He lived...

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about this man is 'Rasgulla'.(For all those who might not know what that means it is an Indian sweet ). And then I remember the rickshaw,dirty lungi(a piece of clothing like a wrap around) and bheedhi(cigarrete).Today when I think about this man , all I have for him are my smiles , tears ,hugs and tons and tons of love.

I write this because I feel he deserves someone to recognize that he lived;no matter how he lived ...but he lived his life...and lived it well ...on his own terms.

When I was younger and I would go and stay in my grandparents house in Patna , where all my cousins from all across the globe would gather to spend our winter vacations in our own ways. Some of us would play cricket, some would watch tv ,movies , some would simply eat and eat and some like my wonderful nani -who would just happily watch everyone .Among all these activities , there was one man who was there in all the activities in some way or the other. No one knows what his parents named him .He was this orphan , abondoned by his parents for reasons none of us really know. Maybe they died and he was just left there to fend for himself . We all called him Teni bhaiya even though he was about my grandmother's age..
My grandfather found him somewhere and kept him in the house to help in daily chores . When my uncles and aunts grew up and started earning...they all pooled in money and got him a rickshaw.From then on he was officially the 'rickshaw walla'. Some people hated him for his odd ways. He would smoke like a chimney , would even get drunk and behave oddly at times...but one thing this was always there that with him around, we kids always felt so secure. Infact after my grandfather's death he took care of the safety of the house and all the people living in that house.
One brave man that he was...he once beat up a theif too who was about to rob the house! :)
When I was about four years old , he would take me on his rickshaw every day to a nearby sweet shop to buy me two rasgullas of 50paise each.For a man who barely manages to earn 30-50 Rs. a day spending 1 Rs. everyday must not be so easy but I can't remember him ever thinking about it or avoiding the rickshaw ride to the nearby sweet shop.This and things about him make me feel so insignificant when I compare this with my life, a life where I am trying to save money ...oh I much I hate this rat race that I am a part of too.Well that is another story alltogether.

I didn't see too much of Teni bhaiya in the last ten years or so because I never went to that city again.I always heard about him from others. Last week he passed away on account of dysfunctional lungs . He was admitted to a hospital too by an aunt . He ran away from the hospital saying that the one way he would stay there was if someone stayed by his side always. He did not have a family. No one knew who his parents were . I had heard that he once liked a girl but he couldn't work it out. With no children of his own , no family of his own, no one to look after him...all that mattered to him in tough times was my family.Unfortunately all those people who lived in that house are now in different parts of the world and doing well for themselves . In his last few days everyone wanted to help in their own ways.We all wanted , wished that he'd live longer . But alas...it wasn't meant to be . God bless his soul.
Inspite of no family of his own , he did have many people grieving his death . In his last few words he asked my grandmother to take whatever that was there in his pocket. Later they all found 60Rs. in his pocket.Perhaps that was what his savings were and maybe that was his way of paying her back for whatever she and my grandfather did for him.

I Salute his spirit because he LIVED . He touched my life in more than just one way . Good Luck Teni bhaiya for yet another journey.
Lots of Love.