That old man always sat in the middle of the restaurant so that he could watch news on the television. Whenever I had been to the restaurant I found him sitting at the same place. The peculiar thing about him was that it seemed as if he knew all of the customers, I remember that I had seen him shaking hands and giving advises more that eating. His eyes were fixed on the television while he talked to the person sitting next. Definitely those people must have enjoyed his company that’s why they gathered to hear him.
Usually I avoided sitting near the Old man as he seemed to me a hypocrite. I thought that the people enjoying his oration also knew it and afterwards they might be making fun of him.
Once I was sitting behind the Old man when waiter whispered to him, ”Baba I have five daughters, tell me some Nuskhaa(Formula) so that I could get a boy this time!” I tried to control my laughter not as a gesture of respect but to save myself from choking with the Kebab in my mouth. The Old man had got the hint, after a brief pause he said,” O sabr kar kakke!(Have patience young man.)” And he too gave a mischievous smile to the waiter.
After this incident I became more inquisitive about the Old man though I avoided sitting next to him but I used to sit near his table to listen to his amusing talks, I had heard him giving instructions to drivers and telling his style of driving, then I heard him talking to a goat herder with ease, then I heard him talking to a junk dealer explaining the ways to get a good bargain, etc.
My visits to the restaurant were time bound and he was always there. I was not sure whether he used to sit there all the time and how could the manager allowed him.
I went out of town for a long holiday and when I was back there were two Old men in the restaurant having a merry time. I noticed that now our Old man didn’t talk to others, he just shook hands and greeted them. Surprisingly I didn’t find him in the restaurant a couple of times. The company of the New Old man was keeping him busy. I grew curious, it was a very unpleasant curiosity… I was not sure why I wanted to know about the Old man, might be my leanings towards History! I thought. Anyways…
One night after having dinner I was strolling outside the restaurant and I saw the New Old man using the tooth pick, his eyes fixed on the sky, his whole body was stable and one hand was doing the deed in a state of meditation. I moved ahead but the New Old man came to me, this was the first time I had seen his so close. He used to wear a Bush Shirt and a linen Pyjamas, He was clean shaven and his eyes were enormously big. He looked like any random grand uncle from the neighbourhood. He said jestingly, “You are the one I had seen Often smiling or laughing in the restaurant.”
I said, ”Don’t mind, But yes.” And I couldn’t control laughing.
He gave a pat on my back and too burst into a peal of laughter.
What his man told me a was something so incredible that I gaped with wonder and asked him,”Really really?”
He had told me the Old man in the restaurant was a beggar some 10-15 years ago and that New Old man was too a pavement dweller selling rings, beads, threads etc.
Then he related a funny incident after which our Old man had to leave his roadside camp near a Sufi shrine, it happened on a rainy evening, he was sleeping since morning in the tent and his wife told him there was nothing for supper, all that he had brought yesterday was finished. The Old man stretched and said, ”Why do you worry darling? Look here, I will go out and bring you something, it’s late in the evening and your maids must be cooking delicacies in their houses. Here I go…”As soon as he came out someone grabbed him from the collar and hollered,”Achchha! Haramzaade… tere baap ke nauker hain hum.(You scoundrel! are we your slaves)… That was his last presence at the pavement. He spent a few days in the municipality hospital before leaving the city.
And they had met now after 10-15 years.
My curiosity instead of satisfying it increased.
Now I too enjoy the company of the both Old men in the restaurant and we giggle whenever he prescribes a Nuskha for some simpleton.
I hope I am not hurting his holy image among the folks.
