The Way Of Life

The old man was at his usual place near the entry of the temple. It was Dwadashi (12^th day of every fortnight) – the day we cook ‘agatthi keerai’ (Sesbania Grandiflora) in our houses, a kind of spinach, uncommon, said to be endowed with medicinal properties.

He hailed from the far-away historic city of Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh. Nudging eighties.

The day prior he had set out at midnight by a local train to a distant suburb where it was grown. Bought them, carried back and was ready at his station by early morning! His ‘shop’ was nothing more than a piece of white cloth laid out on the ground by the side of the street, with keerai bunches placed neatly in rows. Belonging to the mercantile community of baniya’s, he sold them at the best prices he could get!

On those days, as I left my footwear at the shoe-stand and he was not serving a customer, we greeted and engaged in some small talk. Brief and mostly inane, sometimes it included – no surprise for men of ripe age – info on health products, life’s wisdom, etc.  On one occasion, talking about painful knees, he strongly recommended an herbal oil ordered from Chennai – it had given him good relief. Another time, it was smarting teeth and bleeding gums. He was proud to tell me his tooth-brush cost Rs 200!! Wow!! To gently tend to the 3 or 4 tottering wards still left standing!

This Dwadashi, he had happily sold all his stock. Both of us were going homewards from the temple.

At a junction near my place, we paused to conclude an ongoing conversation before parting of the ways. That’s when he suddenly put his hand over my shirt near the shoulder blade. It was a hollowed hand, not a push or a punch.

All the same, an unexpected move. Our mutual familiarity did not extend to physical contact of this kind.

As I stood gathering my wits, he quickly took a few steps to one of those potted plants lining the street as part of a ‘green’ initiative rolled out by the local ward office. His palm gently opened on to a large leaf of the plant. Crawling out and disappearing swiftly and safely out of sight was a green caterpillar, unharmed!

So that was it! It had dropped onto my shirt from an overhead tree branch as we were standing and talking. A normal almost involuntary response would be to flick it off to ground where it could possibly be trampled upon by an unseeing or uncaring pedestrian. Now it would live to soon add a little color to a drab day!

With that he returned to resume the conversation – completely oblivious to the new found awe and respect in his company!!

End

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