Some experiences don’t shock you, they just give you shivers, not always of grief but at times even of realization…realization of what you always knew, but never quite felt intensely….I had one such, that I am sure is going to be a part of my metabolism for a long time…
Had stopped in front of a shoe stand, gave the guy my shoes to work on and wore the chappals given by him (almost felt like rephrasing the much-abused phrase to ‘it is tough to be in someone else’s chappals’).
While waiting for them to be worked upon, I kept looking around purposelessly (I love such rare moments…when you are neither human-doings nor human-havings…but simply human-beings)
Saw a man (can call him neither a beggar nor a mad-man, not Fakir and not Sufi either…and still a combination of all of them) with a natural ear-to-ear smile on a rather rough-skinned face (damned all sophisticated tight-lipped smiles we see all around everywhere…!).
He was walking all along in a rhythmic fashion (as if dancing on the tune of the very existence), murmuring something to himself; while wishing all the kiosk-owners with a raised hand and an occasional dialogue or so (actually a monologue…with no anticipation for an answer!).
He had a feel-good-factor all around him and the best part was that he was not exploiting that factor for asking for something from someone… (Wonder if that was the very secret of that factor!!!)
Suddenly he turned around and that’s when I saw a dog that was following him. The skinny off-white dog had a few flowers, a peacock-feather and some leaves tucked in a thread of sorts wrapped around his neck … (quite a sight!)…the man bent down, hugged him (literally), cuddled him and then said to the shoe-stall fellow “Isko itna samjhata hoon par ye mera saath hi nahin chhodta!…main bolta hoon ki bhai mere paas kuchh nahin hai tereko dene ke liye, par fir bhi pichhe pichhe aata hai…” and then he stopped and said “kutta hai na isliye samajhta nahin hai…insaan hota to samajh jata…”
And I almost skipped a heartbeat…!!!
But this was not all…he then took out a messed-up 10-rupee note from his pocket and tried to feed it to the dog… and when the dog smelled it and turned his neck away then the man laughed a guffaw and said “Arre…main to bhul hi gaya thaa ki tu ye thode hi khaata hai…”
This time I am sure that I had skipped one…!!!
My eyes followed both of them till I could, and they could be…but something had changed…in the world and certainly inside me…
Utterly speechless!!!
