AMI TOMAY KHUJE PEYECHHI

PART—1 That day while I was returning after my Baleno Car service's having been finished in the early afternoon, standing in front of a tea-stall in a lonely place beside the road-side, ordered a cup of tea and said ,"Make tea, I'm just coming." And saying this, I started advancing to a near-by dust throwing place in order to make myself light. No sooner was I going to get relief from down- pressure than suddenly my ears caught a sound made by human being, like this,' Aa-aa-ta-ta-ma, pro-kash (Aatmaprokash-a Bengali word, meaning self expression)' making the pronunciation of 'Kash' forcefully(Aatmaprokash- It is a Bengali word which was written on a Daily,now nearly soiled & thrown many days ago as dust into a dust-bin). He was trying to read something written on a news paper half-wet & dusty. Getting astonished, I asked, "Who's here?" But no answer of my question came. By making a little peeping, I saw that there was a teenager boy having a thin, blackish appearance about 10-12 year old. Seeing me, he wrapped up himself a little. "What are you doing here?", asked I. "I'm picking up worn and broken down articles.",replied he. His eyes were very attractive & beautiful. I asked,"Are you hungry? Do you eat something ?" After a minute of silence he suddenly said, "Would you lend me hundred rupees,please?" I'm quite confused with astonishment— what he saying! What answer I shall give! However, consolidating myself a little, I asked, "Lend? But how will you repay?" He bowed his head a little while. Without going forward any more, I took him to the tea-stall by curiosity. Inspite of requesting repeatedly, he ate nothing. Seeing no other way, taking a cup of tea & smoking a cigarette, I wanted to become familiar with him. I came to know that he had studied upto class-V , he liked to read, he and his mother lived in a plastic-made hut nearby on the road side and he didn't even know where his father had gone. And his mother worked in a house. Thereafter he again suddenly told in the middle of our talk, " Sir! Would you lend me hundred rupees, please?" Hearing it again, I not only became surprised, but also started thinking—What the matter was! Then I, consolidating myself, told, " What will you do with money?" He replied— I'll sell peanuts in the teren (he pronounced 'teren' as train because of his being without signature). He said more that he would return the money in seven days. It seemed to me that though poor, he was very honest. Giving a note of rs 500 to him, I told, "Take it and you shouldn't give it back." " No, then wouldn't take." , said he. I again got surprised ! I told, "Ok, that's right enough. But hear ! You are in dirty shirt-pants. Nobody will come to buy peanuts from you if you are in such a dress. Yonder there is a small outlet of dresses for kids, let's go there." He agreed, going to that shop, I bought him a shirt and a pice of half-pants for rs 350 and gave the rest amount to his hand, by saying this, that buying a soap, he should go home now, and bathing well with it & wearing new shirt-pants, he should start working from the next day morning. "Not from tomorrow but from today"—answered he and said more that on the day just in ten days from this one, he should come here at this very time so that he should pay me back my money. I just gave a smile. But he left no stone unturned. "Say? Must you come!" At last I had to make a false promise before him. More talks I made to him. He let me know he had eaten hotch-potch in their school (a food offering school) before a little while."Ok! Why don't you want to take money without cause?"- asked I. He said, "Oneday feeling much hungry, I stood in front of a tea-stall. Seeing me, giving me rs.5, a guy told me to eat something. And going home, when I had told it to mother, being angry, my mother, taking a burning stick from the clay stove, had beaten me on the back so hard and said, ' Do you know it is called begging? He who begs can never stand on his own feet'."Do you understand what the meaning of 'standing on your own feet' is?" His simple brightening eyes looked towards my face for a while , thereafter said, "yea! Earning money, doing some work." While I was minutely hearing him, it reminded me of an incident happening to me. In my childhood once I had pushed the pot of plain rice by hand, saying, "Don't have." Mother had a cooking spud in hand, which she threw to me in such a way that the inside of my mouth was cut bleeding. I had never become angry to eat after that. However, having finished our talks, we each started moving to our self places. Time always goes forward and accordingly our daily work makes us secretly forget the happening past and obviously I didn't become exceptional. A few months later after that incident happening, I , eventually met with that owner of the tea-stall , who reminded me of the boy and told the following story— Going home, at first telling everything to his mother , thereafter taking a quick clean bath with that soap under a road-side tube-well while his mother helped him do it & wearing new cloths, he went to a near-by big grocery store in order to buy a few packets of peeled peanuts and some small plastic packets. Coming home, he with his mother started packaging of peanuts for rs.5 worth with the help of kerosene lit lamp. After some packets made completely, they noticed there had fallen a black spot at the joining line of each packet; seeing those, buyers might refuse to buy. As soon as they thought it, they changed the light-source and finally, they were able to make spotless packets. Next day early morning, though it was their usual time to wake up, his mother called , " Bapi, Bapi! the morning light has touched you, you should wake up to go ." Saying this , she pushed him by hand. But she noticed her son was uttering something, somewhat difficult to understand, like this — I..I..'m ve..ry po..o..or , 'm..'m unable to pay (originally sounds in Bengali)— actaully, Bapi was dreaming a sweet dream then. He saw himself standing before a very big restaurant, being hungry. Then a gentle man coming out from a big luxurious car, came to him & took him inside and ordered various kinds of delicious food for him. Bapi got so much astonished and overwhelmed, looking around at everything present there that it sounded incomprehensible when he was trying saying something. Now, waking up, "What happened ?— he asked. No sooner had he come into reality than he jumped out and preparing himself thoroughly, he went out of home to reach the nearby rail station for making his own business and this was the starting day when he sold all his packets. He reached home at late night, having bought some more big packets of better quality-peanuts which had to be packed for the next day selling. But that sweet dream frequently took him into the unparalleled world or heaven, becoming exposed over the canvas of his mind throughout the bussy schedule of his first day work, which in other word became the booster for him for the next eight days. In the mean time he collected that rs.500 note given to the shop keeper, maintaining the condition given by him (shop-keeper)to give surprise to you (in his words -to my sir). At the schedule day, his heart was too full for words. He started awaiting you at my tea-stall, but after hours of waiting, when you didn't come , he got so shocked that he started panting by saying this, that how much hardships he had to tolerate throughout these ten days was impossible for him to express before anyone else. At that late afternoon my shop generally becoming almost empty, the boy told me the whole story of last ten days which he had gone through, from this train to that one, from dawn to almost mid night in this expectation that he would get blessed by you. I, the owner of the shop again & again offered him to have something, at least to have a cup of tea, but he refused to. And at last, he went away wiping out tears sliding down through his cheeks; even the eyes of mine became blurred, having heard the story depicted by the little boy. The end of part-1