This is the man I come to visit every 3 months. He is a pale shade of who he was. Bereft of ambulatory powers, most of his days are spent laying next to his medicine, a few favorite CDs, a couple of books…. and a monkey cap!!! This visit is for less than a day…. but it was totally worth sitting beside him for a few hours when he was awake….
Kaku and Kakima had perhaps found out that I was going to be in Dallas last week. They had been visiting their daughter and son-in-law – our dear friend Anannya and Sunil this summer in Dallas. A few hours before I landed, they had left for India!!! I went to Sunil and Anannya’s house only to realize that they had given me the slip.
Not to be outdone, this morning, moment I landed at Kolkata airport, I went straight to their new house unannounced 🙂 (btw, the Google maps works great here. Did not have to ask anybody for any directions) It was great seeing them! I saw Kaku last more than seven years back when we were still in Dallas!!
In the office buildings in India, there is this curious phenomenon called the “elevator guy”. The elevators are very modern – completely automated and all that. But this guy has hung around in a throwback to the yesteryears.
All he does the whole day is sit on a stool in the corner with his right arm constantly on the panel with the floor buttons. He sits in that claustrophobic elevator and goes up and down the whole day long. With that expressionless face. Deep in his thoughts the whole way up and then the whole way down.
Moment a person walks in, with all due respect he stands up and then goes up and down as before.
Why he lacks the confidence in our ability to press the proper elevator buttons, I will never know.
And then, occasionally when the elevator is full and it stops at a floor to let people in, he raises his left hand like a traffic cop preventing anybody from walking in. His right hand is still on the button panel! The whole irony is lost on him that if he just let us press the buttons, we could have let two more people in, in lieu of him and his precious stool!!
As I stepped out of an elevator in the Air India building, I asked him how long has he been doing this. 17 years, he said!!! Wow! He certainly has seen a lot of ups and downs!!!
Twenty seven hours of flight later, arrived in Mumbai. Three hours of sleep later, left for office. After that it had been customer meetings after customer meetings, interspersed with hours of commute between customer locations.
Finally got an hour of off time before customer dinner started. A great hour with Shaheed and Vipul in a hotel bar mostly discussing ghazals and shayars. Shahid, who was born in Pakistan, is an amazingly knowledgeable person in Urdu ghazals. We agreed to sit down for a music session when we are both back in Atlanta.
Why did we have such a great time? It is best answered with the following shayar that we discussed …
“Chanda ki chakori se kabhi baat na hoti
‘Gar aapse humari ye mulakaat na hoti
Is mehfil ke logo mein koi baat hai yaaro
Warna to kabhi itni haseen raat na hoti..”
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No trip to Dallas is complete without meeting this guy. After our business work was over and we left, I suddenly remembered that I forgot to take a picture of him.
One quick phone call later, both of us pulled over to the side of the street. Unfortunately, there was nobody to take a picture of us. So, we had to make do with a precariously balanced iPhone and a couple of stones on a raised concrete step and a misfiring camera app!!!
Durga Puja for all Bengalis world over means the idol (usually made of clay and straw) of Mother Durga with her two sons and two daughters (with their “bahons” – see a previous blog) are brought to the place (“pandal/mandap”) where they will be worshipped for four days (two and half in US usually to make it convenient with school calendars) and then submerged in water (in US, though we save them for next year! ).
Now, one of the common questions before Durga Puja starts, as I recollect from my early childhood, is “Ma Durga ebarey kisey aaschhen?” (How is Mother Durga coming this time?). She could come in a “nouka” (boat) which would mean we were going to get flooded during Puja season. Or she could come in a “gojo” (elephant) which means we are going to have rains. (I assume not enough to cause floods though 🙂 ). Or she could come in a “ghora” (horse) which would signify sunny weather. I think the fourth option was to come in a “paalki” (palanquin). Don’t exactly recollect what that meant. Storms?? (I am a little shaky here but I think the story goes that those are the four days she came from her in-laws’ place to visit her parents’ place – I presume to avail herself of the Puja Holidays 🙂 )
Last night, as I was going for our local Pujari Puja center at Berkmar High School in Lilburn, GA, I distinctly noticed that this year Durga Ma was arriving in a rented U-Haul!! I have to ask my mom what the Hindu scriptures have to say about that 🙂
On an aside, I have no idea why Durga Ma and her kids had their own “bahons” (modes of transport – e.g. it was a lion for her) but they had another independent way of coming for Puja – boat, horse, elephant etc… One more question for mom 🙂
[On a further aside… Shhhh!!! she (my mom, not Durga Ma 🙂 ) does not know that I will be visiting her this Tuesday for a few hours. I intend to spring these questions as a surprise to her 🙂 ]
