EK CUP CHAI

A friend, who has been living in Ahmedabad for quite sometime, told me a story few months ago when he came to visit me. I’m putting it here in direct speech.

“Few days ago, after working hard on nothing I walked out of my campus at around 2 am for a pack of cigarettes. Because I couldn’t find any shops near the vicinities, I walked further and found a small shop open.

As I reached there, the shop fellow was about to close his shop. I had to request him for a cigarette. As he opened his shop shutters I noticed how dark it was. Just a street light, at the end where I came from, and a small light in the shop, I turned around to see, a strange person sitting down in the middle of the road, staring directly at me. He seemed like any other shabby person we come across on the roads regularly, those people whom we call – mad fellow(s).

As I lit my cigarette, I saw him still staring at me. Though I got a bit nervous, I kept looking at him. He smiled, I smiled (my heart still beating fast). I asked the shop fellow ( who was just about to close his shop) a biscuit packet.

I paid him, got a bit courageous and walked to the ‘mad’ man. He smiled, and took the biscuit packet. Before I could even react, he put the packet into his mouth and started biting it. That was a horrible scene. Shabby hair, unshaved face, dirty clothes, and white teeth all biting into the biscuit packet.

I was shocked and looked at the shopkeeper. He didn’t look shocked. I didn’t know if it was the shop keeper’s indifference or what. But I went near the mad man, and said in Hindi, “What the hell did you make of yourself”(yeh kya haal banaa rakhey ho).

He got serious. Stood Up. I didn’t know what to do. He just stared at me, looked at me seriously and said, “I’ve made a Choice” in absolutely stunning English. The accent was distinct.

He walked away. The shopkeeper, as he started to move his bicycle, said to me in Hindi, “He is just like that”. I asked him a bit more about the mad fellow and he said, “He is just like that from when his family died in the massacre”.

He cycled away. I walked back.”

“1044 Dead. 223 missing and 2548 injured” –
This is what Dr.Manmohan Singh’s statistics say.

The massacre happened in February 2002. The case is still pending in the courts.