Recalling the legendary suspicious man – So many stories in proverbial form of ‘rags to riches,” we happen to hear in our life. But just a live story, opposite, “from riches to rags,” I happened to witness in my life. Some part of the story is prenatal ( that I heard from people,) and rest I witnessed in person, from childhood to grown up age. The part of prenatal story were legendary type, floated in the idyllic countryside air, I brought up with. Whenever, in my solitude, I ponder over about this story of reverse maxim of ” from riches to rags”, the life of main lead character of the story reels before the eyes. He was a big landlord, in possession of massive landed property. The status of a celeb he held because of that, in a large region as “Choudhery Saheb”.
It’s another fact, when I personally got acquainted with him, he was merely a titular holder of that renown, divest of almost everything. The stories pertaining to his vagabond lifestyle, shadowed with not unjustified slander, ever remained topical, whole through his life. I got personally acquainted with him at the time when I was settled in my consultancy profession. The fact was, he was familiar to my father. My father, being a political worker had a local renown and was in the same old age bracket as that of his.
Recalling my rendezvous – I still recall my first ever meeting with him. An old man, attired in simple Indian traditional kurta (shirt) pajama of a cheap quality fabric . On feet gear, same cheap quality shoes and a thick loose, heavy plastic framed optical spectacles rested on his nose. His skull almost bald. By throwing a glance upon him, it was hard to believe about his luxurious past. The man, now tramping the lanes of present sub-urban area on foot, was once the holder of the entire territory.
This man, depicted in stories as an overbearing, waywardly one. Who always traveled in his personal open jeep car, accompanied with his henchmen . At that time, a double barrel gun ever slung across his shoulder with a bandoleer, producing a terrifying image. Naturally, his companions too were presumed to be harnessed with some lethal arms. In total, he had an image of spendthrift, sensuous, amorous and hothead man.
His legacy – He basically belonged to a filthy rich agrarian landlord patriarch who fathered him, with an interesting story. Story ran as, if the train driver from a distance sighted a person, who seated on a cot laid upon the railway track and smoking a hubble – bubble (tobacco-smoke pipe) , driver was bound to halt the train. It was said, this special honor was granted to his rich father for his intrigue services delivered to Britishers.
For the services, a huge landed property too had been gifted to this patriarch. Across that land, this railway track happened to traverse. This may be an exaggerated narration, for the reason, the railway station of our native foothill city has been a terminal station. There often upcoming trains happened to halt at the outer, to get the signal for free passage, where his landed property located.
Old generation ever believed in this “cot laid upon the track version” of the story. The reason was , in the pre independence era, so many idiosyncratic stories about the geniality of Britisheers were afloat. Common people ever took them as eccentric people, who could pass any kind of order. “Choudhry saheb” being the only spoiled son of that patriarch, and father’s over pampering, helped him stray from the righteous path.
Old stories about his decadence – After completion of my primary education, I sought admission in another distant located High school of the area. There, I came to know about him through the gossips. Every such intermittent gossip was loaded about his deeds of untoward story. At that time, he had entered into his fifth decade of life. But, stories related to his eventful, adventurous and sordid life were epicenter of gossips in commoner. That was the era, when to afford a bicycle was a luxury for a common man, he used to enjoy long drive in his personal jeep car.
Not only this, for he had entered into his fifties at that time and his sons too were properly grown up. They, in pursuance to father’s foot steps too were heading for the same life style. The expenditure of the landlord family, now were more than earning. This has made a hole in the pocket of Choudhaery saheb. In the school, I still remember the trend of calling some other students from another name, behind them. There in the school, paltry two or three students, who on their back were called as “commonable son” or “mixed son”. In country life, this simply meant “bastard” in common parlance.
At the beginning, I too was unable to realize, why they were given such contemptuous name. They all had legitimate parents back in home. The names of their legitimate parents, duly entered in the school enrollment ledger, then why so? Later on, It came to our knowledge, they all had an unofficial proclamation as being the biological son of Choudhaery Saheb.
As per the stories, Choudhery Saheb in his past had been the regular visitor, as prolonged guest, to their household. He happened to stay their for days to come, in a spree, as a paramour of the ” lady of the house.” It too was obvious by the subdued melancholy expressions, that permanently rested on the face of those boys. They too were well informed about the slanderous story about their birth, that was narrated behind them. Penned by– Vinay pharasi….. (End of the part ! 0f the story)
