Lonely

Like every morning I was completing my morning walk around the lake when I found my morning walk friend Jitenbabu who was sitting by the side of Lake call out my name. I had not seen him for the last one week as he had gone to Santiniketan to enjoy the abode of Tagore and the surrounding nature in the rain. 

I sat down by his side and enquired about his trip. He looked very excited and said, " My best travel so far to any place. " My association with Jitenbabu is of 10 yrs and it all started here at the lake. It was raining on that day when I shared my big golf umbrella with him. He also started his career in oil Industry located in Assam like me but he was in Assam Oil Company, Digboi and I started my career in Gauhati Refinery of Indian Oil Corporation. He was more or less of my age and divorced. He was staying in his ancestral house in Southern Avenue.

 "I remember you told me that you love going to Santiniketan in rainy season to enjoy the smell of wet fields and the limitless horizon where sky meets the field."

 "Yes,that was my main attraction but it turned out that there was some other plan was stored for me."

 "I can make out from your face that you had some unforgettable experience !"

 This is what he told me. 

As you know I took Santiniketan Express for Bolpur. I was sitting in 1st class AC Chaircar,the train started on scheduled time ,I pulled out the book Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. The seat next to me was vacant. From Burdwan baul , many hawkers boarded the train. I always carry eclair to give to poor kids or if anyone does some good deed. A blind beggar led by his young son came to my seat. I gave him a tenner and some eclair to his son. The train pulled out of Burdwan. A young man in pajama kurta,with a jhola and a stroller bag asked me if the next seat was vacant. I nodded and he placed his bags on the overhead luggage storage place and took the aisle seat. I was busy reading my book and he was busy on his mobile talking to someone regarding his plan of staying in Bolpur.

 I was trying to guess his profession. It was Monday so he is not a tourist otherwise he would have started on Saturday, whereas I as a retired person preferred Mondays when I don't get the compartments full with noisy tourists. He had that typical literate look which is a rare in today's youth in jeans and Tees. He smiled at me and introduced himself as Souvik. I asked his profession and he told me he is an online tutor teaches English. I know that after Corona on line education has picked up it's called Edutech. Byju has created history for being the fastest growing start-up in on line education during Corona time. It was valued at 22 billion dollar then, it dared to think big. Money was pouring in ! Ravindran,CEO ,founder achieved a Rockstar status, Byju became one of the main sponsors of the last FIFA World cup by paying 40 million dollars but unfortunately after Corona when all schools opened then Byju lost cliental and the present valuation is 5 billion. 

So I jokingly asked him that hope he was not one of those numerous tutors located throughout India under Byju. He smiled and said he was independent, showed me his laptop with a dongle which was his main tool. He powered the lap top and showed me some slides of his tutorial. I was impressed. He looked at my book and said he too reads Albom . His favourite writer was Paulo Coelho too among others. I asked him whether he has read Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. He nodded and was surprised that I have read that book. In the meanwhile he pulled out a packet of salted peanuts and shared with me. I stopped reading the book, I was liking the intellectual talk with him, for a change Souvik was not interested in cricket or politics,the favorite subject of most of the Indians. I informed him that I have booked a cottage in West Bengal Tourist Lodge.

 On scheduled time the train pulled in Bolpur, he got up , lowered his bags and my stroller. He didn't allow me to pull my bag,he asked me to go ahead with my sling bag. He helped me to get down from the train. Somehow I convinced him that I can pull my stroller bag, we both came out of the station. He hired a taxi and requested me to accompany him. I reluctantly got in. I normally take a toto. 

He dropped me at the lodge , I was looking forward to meet him again,as though he could read my thought and said ,"I will drop in after lunch if you don't have any other programme. " I readily agreed as for my such 3 days stay I generally don't make any fixed programme as my main aim was to relax. 

 I checked in my cottage, freshened up and proceeded for lunch in the dining hall. After lunch I came back to my cottage ,I wanted to lie down for a power nap. At about 4 pm there was knock on my door, I opened the door and found Souvik with his sling bag and a packet standing by the door. I invited him in the room,he gave me the packet and said," here is a packet of Eclair for you to distribute. You can carry your packet of eclair for poor and this you can distribute to whoever ask you for. You were telling me you want to have an experience of moving with group of young people who can sing and dance to the tune of Rabindrasangeet. I have organized such a programme for you at Sonajhuri forest area."

 I could not believe that he could organize such an experience, this was one of the items in my bucket list. He had hired a taxi, we got in and proceeded for Sonajhuri by the river  Khoayee. After Santiniketan the right hand side goes to Prantik and the left side road to Sonajhuri. After 10 minutes we reached a place near forest where I could see lot of young men and women in jeans,kurtas,sarees ,skirts in all kind of modern attire. They were not surprised to see me, I was warmly welcomed. A group was already singing a popular chorus, "Aloker jharna dharay.." The sun was slowly setting in the overcast cloud. The shaal tree and the reverberating music created a magical ambience. I slowly walked towards the group and joined them in singing the chorus. I am no bathroom singer but sometimes I whistle along whenever a song which i like is playing in the music system. This was my first live participation and was enjoying it. We sang on for an hour or so. A group was dancing. I was so happy that pulled out the packet of eclaire which Souvik had given me and got up to distribute. Some of them got up and took it from me. Not that all were interested in eclaire as that time tea was served. Many young girls and boys from the dancing group took eclaire. That packet was not finished. I thoroughly enjoyed those magical moments with young people. After my divorce I was leading a lonely life so those moments gave me a new kind of high. I wanted the show to go on forever but everything has to come to an end. It was getting dark and slowly those youngsters started going back. Souvik told me later those were students of Santiniketan. We also got up ,he dropped me at the lodge.

 Next day he took me to Kankalitala (one of the pithosthan where Satis's ribcage has fallen), there also we met some youngsters . We all went by the side of temple to the open field,whenever I come to this temple I prefer to come out in the field and watch the yellow mustard crop. Again this group too started singing together and I joined them in singing. This time they came to me one by one after talking to Souvik I gave them eclaire as I was happy. 

              Next day we went to Santiniketan met some students at Kalabhavan and had discussion on various sculptures and arts created by Nanda Lal Bose,Ramkinkar Bej etc. I was happy so distributed a round of eclair.

 In the evening I told Souvik that I would leave the next day and thanked him for gifting me those intellectual moments. I returned him the remaining eclair and asked him to give those to  his friends. He took the packet smilingly, he took out one piece and asked me to take before sleep for a good sleep.

 Yes,I had told him that for years now I was not getting proper sleep. I took that eclair after dinner and slowly I felt as though I was floating in my bed , my body was so light,I became one with the nature. Sometimes I was singing in  Sonajhuri and other times I was in Upsana Griha listening to Tagore. A myriad of dreams. They say dreams come in black and white but my that night dream had colours.I was in different universe where i was a poet,an artist.

           Next day I had slight headache and then I realized that I have taken some kind of barbiturates (drug). A hard realization hit me, I was peddling drug on behalf of Souvik. It’s illegal no doubt but then he presented me a life time experience which money cannot buy. I will always remember those moments when we all sang together in Sonajhuri or the intellectual discussion with those art students. 

“Jitenbabu, no doubt Souvik had gifted you unique experience. Sadly you won’t see him again!” I said.

Chameleon

Chameleon

I reached Gurgaon form my house at Pashchim Vihar just in time for the interview. I was one of the experts hired for interviewing candidates for an IT enabled service company. We were to select a couple of mangers to head the departments. My friend Gulati completed the first round of introductions between us interviewers.

We allotted 15 minutes to each of the candidates; we were three so 5 minutes to each of us to ask questions. The interview started and we could manage to interview three candidates in one hour.

The fourth candidate with slight stoop entered, smartly dressed, French beard, specs and wearing a dark suit with matching tie. His biodata indicated him to be 40 years old and having a brilliant academic career with requisite experience in an IT company in Bangalore. He was carrying a lap top.

After the preliminary introductions, we started our interview. I was the last to ask question to him. Somehow I got this uncanny feeling that I had known this guy intimately somewhere during my service time, unfortunately the name, experience and the place of his work was not matching with my work domain. The twwinkle in his eyes and the mishivieous smile was familiar.

“Were you in Calcutta in 1990?” I asked.

“No sir, of course I have visited Calcutta many a times,” was his jovial reply.

“Do you have a brother who used to stay in Ballygaunge Station Road area?”

“No, I am the only son of my parents,” was his cryptic reply.

As this thought of knowing him was nagging me so I could not proceed further with my questioning.

At the end of the interviews in the evening when we sat down to assess then the fourth candidate, whom I thought I knew came out to be the best and he was selected.

After returning home the feeling of knowing that guy kept on haunting me. The eyes were known and I thought during the interview once he winked at me, that might be figment of my imagination. Then it came to me that about fifteen years back near my house in Calcutta there was a club. They used to hold various puja functions and also stage dramas. Once for one of our office plays we had hired Pratul for the main role. He single handedly carried the drama through. After that he used to come to my house regularly. He was working as a clerk in a private company. He had no ambition.

“Why don’t you join one of the professional theatre groups in north Calcutta,” I enquired.

“I don’t want to do the same role day after day. Haven’t you noticed that the same drama is staged months after months,” was Pratul’s logical reply.

“You know; I don’t know how my manners switch when I change my dress. Supposing I am wearing dhoti, kurta and sandal then I am a typical Bengali babu. If I am in jeans, Tee shirts and Nike shoes then I am one of those party hopping youth’s when I am not doing any drama then still I start acting the character as per the dress I am wearing on that day. My parents feel disturbed about it as they feel I have split personality but I feel it is natural” he explained passionately.

That was the last talk I had before they moved out of our area. This fourth character at the interview whose name was Probal Ghose, somehow reminded me of Pratul Dey.

I woke up from my reverie by the shrill ringing tone of my land phone. I took the phone.

“Hello uncle, this is Pratul, I am sorry about today and I want to meet you tomorrow,” he pleaded.

“So it was you?” fumingly I said.

“When I meet I will explain you everything.”

“Ok, come at 10 am, do you have my address.”

“Yes, I got it from that office, see you then.”

Next day with baited breath I waited for him to arrive. He came just on time, I could recognize him instantly then, the stoop was gone, and there was no beard and specs. He was wearing a full sleeve sweater over his blue shirt and a black pant, sneaker. There was no trace of Probal excepting the eyes. He came and touched my feet; I became emotional and hugged him.

“Probal is my close friend; he got stuck at Bangalore so he contacted me in Calcutta that whether I can attend the interview on his behalf. Getting the job at Delhi was very important for him as he is from Delhi and his parents need him. He knew my ability of impersonation, he paid plane fare and here I am. Your choice is right because all the records are his and I became him for those fifteen minutes of interview,” he explained while sitting down.

“But this is not ethical. You have put me in a spot,” I argued.

“Look uncle this is nothing compared to incompetent people getting selected through the back door. Please tell me in India which selection is fair. You are in Delhi you know how business is done here. I understand in many governments companies the employees after giving attendance go out and manage some other business. You once mentioned that at Farakka Barrage most of the employees are the owners of the shops at the Farakka Barrage market,” he argued with me.

“Are you still a clerk or moved to some drama company.”

“No, now I am running a consultancy firm. I have specialized in attending interviews. Many of those Bengali boys though they are brilliant but are not fluent in English because of the skewed education system, they come to me. I train them for interviews for those IT companies coming up in Salt lake area.”

“How the hell in a short time you can brush their spoken English,” I asked.

He hesitated to answer this question of mine. On my prodding he replied “I have trained some boys who have studied in English medium, these boys are smart but not good in studies but can sail through those interviews. They attend the interviews on their behalf. Let me warn you that if you give them any software work then they will flunk. Luckily mostly call center jobs are coming. These young boys trained by me are very good. I am proud of them.”

“Where else do you use your acting capabilities,” I asked gleefully.

“I act as father of other’s kids and attend interviews in the English medium schools where they interview the parents also. You know many people have made tons of money in business but can’t speak English, like your previous land lord Malakar the jeweler. These are the people who are mad for admitting their kids in English medium schools and as a result of this, English medium schools are coming up like anything, so through this route I get good business. There are many such avenues where I use my acting talent which you may not like to know,” was his considered reply.

“I remember you told me that the dress you wear influences you to act as per that. Then your wardrobe must be full of various types of dresses.”

“No that is easy, I borrow these from a friend who runs a dry cleaning shop in our area,” he replied with a wink.

This was preposterous.

“I have some more future plans, looking at the need of the modern society. I am shortly opening a branch at Salt Lake City for providing grandparents for the nucleolus families. There are so many young parents with one kid but they are not keeping their own parents with them as they are not hep like them, they are from the suburbs. I will provide them with smart set of parents whom they can introduce proudly in the upwardly mobile society. These smart old people have good stock of bed time stories, the dadis can sing lullabies. They can do babysitting for the kids of these new generation couples. The charges will be hourly basis; the client has to provide transport, food etc for that period. Uncle if you are free then I can put your name also in the panel,” he said teasingly.

I was not interested to know more about his nefarious activities but I could understand that the consumerism has thrown open fresh opportunities for him where he is hard selling his talent. Let us say that you have to attend some silly statutory office personally then probably a guy like Pratul will be handy. He can be you to face those dull moments and you can save your precious time and do something more useful. In this fast moving world many a time one is faced with this dilemma of attending too many things at the same time. Then almost all of us must have thought at some time or other that we wish we could be like Lord Krishna to be present at all the places at the same time. Saddam had been practicing this openly and hoodwinking the whole world. I understand most of the dictators were using double. Pratul left his business card with me in case if his talent is required by someone.

The name of his company is Personality Provider, located in South Calcutta. He can be reached through me.