the gift

11:17am It was a usual Sunday morning; he had not yet started the drudgery of the routine life when Arjun heard his wife grumbling in the kitchen. Not unusual for the woman to let out her steam this way he thought and walked out towards the courtyard. In a moment he understood the reason for his wife’s troubled grumblings. At the gates, walking purposefully towards his house was his father, Ramlal who lived by himself in the village and tilled the ancestral land for a living. The sudden unannounced arrival of Ramlal was a reason for worry even to him, financially in dire straits as he himself was. He wondered why on earth “pitaji” as he would address Ramlal would want to come in like this. The wife was grumbling aloud and wondering if Pitaji had come for some sort of financial assistance. He looked the other way, pretended not to hear his wife and went ahead to welcome Pitaji. As he was freshening up, he couldn’t help but wonder to himself “what could have brought Pitaji to the city like this? This month I am unusually tight as far as my finances go. The eldest son needs new shoes, yet I cannot spare the money to buy them and he goes to school each morning ashamed of his torn shoes. There is not enough money to even buy the complete dose of medication for my wife who has been ailing since long. And if at this stage Pitaji were to ask me for money or financial assistance, what would I reply to him. Of all the times Pitaji had to choose this once to come here” With these thoughts running in his mind he went ahead and served the frugal roti and achar breakfast to Ramlal and quickly moved away avoiding direct eye contact, lest the look in Pitaji’s eyes give him a hint of what was to come. There was an eerie pregnant silence in the entire household. After having partaken of the frugal breakfast, Pitaji signaled for him to come and sit next to him. Shifting, uncomfortable and nervous as a cat he walked upto Pitaji and sat next to him, still avoiding a direct eye contact. Pitaji got up from the kitchen stool and perched himself comfortably on the rocking chair next to the mantle. Completely at ease with the situation, probably unmindful of the turmoil going on inside him. After a while, Pitaji called out to him and said “listen arjun..” and he looked up as a cornered rat looks up pitifully at the cat who is about to pounce on it. Pitaji continued “ beta, you know it is difficult for me to take out time like this to come and visit you. Tilling the ancestral land keeps me busy day in and day out. However, I do not plan to spend the night here, I shall leave by the night train. But the purpose of my visit was…..” and Pitaji paused a while. His ears were craned to hear the next sentence, what finally would be the purpose of Pitaji’s untimely visit to the city. “ beta its been two months since you have not written to me. You go into a shell like this only when you are worried. I know you are.” Pitaji took out a bundle of 1000 rupee notes from the pocket of his Kurta and placed it in Arjun’s hands and continued “ keep this, you may need them. We had a bumper paddy crop this year and the potato crop also promises to be good. I have no financial troubles as of now. You look weak and tired. Eat well and get good rest. Also look after Sita and your liitle one.” Before he could show mock refusal, Pitaji scolded him lovingly “ beta take it, Bahut bade ho gaye ho kya. Rakh lo’ He could only mutter ‘ nahi to” and took the bundle that Pitaji had so lovingly placed in his hands. And his mind went into a flashback when Pitaji would place a One rupee coin in his hands everyday to send him off to school. With this Pitaji blessed him and left and he was left staring into nothingness long after Ramlal disappeared into the horizon. and he was left holding what Ramlal gave him. Memories