PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

None to Please

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You know me don't you ? Then why are you walking away as though you don't know me ? Ajit Babu was a middle-aged man who had forcibly befriended me six months back when I was on my way to Puri with my family. Ajit Babu looked to be a very silent sort of a co-passenger in that overnight train.I was wrong ... He introduced himself to me and asked me where was I going.. I felt quite irritated at his query since the ticket checker had already visited our seats and had read aloud his scrutiny of our tickets with Ajit Babu ogling. But this is how people are. Can't really blame them.

At the very first stoppage at about 9:30 p.m. Ajit Babu bought tea for himself from a vendor on the small platform. No.. he didn't order one cup.. three extra cups at 9 in the night. Definitely not tea time.. !!! But I couldn't refuse since the tea was already paid for. My wife gave me a burning glare but I was so so helpless. My own dinner was packed in casseroles which we wished to have after some time. Ajit Babu didn't have any food with him.Out of courtsey I asked him if he would like to share our dinner. He agreed readily.There was enough food for all of us. After dinner he narrated his "life story" of how he was brought up in a poor home and how he succeeded to make it to a LDC(Lower Division Clerk) job at a Govt. Office. He was wearing a dhoti and a white half- shirt quite unusual for a fortyish man in 2014-15.

He went on gurgling like a leaked faucet till I couldn't hear him any longer. But how could I ask him to shut up !! After quite some time I told him gracefully that I was feeling sleepy .. He took the cue and from his travel bag he took out some fragrant "Banarasi paan" for all of us to chew before bed.This time also I didn't have the heart to refuse.He was so ardent and eager to make us chew the "paan". Ajit Babu looked quite comic talking and chewing "pan" simultaneously.

Morning saw us at Puri and we said hurried goodbyes and parted ways.So this was him !!! "Come to my humble hut Bishu Babu... " Again I couldn't resist the eagerness in his voice. So I had to follow him. He beckoned a taxi-cab and after about ten minutes I was at Ajit Babu's home. I was surprised to see that Ajit Babu ran an Old Age Home for twenty old people free of cost. All the inmates came with smiling faces to greet me. In a few minutes I was served piping hot "singaras" and steaming sweet tea in an earthen cup with the oldies looking on happily. Ajit Babu said he had lost his own parents early and he couldn't do anything for them. This was perhaps a way to make their souls happy. Ajit Babu is a very very busy man in Kolkata.