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Thursday, January 7, 2010
Chapter after Death
It was a sad expression, an expression he has worn on his face for the first time. Paki had grieved the most; he has been the one emulating him for most of his life. I had reached the funeral services five minutes ago, and was pleased to see so many familiar faces on the last journey of this man, we had known for all these years. We all have been guessing all these years, when it will happen, as the sign of the inevitable were in plenty. He knew his destiny or I shall say he has screwed his destiny all along. I was imagining it to be a big crowd, but rain has made it a small procession. Old blokes too has reservation, he should have meet the fire, rather than rest with others. Even in his death, he did not miss the chance to mock life; something he had contemplated all these years. His will has clearly stated his last wish; he wanted to be cremated like a Catholic, not like a Hindu which he had been from birth. He wanted to be cremated like a Pharo, I should say. His pit now was having his smoke pipe, his guitar and his favorite pairs of sneakers. He had planned for his other half of journey in advance. I had never made my mind to adore this person or hate him. He had been eccentric sometimes, philosophical on rest of the occasion and unpredictable most of the times. I was today attending the last rites of a man, whom we had known all these years by the name of Dhroh “the rebel”. He was not in the league of Che or created a cult like Kurt, but he had really touched us all in some way or the other.
I wanted to leave early, but Chika has hold my hand tight. He was standing in the last row and was the one of the few to know this man from his early days. He looked towards the big Deodar tree and I saw few faces from past. I had been given the hint; I cannot leave the town today. He has to be discussed and summarized for once and all. He does not have the right to haunt us, he has to disappear today with answers to all mysterious he has created in these years.
We were sitting in Rony’s bar or I shall say the “Haze”. Rony was the elder brother of Dhroh and had bought this bar 6 months back. He was the only person to knew him from birth. Rony was 7 year elder to him and I consider him to be real force all these years in helping Dhroh leave his live the way he wanted. Rony and Dhroh were born to an American father and an Indian mother, they grew up in Pensulvania. Their mother and father were renowned surgeons. Fate has tested the brothers too early in their life. They lost both of thy parents in a road accident and were forced to come to India to live with their maternal grandparents very next and closed relatives. If I remember correctly Dhorh was 15 when I fisrt met him in school and his brother starts taking care of his grandpa’s timber business. By the way Dhorh was a name given to him by us, his parents has named him Mukesh and by love they use to call him Mickey. Mukesh Andrew Patton was a strange name for an American; his brother was Rakesh Andrew Patton, another strange name by thy parents.
Let me come back to Rony. Rony was fellow in two contrast color, black or white. Dhroh has once told me, back in states his brother was very lively and free will, but he has never recovered after thy parent’s death. He seems to all of us a sensitive person with all the qualities to make a businessman. He used to help us financially all those years of growing up, not for the reason he had money but for the reason he can always take interest out of our services to him. He was one of the first people to understand Dhroh and was the person who had helped his brother lives his destiny.
We were sitting in Haze and had observed few differences to the last time we had seen this place. Few of the posters have been replaced by one of Dhroh and the music had been the mix of Dhorh’s like with sporadic feeds of his poem recital. I thought this to be a brother’s tribute but even I knew Dhorh was too good to be soul brother of all of us.
We were band of seven who had been part of his short life. Two people were missing, one I suppose was his love of life Kira and the other was Abdul. I had been informed Abdul will be late for the rendezvous. For me it will always be Abdul, one of the main reasons for losing Dhorh at such a fine age. The seven of us were like seven stages of life from Shakespeare’s poem. Other than me there was Paki, I had already introduced him briefly to be the chief mourner. Paki was my first cousin and it was due to me he had got close to Dhorh, I had left him a few years back but my young cousin has the audacity to follow him and choosing him over me, when one day it comes to decision. The third person of this group was Bounty. Bounty was a Bushranger, in the spirit of Ned Kelly. He being there was the greatest proof of Dhroh’s ever infectious personality. I heard they meet up somewhere in Nepal and last time they parted off finally was after two years in some place in Burma. Paki, Ned, me and Chika were sitting across the big room. I forgot to talk about Chika. He was my best friend from the very day I have understood the meaning of friendship. Chika has the gift of being friend and enemy with anyone with ease. I think I will talk about him and Dhroh in chronological order, but for now, It is enough to know, Dhorh has acknowledged him to be part of his soul.
Sonam was also in this room, but he was more comfortable in talking with Rony and were standing away from us. All that I knew about this Tibetian fellow was that once he was a hunter and then with Dhorh he had gone on the Karma spin. But lately I have heard him for being into drugs and all such stuff. Hard to believe, but this too can be true.
Two people were left to join the bunch of chosen ones. I think if Dhroh was ever hurted in his life this people were the one, who would be it. Ahmed was our one year senior to us in school. Our association with him has been a strange one. He was the best guitar player or any kind of musician in our college, till he was displayed by Dhroh, into oblivion. His relation with Dhorh was of hate and jealousy, but Dhroh has his own way of rating people. About Kira,I can only tell you that, she was born to love someone to ruin him. Somewhere even I feel pity for her, but somewhere I feel did her best for him. It is hard for me to relate the life of Dhroh without her involvement.
Coming back to the topic of contention, why we were invited to this place. It was Dhroh’s wish; he knew he can get us under one roof, only when he won’t be around. He was there, I saw Abdul standing next to a tall beautiful gal, wait I know this gal. She was Kira? But what she was doing with Ahmed. Chika pinched me and asked me not to stare like this. They joined us on the table and once all were settled, Rony and Sonam too joined in.
Rony took out 7 envelopes out of his pocked and placed them on table. Everyone was looking with apprehension, for what will be in these envelopes? Rony has few words to speak here, I thought. He told us “I know you all here today, coz you have loved this man like me. He was my brother and my only kin. You all were part of his planned journey. I had few things to share across with you guys, he had left behind. He made these 7 envelopes for you guys. I do not know the content of this envelope, but he assured me, it will solve the mystery of his journey, make sure to open them in chronological order. Take them with you and come back to this place tomorrow. I still remember the words he once said as this very place when Sam left us; you never come back to life from death, as things there are better. He will not come back, but something will live among us. Other thing which you all wanted to know, about his last few days, I will tell you guys for sure, but as requested by him, It cannot happen till tomorrow. He had a planned death, so we need to give this respect. I am highly obliged to see you all and will arrange for stay of all out of towners”. He was a man of few words; best way of answering him was by nodding and picking your envelope and leaves his inn. Ahmed and Kira were the first to rush out. The four of us had planned to hang out at Chika’s place and talk till wee. Sonam, I think had his own place and would be leaving on his own. Rony has some kind of relief on his face.
Chapter II (The number one)
We reached Chika’s hut, it was a modest place for a practicing Physician. The way he changed over all these years, has left me astonished. He has always been a man of Zero or One. There has been no other value in between. I think he was a big zero in school days and today he is a one, thanks to Dhroh’s influence. He just moved into the city, after working religiously in Tribal areas and even know he is working out of his stipulated time to nurse the under privileged. Way to go doc, you had made the difference to this world.
I bought two bottles of old monk to commiserate the loss of one young monk. No reason to drink rum, was the best reason to get drunk, I was made to think about it and I was still thinking. We were all there and somewhere restless to see what was inside our envelopes. Bounty made us all few Indian style pegs and we cheered for the memory of the first monk. We all opened our envelope to find one more envelope inside. On mine, it was written number one and similar numbers were on others envelope. Paki was infuriated for some strange reason, I got it, he thought it was our rating of friendship with him. I asked what his number is and he told 5. Chika replied his was 6 and Kelly had 4 on it. I found no relation to all this. It was by no means a rating; he has obtained a higher level of wisdom at young age. I told them “Rony has asked to keep things in chronology and we need to open our envelope in order and solve this mystery. I was number 1 and we have to find the other number and the content of those envelopes to make a link.
Paki was a restless young boy, just out of his teen; he took no time to open my envelope. He was dumb stuck. The paper in my envelope has something like this written on it
X2 – 4X + 4 = 0 …………………………………..in progress
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