“No I don’t want it!”
was a denial of an offer of guavas coming from a man who looked desperately hungry
and frantically looking here and there for something to eat – How on earth was I
seeing a man who was hungry but blatantly refusing my offer and was still
pursuing his choice of food with almost no options! This intrigued me to observe
him everyday whilst he used to roam around in the neighborhood park, though he
was a new visitor who had made park as his daily stroll and a night shelter!
As I started to observe, he roams around like a loafer in the park , his
aimless walking’s made you think about his life- looking like a lost battle for
him , may be – for sure he is passing his time as he lives each single day. He
had no set plans for the day, he can surprise you by reading a leftover
newspaper or any page that he lays his hands on. Sometimes I see him just
looking at the sky as silently praying to the higher self for any demands that
he might be putting forth.
His life is of intrigue to many
who are constant visitors to the park , we greet each other whilst we do our
daily rounds of jogging and brisk walking but now that we see him in the park
without fail, up and sometimes exercising to make himself fit and live on the
edge, I observe him that his previous life must have been of rigmarole and
certainly he comes from an educated family background
Just the other day, as we were generally chit-chatting about issues the world is facing, we had an unexpected discusser – it was him, he was listened uninterruptedly as he spoke of key issues engrossing our current lifestyle. No wonder after listening to his valid arguments, we could now strongly believe that the man was an educated lot and that providence had played its game against him!
Though quite reluctantly, one of us asked him about his past life and started to enquire about his name. and his earlier whereabouts. Initially, he kept mum but as an impression, he had put on us he peevishly smiled and spoke “What is in a name?” – These ‘Great’ words were echoed by none other than the literary legend “Shakespeare” and thus spoken by this man with a sarcastic anger. What he had gone through which had led him live in this predicament was getting more of a surprise for all of us.
Since our last informal talks,
the mysterious man just vanished and was not to be seen for almost a week but on a sudden day ,
he re-appeared with no stubble and a clean shave, his hair nicely combed and to
our utter surprise , he was wearing different set of clothes. None of us
believed that here was the same man who just few days back appeared like a beggar
to all of us and was constantly looking out and searching for things which none
of us got to know!
Though, I always believed that he
is no beggar but had much more truth behind his current existence, I seem to be
right in a particular sense – the nameless fellow sat with us – though maintaining
a dignified distance and started to ask about our well-being – definitely , he
was in a mood to talk that day – we took this as an opportunity and replied
back – keeping in mind the unknown sense of suspicion about him. Then suddenly,
he started to tell his poignant tale which made us little
skeptic about him.
He thus shared - He was working
in a government job ( I excuse myself of mentioning the government company he
was working for) but he fell into a dangerous trap of drugs which started off
as a puff but consumed him till eternity – his wife and kids ( two daughters)
left him for their own good and since then he had no one to stop him to getting
into endless quagmire of drugs – till one day , he staked it all and was
rendered homeless. He spewed his dark side with sense of regret and that now he
has nothing left to himself apart from a small roadside shanty and some clothes
which he interchangeably wears. His sad story kept us all voiceless and all we
could do was to give him patient hearing.
We tried to enquire about his
daughters and wife, but to which he kept silent. He didn’t want to tell us about
them or so we believed that he was not in touch with them anymore. Then suddenly,
he said “Namstey” and just started to move in his own world of thinking – we, sitting
on the bench had got our food for thought and we started to think and comment
about his life of misery.
After walking a few steps, he suddenly turned back and voiced “Will you come tomorrow”, will share details about my family!” – to this, we all said “Yes!”. Its been a week that we are still waiting for our nameless friend and have also made a pact to help him in any way possible – but the guy has still kept us waiting, lets see till when though…!
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