A fist full of memories

A fist full of memories

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My caddy Hulo is irregular during winter days. That is the time when NRIs and foreign visitors come and stay in the Toly club guest house. Hulo has a contact in golf range who helps him to become caddy of the foreign guests. During those months he avoids me but once the guests go away then again he would pester me to take him back. That sly guy has a unique way of approaching me; he would bring some golf accessories gifted to him by those foreigners and ask me to accept those. Many a times Hulo has introduced me to these golfing foreigners and I have played with them gladly.

Mr. Evans was one such introduced by Hulo , was from England, loved playing golf. He loved coming back to India as frequent as possible; it seems he spent his childhood in tea gardens of Darjeeling. Whenever he is in India would visit Darjeeling.

I had played a number of times  with him. This happened a few years back.

While playing we would share our experiences. During our one such outing I narrated my experience of momentarily mentally getting transported to some other place. I narrated my experience as follows;

I was sitting in my second floor office in Chatterjee International; from the wide window of my office the Calcutta maidan was clearly visible. I watched some eagles were  circling over the maidan and momentarily I felt as though I was sitting on a hill in front of a monastery in Bhutan where eagles were gliding effortlessly. I had visited Bhutan a year back then and had watched eagles circling while visiting a monastery, the monastery was perched on the top , eagles were gliding over the valley at my eye level. The circling eagles triggered my mind to travel to Bhutan for a few seconds at that time when actually i was in my office in Chatterjee International.

Mr Evans heard me with interest, smiled mysteriously and told me an amazing story.

“Roy, by this time you know I visit India frequently.The reason of my coming is to visit my childhood places and live through those wonderful moments in Darjeeling tea gardens.”

“Live through? It is possible to travel back momentarily as I did, but how can you live through your childhood?” I said doubtfully.

“ I will share some confidential information , hope it will remain with you.”

I was eager to know so we hurriedly finished our golf round and headed for shamiana.

We ordered beer and he started his strange story.

He finished his school in North Point, Darjeeling and joined his father in running the garden. His father was a philanthropist; he used to run a charitable dispensary in the garden. Once a Tibetan monk fell seriously sick and was brought to that dispensary, Evans’ father made arrangement for the monk to stay in the company guest house. Evans was attracted by the wisdom of that noble monk; he would spend lot of time with him. It was the year of Naxal movement when his father decided to go back to England by selling off his garden. Evans was sad that he had to leave India. The monk would try to console young Evans by saying that nothing is permanent in this world.

“Noble one tell me how can I leave this beautiful place? If I feel nostalgic then I cannot come immediately.” Evans tearfully said.

“Tomorrow you come I would give you something.” The monk said.

Evans duly went next day, the monk gave him a jewel box.

“This will store your best moments spent here but you have to load it every year otherwise the size of this crystal will reduce by 1/50^th for the missed year, then it will hold less memory.”

“You mean I can live through those moments?”

“Yes you can.” He opened the box and brought out a green crystal ball.

Evans held the crystal in his hand and was  mesmerized by it's beauty.

“Wise one please tell me how does it work?”

The monk gave a beatific smile and said, “ You should always keep the crystal in this box to avoid dissipation of the memories. Supposing you want to store memories of your school then go there and meditate in an isolated place after consuming one of these globules.”

The monk gave him a bottle of globules, they looked like opium balls.

“After taking a globule close your eyes, hold the crystal on your forehead and think of those moments in school with your friends which you want to cherish forever or may be some teaching by your favorite teacher. All those images running through your mind will get captured in this crystal.”

“Ok I understood, I go through the same process with all the associated places like Glennaries,Kaventers, Chowrastha, the tea gardens etc the places I love so much.”

“Yes that way you will capture the places with sight, sound and smell.”

“Wow, with all senses! Then how do I replay those?”

“In England whenever you have a feeling of melancholy then go to a room alone and sit comfortably facing east. Take out the crystal ball, take a globule close your eyes and hold ball on your forehead. Think of the times you want to visit and those will play up in your mental screen. For example you had some memorable experience in standard four then for that moment you will become mentally that little boy of standard four and live through that experience kind of replay of those moments.”

Evans was excited and without wasting any more time started writing down his memories of good moments before embarking on storing those in the crystal ball.

In the meanwhile the monk after getting cured had left the tea garden.

Evans could not come to India for next thirty years as he had to finish higher studies and start his professional career as a financier. But whenever he had yearning for the tea garden in Darjeeling then he would take the crystal ball to his study, close the door, pop the globule, face east, close the eyes and hold the crystal on his forehead. He would mentally get transported to that time which he chose and live through those nostalgic moments. He could smell the fresh tea leafs , he could see the descending cloud in the valley. He would be running as a kid in the play ground of the school. He felt as though those days were still with him.

But as he did not visit India for thirty years so the size of the crystal ball decreased considerably, many of the memories got faded out. After year 2000 he tried visiting every second year to recharge but because Darjeeling city has changed for the worst due to population growth, also he himself has aged so the recharging of memory effectively was a bit sketchy. The places around tea garden have not changed much so he could recharge those vividly.
I requested him to show me the crystal and he agreed without any persuasion.

We headed for his room in the guest house . He took out the wooden box containing the green crystal, then with lot of reverence he took out the crystal ball.I took the ball in my hand, felt a queer sensation running through my body. I held it against the light, the  refraction of the light caused it to glow ethereally.

Evans said, “I don’t think I can continue to come to India any more. This time I did not go to Darjeeling. I have one fourth bottle of globule left, if you want I can give you these two, you can try storing your memories.”

First I was reluctant but then I accepted his offer.

Now I have the bottle of globules and the box containing green crystal ball but then the places where I spent my childhood days with my parents  are all gone. We were staying in government colonies of Delhi like in Press Road in Minto Road area,Chummeries of  Gole Market, Wilson Square in front of Birla Mandir….those are all demolished giving way to new high rise government quarters , the modernization steam rolled our childhood dwellings to dust....of course i have not visited those places after hearing that those have been razed to ground.....even the house in Allahabad where i was born has been obliterated beyond recognition but in the hard disc of my memory those still exist in the original form which unfortunately i can not store in this green crystal...... .may be i will store new ones now.......