Some days back, as I came out of Gangpur railway station, I saw a man lying on a stony place underneath a big tree that stood just outside the rail tracks. The man had a long overgrown beard that covered almost half of his face and reached down almost his belly. The man wrapped a meagre piece of cloth around his waist. The rest of his body was bare. The stone chips might be stinging him. I thought. But the man seemed to be taking a quiet nap in complete peace.
I waited when he would wake up. I did not have to wait long before the man sat up resting his back against the fat trunk of tree. He drank water kept in an earthen container beside him. After a few moments he came back to his senses after the stupor of sleep.
As he gazed forward, he found me looking at him.
‘Who are you?’ He asked.
‘Just a daily passenger.’ I replied.
‘Where do you go daily?’ He asked.
‘Memari.’ I said.
‘So you are an employee of government or private sector, I suppose.’ He said. I nodded.
‘Why did you gaze fixedly at me?’ He asked.
‘You sleep so peacefully in a bare body on a stony footpath in a very humid weather. It is enough for me to pay an undiluted attention to you.’ I said.
‘You speak in a long organized sentence. So you’re a teacher, I suppose.’ He said. Quite needless to say, I nodded.
‘You people have so many things to bother about. You build homes, buy cars, vacation luxuriously. You need money to service your loans that fetch you these things.’ The man said.
‘Who on earth doesn’t need money?’ I snapped back.
‘Yes, everybody needs money. But nobody knows how much he needs. Everybody chases down “much” without asking, “Why that much?” He said quietly.
I remained silent.
‘So you people wonder how a man can sleep so peacefully under a tree; that is and should be very natural for a man.’ He said. ‘You have something and you want to add another something to make it everything. So you keep on gathering and are in constant bouts of worry. I have nothing. I have no worry. I can sleep whenever wherever I want to.’ He added.
‘The way you lead your life is a great pity. Lying in dust; wearing almost nothing are laughably pitiful.’ I went on a counter attack.
‘On protest I go to the extreme. While you gather, I shed.’ The man got up to collect water from a nearby tap.
Meanwhile my turn came to take my Honda Activa out from the station parking lot just some yards away. As I walked fast to reach my scooter, the man seemed to chuckle a bit and said, ‘Tell yourself “Don’t worry” and settle down with the simple quiet rhythm of life. You people complicate it unnecessarily.’
I paced past him at a hurtling speed. The speed helped me to take me away from him in a twinkling of an eye; but not from his words.
I asked Tilok da (my colleague and biker who I came back home with at Ulhas; he lives three avenues off from mine), who the man was and if he had seen the bearded man earlier.
‘Who are you talking about?’ He asked. His fore-head creased.
‘The man I was talking with outside the parking lot?’ I said with some surprise. Tilok da and I were standing together as we waited patiently for our turn to collect our two wheelers.
Tilok da scanned me with a visible shock. ‘Only you and I were talking about the proper time when we could encash a part of our Provident Fund.’ He said. ‘There was none around, except an old emaciated man who kept on lying under the tree in the distance. But he has been lying there for the last couple of months. Only lying. Are you ok?’ Tilok da asked as he screeched his bike to an abrupt halt and came close up to me with a concern-ridden face.
‘Don’t worry.’ I said. ‘I’m fine after the talk.’ I said vaguely.