(Recap– In the last part of the story, I mentioned about a Coffee cafe of my old time city and about a peculiar habit of Bind bro. Under some insistence, he used to appear regularly at the main gate of my Evening law college to pick a girl student.)
Since both the girl student and Bind bro had somewhat bizarre persona in appearance , hence his this picking the girl student of law college never offended those hooligan type youth, who ever remained hovering around there. These hooligans were in habit to get envied, if found some attractive girl walking around with some unwanted man (in the opinion of these youth.) Here both were unique in appearance to them and never they felt envied rather they pitied them. This factor granted the girl and Bind bro an impunity.
But one thing was obvious. Bind bro always walked with girl with an insistence to provide her a protection. This feeling of protection ever drawn him daily to visit the main gate of the college to pick the girl. The factual reality was revealed to me after a long lapse of time. I came to know that this girl student resided at the ground floor of the same old small tenement, in which Bind bro dwelt in the upper story with his parents and siblings. Simple, they were old time intimate neighbors and a cordial bond existed between both the families.
It’s an aspect of human psychology; If you happened to grow up together with a girl of neighborhood, with the passing of time, a kind of tender feeling in the name of “love” uses to get germinated in the heart. Here, the same psychology worked upon about Bind bro. Though he was much elder than the girl in age. This reality I got authenticated years after when I became the friend of Bind bro ceremoniously and our relations reached to the level of intimacy. In this case, Bind bro was fallen in her love and the girl too were acquainted with his feelings.
Might be, she too was fallen in his love. But there were some hurdles. Bind bro happened to work as a free lance photographer in the local daily newspaper of my small city. Apart from, as a still photographer he used to cover some private functions like marriage party, birth day celebrations or Mundan ceremony ( in vernacular, first time initial head tonsuring of kids of Hindus.) This helped him earn some extra money. Along with, in neighboring famous photo studio he also rendered services as a technician in the photo developing lab. These were his sources of income and he seemed contended with that.
I happened to get introduced with Bind bro under some amusing circumstances. I already have mentioned about the Coffee cafe of the city. How I was introduced to him had some story. It goes as such. Every city always bear some unique literary feature of its own kind. Meant in every city one can notice the group of people with literary aptitude in all certainties. The period of time, I am talking about, that was an old time. There, the transmission of Black and White TV program just had been introduced a few years ago only. The relay of TV transmission too was restricted to the evening time for some hours only. Only one National Channel in the name of Delhi dur darshan (DD Channel) was in existence.
At that time, the presence of a TV antennae on a house top was enough to produce an impression about the affluent status of the family. In real sense, the main source of communication about news were either National News papers or local News papers. As I told about unique literary features of every city; similar to that, my this Himalayan foot hill city too owned the same features. And this literary feature was some what rich in heritage. There happened to dwell some distinguished persons who had pride to get their articles, stories, poetry and reporting published in some esteemed daily Hindi Newspapers or weekly or fortnightly magazines.
These people enjoyed a renowned status at that time. Some other were special correspondent affiliated to these kinds of News Papers. Of course, paltry some too were affiliated to English News papers. But they had their own distinct category and they never used to mix up with Hindi language people. Like wise some were affiliated with local Newspapers as journalist. Bind bro too was one of these as a free lance photographer. These journalists had some special qualities. They could be placed in the category of “jack of all trades.” They ably could apply their hands in all aspects of the press related jobs. I meant, from the composition of the writing material as well as to the operation of old time printing press etc, when required by the circumstances.
Bind bro indubitably was an expert photographer. As every one knows, to become an efficient photographer, one needed to judge minutely about the angle of pose, shed of light and distance positioning. Bind bro had a keen sight and expertise when taking a snap shot of some event. Besides, he was fond of reading books on different subjects. In a nut shell, he was packed with all qualities. If he was given a proper breakthrough, he could be catapulted to some “shinning position.” But to get catapulted, the tactics of “wheel and deal ” or maneuvering is needed. Bind bro lacked that rogue element in his person. In fact, he was born to live a simple life without cupidity or mischievousness. ( End of Part 4th. Cont’d. ) Penned by– Vinay Pharasi —–
