And finally I want to write about an incident that happened last week.
Having seen my Sis off at Deblane Bus Stop, I was on my way back to our ancestral home. As I entered the galli, I found a big, black bike blocking the entrance to my house. Whoever parked it there, lacked common sense. Otherwise, he wouldn't have left it in such a way so that people coming out of the house or stepping in, would have any problem.
“Arey bhai, ekhane bike ta ke rekheche? Barir samne erakom bhabe keu bike rakhe? Ektu common sense nei?” (Who has parked the bike like this near our house? Doesn't he have any common sense or what?) I shouted out.
I noticed a man sitting on a bike in front of his house at the dead end of the galli then. Having put the helmet on, he was trying to tell me something pointing to the huge mansion that has come up in the last four or five years opposite our house. He was possibly hinting at the offender being someone from that house.
I moved towards the mansion and shouted the same questions from the entrance way. The darwan came out then. Now, a few months back I had to shout at him too when he picked up the bike of my nephew, who had come to meet me. The bike was kept against the iron railings of the garden on the left of our house. The darwan picked it up ( I don't know how because the bike was quite heavy!) and left it in the passage between the two gardens, leading to our house. The darwan didn't even bother to inform us!
Naturally, I asked him to pick up the bike blocking the entrance to our house now but he flatly refused.
“Ami janina eta kar bike….!” I don't even know who this bike belongs to….!
Having realised that he wouldn't be of much help, I kept shouting like : Some people have no sense. Is this the way to leave your bike near someone's house? And so on.
Soon, a young chap with his mobile in hand emerged from somewhere inside the house. Someone told me that the bike belonged to him!
“Arey bhai, biketa orakom bhabe keu rakhe? (This is not the way to park your bike, Bro.) I was still upset.
“Sorry, Uncle.” He replied a bit roughly.
“Ba, sorry bollen ar sab thik hoye gelo?” ( “You can't right a wrong by saying sorry!” I tried to tell him.
And the next moment, there came over a great change in the youngster.
“Sorry bola na? Bola na? Apko respect diya. Aab maroge kya?” (I said I was sorry. I showed you respect as an elder. Now, you wanna fight me or what?”)
He was shrieking at the top of his lungs and came charging at me. He was stopped by the darwan who kept nodding at me asking me not to mind.
The last thing I said, if my memory serves me right, was that he had parked the bike insensibly and that saying ‘sorry’ didn't serve any purpose. What was even more outrageous was that though he was clearly at fault, he was the one threatening me!
I felt extremely humiliated at that time. Later, when I was narrating this incident to my niece ( my late first cousin's daughter), she remarked that in my place, she would have asked the darwan to remove the bike blocking the entrance to our house. I have already told you that I did the same but the darwan was no help.
There was another solution to the matter. I could have reported the matter to the owner of the building, the promoter, one Rustam, a very decent man, but I didn't want to.
I knew that I had done nothing wrong other than shouting. But lately some people seem to be parking their bikes near the entrance of our house almost deliberately. I am not a thug and therefore, I cannot fight anyone raising his voice on me for no fault of mine. Besides, I value my self-respect more than anything.
In a country like ours, you can't always take things in your hands. My only solace is that there is Someone Up There, and no one can make a fool of Him.