A fortuitous juxtaposition

Chandrapur is a city which lies about 150 kms south of Nagpur. Historically speaking it is a fort city founded by Khandkya Ballal Shah, a Gond king of the 13^th century. Today it is a throbbing industrial centre in Vidarbha having coal and limestone deposits in its proximity. Due to the availability of these minerals, related industry such as cement plants, paper mill, alloy factory and thermal power project have sprouted all around it. In turn this has triggered its development and prosperity. The other day I happened to visit this city with my friend after a long time. This visit rekindled memories of my sojourn here in a distant past.

I was on a tour when I had to stay overnight in Chandrapur to expedite the work at hand. I was staying at a hotel and in the evening stepped out to enter into a nearby bar and restaurant. As I was sitting alone nursing my first drink of the evening, another lad entered and occupied the empty table diagonally opposite to where I was sitting. After he had ordered his drinks I watched the fellow frantically gesticulating to catch the attention of the overworked waiter in the understaffed restaurant to get the wall mounted revolving fan switched on. After observing this exercise in futility for about five minutes I recited an Urdu couplet for his benefit…

“ Gar tere bajuon me dum hai

To tu is pankhe ko hila ke dikha!

Gar nahi, to mere saath baith, do ghoont pee

Aur pankhe ko hilta hua dekh!”

Loosely translated it is – If you possess enough strength in your arms, just show it to me by making this fan move! If not, then come sit with me, have two sips of my spirit and watch the fan move all by itself!

I was successful in catching his attention and he obliged by joining me at my table! The moment of inspired improvisation when I replaced the word masjid (mosque) with pankha (fan) in an otherwise well known couplet, garnered me a companion for the evening which until then had appeared to be a dull one! The fellow went on to narrate a brief biography of his existence on the planet from his birth through childhood, courtship, marriage and the delivery of a son just about an hour ago! He had come in to celebrate his newly acquired status of fatherhood he told me beaming proudly! I congratulated him and we sat there ignoring the still and unmoving fan causing a stifling atmosphere and reveled in our transient intimacy. Our lives crossed paths due to some quirk of destiny on that late evening in Chandrapur of a distant past, never to meet again. The district has been now declared as dry. Hence the possibility of such encounters has reduced dramatically. So in memory of that stranger and co traveler in the journey of life – Cheers!!