A Friendly Stranger at the Durga Puja!

 

Call it coincidence or anything of that sort, for it happened again at the same Durga Puja pandal I mentioned in the previous story. This time it was early afternoon. I was sitting on a plastic chair inside the pandal and facing the Goddess Durga idol as the priests went on with the ritualistic puja and mantra. An old man, definitely in his seventies the right or wrong side of which I wasn’t too sure, came in and occupied the empty chair next to me. He was slim, of medium height, clean shaven with a bald head and specs on, and was clad in a pair of blue jeans and a white kurta that went down below his knees. The very next moment he solved my right-or-wrong riddle and announced with a warm smile.

“Hi dear! I’m eighty-two, you know! I was born and brought up in this locality, got educated in the nearby schools and the colleges and worked my full career living in our parental house. After more than twenty years of retirement I still live here,” he went on with a spontaneous articulation as if he knew me since ages, “every time during Puja I make it a point to visit all the pujas in the neighborhood and assess people’s moods and progress. Listen! I do it on foot, okay? Since morning today I’ve been doing it and this puja is the last stop on my roundup, before I go home and rest! Do I look tired, dear?”

Almost snatching the slight pause in his elocution I responded quickly. “Oh definitely not, sir! You’re full of energy and spirit!... Okay, great meeting you!”

Perhaps he was a little short of hearing, but anyhow he brushed away my compliments and resumed his discourse. “You see, dear! Age does catch up! I feel a bit weak in my knees and at this moment my knee caps are aching…but I carry on!” he fondly caressed his knees.

I didn’t want to let this thread go either! So I responded as quickly as before. “Not an issue at all, sir! You’re very active, and that’s the secret of your fitness and energy. I think you ought to remain active—physically and mentally—always. Nowadays, it’s the younger lot who…!”

“And you know what! I never eat outside food whatever be it the temptation, even during such long walks. Now I’ll go home and have food cooked by my dear wife! There’s a puja in our street almost opposite to our home and they offer mouth-watering items, even send those regularly home all the time. But I don’t take it at all! I only taste the khichdi as a holy offering. Nothing else!” he beamed on me, his open lips displaying a neat pair of white teeth.

While I responded as quickly as ever with ‘oh that’s another exemplary habit that keeps you forever young’, I wondered why he should’ve lied on this seemingly harmless account. I’ve watched so many octogenarians freely moving and eating around on the streets, particularly during those festive binge occasions. And during such early afternoon hours all normal mortal beings feel hungry even as I too was aware of the hunger pangs rising inside me. I watched the octogenarian rise from his chair, give me another heart-warming smile and a fond goodbye. I stood up, shook his hands softly but warmly, and saw him off fondly on his homeward journey.

I was certain about one interesting detail. When he just occupied the chair and started his excited conversation turning sideways to me, the smell…no… the fragrance of a fish fry hit my normally very reluctant nostrils. So, I was very sure about it. There was no eating joint nearby at that point of time involved in that activity that usually started toward the evening. I kept on wondering: why should he lie? Absolutely no harm taking a fresh and hot fish fry, it’s not at all like the guilty-feeling inadvertent drinker or the habituated alcoholic who’d try to avoid speaking to their totalitarian friends and family for some time! Perhaps he made an exception today and was feeling guilty about it or maybe he was strictly prohibited by his family from taking outside food, and after making the mistake today he perhaps wanted to test his breath with others before daring to confront his wife or son or daughter or daughter-in-law directly. Whatever that might be, the old great guy impressed my immensely. I smiled to myself in genuine contentment. Hope he doesn’t burp too much before taking the dish offered by his caring wife!