasant though, yet dusky! I just love dusky days! I don’t know why, I feel very nice when the sun isn’t dominating! I was about to cross the main road and I saw something! An old woman was looking at me straight from the other end of the road. So I looked left and right and crossed. The moment I reached the other end, she waved with gentleness and I heard her saying “Sun Baccha (Listen child), you know I need a help……………”

“I’ve to go home and I don’t have money with me now. I need Rs 200 as my home is in Haryana. Save this poor mother. God will save you and give you all happiness.”…….. I completed the sentence for her! She was baffled and terrified. Without saying any more word, she turned. But don’t know why, I seized her hand and made her face me. “You think I don’t remember you? Some 2 months before you did the same to me and I thought you were really in need. You took Rs 200 from me. My friend (Snehangshu) told me at that moment only that I was being fooled, I also felt, yet…. And after some 15 days, I saw you doing the same to another girl. Now? Shall I call the police?” I finished in style!

She tried hard to free herself from my grasp but failed. Her expression was bursting out hatred for me. I know it was weird to do such thing on the road, yet, I didn’t let her go. Instead, I took her bag and entered into the nearest park. I sat on a bench there, I knew she would follow. She appeared and started staring at me.

I went on observing her ‘strategic’ look. Now this is a strategic way of begging. She must portray a picture of a woman who is from a lower middle class family, a good family, has suddenly been pick pocketed or something, and is in crisis! She was wearing an old decent saree, two chadars, decent chappals. Nice attempt I must say!

I asked her to sit by me and, after hesitating for a while, she did sit! I knew she was a fraud, yet who isn’t a fraud out here? Who is not depriving others? This bloody society has led down few principles of cheating and depriving others. Those who follow those rules, they are called legal, and those who invent other ways, are termed as frauds. To me, these people should be given award for inventing these new ideas. At least they have brain! In the end, we are nothing more than frauds!

I asked with a totally changed voice, “Kya mai, keu karti hai eh sab?” (What mother, why do you do all these? And believe me I was prepared for the shocks. I knew that none, at this age, gladly indulges into all these! She must be forced to do this!

She sighed and not looking at me said, “My grandson has heart problem!” and I started laughing! She was hating me and I said, “I wasn’t asking a lie. Tell me the truth! I know you are compelled to do this. I just want to know why!”

She was burst into anger, “Oh! Who the fuck are you? Why do I need to tell you? Can’t I keep my things to myself?”

I smiled and touched her hands, “Whom else will you tell this to? The people who have forced you to all these? Your son? Your family? You will tell them?”

She started weeping and I felt good as tears came out of her! I gave her time and finally when she managed herself, she said, “I don’t have any son. I don’t have any family! I was a prostitute in GB Road! And now you see what I am!”

She looked at her feet and went on weeping. I knew that there were shocks for me in store. An old prostitute, an old liar, and old fraud weeping in front of me…. an old woman weeping in front of me. I felt that there wasn’t anything dishonest about her! She is just a victim of what we call our society! And yeah, it was indeed a Republic Day! We got our Constitution, the emblem of Freedom on this day! The day to buy National Flag, to sing National Anthem, to listen to few Patriotic Songs and then enjoy a whole smooth NATIONAL HOLIDAY! Funny!

I pressed her hands and asked, “Will you work?”

She kept looking at me. I told her where my office is, handed over the bag, smiled and went away.

 SHE MIGHT COME TODAY. I PRAY SHE DOES! ADMIN GUYS HERE SAY THAT SHE CAN BE KEPT AS A MAINTAINCE PERSONNEL! THAT’S NOT A GREAT JOB, BUT HAS DIGNITY AT LEAST! I PRAY SHE COMES!

Sending money to home is the greatest of all great feelings! When I write my mother’s name on the cheques, I feel like flying. I know many people might think “what’s the big deal in it?” But, to me, it’s indeed a big deal, conditioned by personal reasons! This 12^th January was a Friday. Around 12 noon, I and Snehangshu went to the nearest State Bank of India to draft the amounts to the respective homes. I was in a black suit, white shirt and pink tie. Snehangshu was wearing a grey trouser and a black high neck sweater!

Both of us were busy in filling up the forms and Snehangshu was asking me thousand questions about the form (obviously, to purposefully irritate me), and I was being careful about the trap! So I went on replying all the questions with utter politeness like a hotel receptionist! Soon, a voice came… “I like your tone young man!”

I, with a smile, turned back, and there was a man in his 70s in his casual suit attire smiling at me. The man was wearing a normal trouser and a blue coat! I could not resist my smile at his sense of humor; I uttered a smiling “Thank you.”

“You are welcome son. I mean, you are welcome!” The way he stole the word ‘son’ from the second part of the sentence struck me instantly and I saw Snehangshu looking at me (that means he also has noted that). The man’s English was typical foreign accent, while he ideally should be speaking 80s’ English (There’s some differences in each decade’s English pronunciation!)

Perhaps he had read our eyes, so he changed the topic, “So what do you young men do?”

We both gave our professional identifications. The man was impressed and said, “MBA! Hmm… You know I’m from India’s 1^st recognised MBA batch! I specialised in Operational Research. That was long time back you know.”

Driven by my character, I was trying to read the person as much as I could. And Snehangshu was dot on the point, “So, your professional career must have been excellent?” Doing a severe injustice to the words he was speaking, he replied with reluctance…“Yeah, it was! I worked a lot, earned a lot of money and now I’m concentrating on social issues, fighting PILs.” (PIL is Public Interest Litigation, where general citizen appeals to the Court against any of the common practices by Govt. or Institutes, or Organisations that might harm the common interest of the people.)

Snehangshu spoke, “Wow! That’s interesting, so what are you fighting for now these days?”

He was proud this time, “Oh many things! Land holding, Fraud election agendas, etc. You know the Banks ask you to deposit the cheques in the drop-box. That’s illegal. RBI (reserve Bank of India) is against this. See, in today’s Times of India the same article has been published. I’m fighting for this for 2 years.” He brought out the paper cutting from his flat file holder! While he was showing that to us, I looked at an envelop amidst that, it’s written, “To, Mrs. Pranati Ahuja,” followed by the street address of the US! (I forgot the street address obviously!) And the picture was somewhat clear to me. So I straightaway asked (with lot of guess works), “So, your wife is staying with your son in the US?”

He, in a confident mood, was talking to Snehangshu, and was stunned by my abrupt question. I went on looking at my eyes and I went on smiling through my eyes. (I knew my guess had hit the chord!) He spoke as if he had just tasted something foul just by then, “How do you know? Do I know you?”

I was polite, “No, I just saw the envelop there, so I thought that might be your wife. And how can she be there alone? So it might be your son who took her there!”

He was silent for a while, Snehangshu also was smiling gently. Finally he burst out, “It’s all because of your generation kid! He did his MBA, and I asked him to stay back. No! He went to the US and said that will be back soon. Huh! Got married to a blonde and forced his mother to leave me! He invited me also you know, but I didn’t go. I’m happy working for people here!”

The thing was clear here, but don’t know why, I was quite desperate! I remembered his accent and said, “But, you also did the same, didn’t you? These PILs are your excuses to what you couldn’t do when you were your son’s age!”

Snehangshu touched my hand (I knew I was going too far), the man smiled and said, “You young men are bright I see!” He smiled again, “Yes, after my MBA, I left my parents and went to Ireland, then many other parts of the world. I married the girl they wanted me to marry with, but I didn’t stay back! I couldn’t. And now I know what a foolish thing it was! I think then I couldn’t serve my parents, so I can serve the people here now! Sometimes, it feels so lonely you know!”

But he was still smiling and gave us his card. We smiled and joined the queue. Snehangshu whispered, “So, what about our parents?” I said, “Thinking about writing another leave application to boos!” He started laughing.

After a while the man came up again and with that familiar gentle smile said, “My address is with you, please drop in sometimes. Two of you! Okay?”

Snehangshu said, “Surely, we will sir!”

I said, “Thanks for the invitation sir.”

He smiled, “You are welcome son.” I loved the way he uttered ‘son’, because his tone was not regretting for that word anymore!

DEAR FRIENDS, THANKS FOR LIKING THESE ENCOUNTERS! TWO MORE THINGS I WANT TO SHARE.... LAST NIGHT I WATCHED A MOVIE CALLED, 'BLOOD DIAMOND', PLUS, BOUGHT  AND READ A BOOK CALLED 'ISTANBUL, MEMORIES OF A CITY' BY ORHAN PAMUK (LATEST NOBEL PRIZE WINNER ON LITERATURE)... I WON'T ADD ADJECTIVES, YOU CAN TRY FOR YOURSELVES! ENJOY~~

ALBUM UPDATED~~

31^st December! Yeah, 31^st December! I can guess the kind of images that pop up in your mind after listening to this famous ‘31^st December’. I also was no exception to it until this latest 31^st December! With the year ending zeal in mind, on that day, I thought of taking a walk through the famous college square!

I bought a New Year greetings card for my sis and thought of entering into the famous Coffee House to touch few old lost moments there! The Coffee House was not that crowded, few idle Bengali people sitting here and there and gossiping. The strange thing about this Coffee House is that no matter how many noises roam around in the air, you get to listen to the person sitting with you clearly. It’s like isolation amidst crowd, and I just love that!

Ordering a hot coffee and plate of chicken pakoda, I lit a cigarette! I don’t know what I was thinking, but whatever it was, it was broken by an ‘Excuse me’. I looked up and saw a person in his 70s! Dressed in white dhoti and panjabi, the typical dress of traditional Bengali, the man was standing in front of me! He had specs with thick black frame. All the hairs on his head were milky white and silky smooth! Looking at his face, a sense of respect came in my mind. I said, ‘Sure’, he calmly sat and put his long side bag on the chair next to me. After saying ‘Sure’, I realised that I had that cigarette hanging from my lips! Though it was ‘my’ table, though there were many empty tables, though I am ‘adult’, still I felt it’s not right to smoke in front of an elder! So I, with a sense of respect, fetched the ashtray and was about to extinguish the fire, when the voice came, “It’s okay! You can smoke!... If you don’t mind, can I have one?”

I was relieved (indeed), and gladly offered him the pack and a lighter! His voice was as soothing as his look! He started smoking and coughed slightly. I felt bad, yet couldn’t say anything. I don’t know but there was something in that man that stopped me from interrupting him! With few stealing looks, I saw his letting the smoke out of his mouth and looking at it disappearing into the air. There was something absolutely not right with that man, I could sense that, yet I couldn’t ask that!

By that time, my coffee and pakoda came and I asked, “Won’t you order anything?”

He kept on looking at me for a while, and words came out as a gasp of sigh, “hmm,”, and turned towards the waiter, “Bhai, give me a cup of hot coffee.”

I kept silent and ran the spoon gently through my coffee. The man’s question was pointed towards me, “So, young man, where do you stay?” I smiled and replied, “Delhi.” The man looked down at the table and said to himself, “That’s why.” I forced a smile, “That’s why what?”

He also smiled, “The spikes on your hair!” I started laughing and said, “No, Kolkata guys also keep spikes!” He agreed, “Yes, anti-gravity tendency. So what do you do?”

I told him what I do, and guessed, “Sorry if I’m mistaken, you seem to be a teacher!”

He smiled, “Good guess! I was a teacher in a High School, now I’m retired!”

I asked, “So must be reading a lot with lot of time!”

He smiled again, “Yeah! You also like reading?”

I said, “Yeah!” He silently smiled. I was raring to ask this and now that we’ve eased a lot, so I asked, “So, how’s family?”

He spoke with a sense of detachment, “Perfect! I’ve one son. He is a good boy. He works in Wipro, earns good, feeds me, and gives me clothes, shelter!”

I smiled, “How nice. How old is he?”

He answered in a different style, “He’s married to a nice girl. They are married for 2.5 years. I had understood it seeing my daughter-in-law, but, you know, she disclosed the good news today morning itself.”

I was eager, “What’s that?”

“I’m going to be grandpa!” he sighed! (Sigh!)

I was stunned at this weird sense of detachment the man was having. That’s great news and he’s stating it as a matter of fact! But couldn’t ask openly, yet I dared, I touched his hand and asked, “Is there anything that you can tell me?”

He looked straight at my eyes for a while… God, those eyes! Piercing me through, as if the eyes spoke, “You know....” he looked down at his feet, “it’s been 2 years that I’m suffering from this… Cancer! My wife has fooled me long back, so I don’t have any nostalgia left on this earth! Just a wish!”

I had my heart out on my throat, “A wish?”

“Yeah, I just want to live one more year!” he looked at me again, “Tell me, if I want to live one more year, if I wish to see the angel who is coming, if I wish to play with him, if I wish to listen to ‘grandpa’ coming out that broken kiddy voice, if I wish to bless that angel for once, is it really something big that I’m wishing?”

To hide something, he took his eyes away and I was deserted. I pressed his left hand with my right hand and don’t know why my left hand went back to my jeans’ back pocket. On those stealing moments, I passed the New Year greetings card into his side bag. A Bengali greeting’s card… with a snake-and-ladder painting inside… someone perhaps has (purposefully) forgotten to draw even a single snake in that, full with ladders and ladders. With glowing letters, it’s written…. “IN THE NEW YEAR, LET THERE BE NO SNAKE IN YOUR LIFE!” 

FRIENDS, MY 31st DECEMBER WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN~ GOD BLESS YOU ALL~ ENJOY~~