(Recap – In the last episode, I narrated about finding of an old glass framed photo in the garbage of an almirah. My inner voice suggested me, this photograph belongs to the previous owner of the house and it should be returned to them. Some how, I managed to reach at distant city Delhi along with that photograph to hand over that to its owner i. e. old couple. They were so happy on recovering that old photograph which belonged to the demised parents of the old man. They too expressed their desire to visit their old house, before I initiate my reconstruction plan of the house.
Intimation of arrival
One day, I received the phone call of the previous owner, the old man. He was planning to visit the old city with entire family and was scheduled to meet his relatives in the city as well. He was eager to confirm, whether on the stipulated day, I could afford to meet them at the old house. With an open heart, I accepted their request. On the day fixed, old couple appeared in a motor car along with son and daughter in law. In between, I had arranged every nook and corner of the house to be in neat and clean condition.
My servant already used to stay there permanently, I had instructed him to prepare tea and snacks timely. The furniture and wooden bed steads which couple had left behind as a gift to me, I was using properly. For beds, I had bought new mattress, cushions and coverlet. in fact, the furniture still lied in the same sitting room and in the same position, when for the first time, I chanced to meet them. The furniture was sufficient to accommodate about six people.They people had arrived in the city last evening and stayed at the place of their local relatives.
Emotional visit
There, after taking breakfast, they had come to my place, that once belonged to them. When, the family of old couple stepped inside the yard from the main gate, their facial expression were akin to travelling back into the vista of memory lane. The eyes of every member, in its own sight were trying to find some thing left behind, at some specific nooks of the past. In truth, they all were searching or trying to find out memories of bygone days, they had lived there. Every one of them had their own collection of memories of his age.
firstly, I ushered them inside the sitting room and made them sit down on the sofa chairs, the same chairs, that once was like a member of their house holdings. By looking at the sight of sofa chairs, it at once made them sentimental. We humans have got a complex mind set. In our personal life and interaction, if we get distracted with some one, we don’t prefer to look at his face. On the same, if we develop an affinity with some inanimate object, in shape of attachment, we get inclined to maintain an emotional bonding with that lifeless object.
The old attachment with furniture
Paradigm of attachment with parental house, old bike, car and so many other things we notice in our diurnal life. The same phenomenon was happening here with the old couple. By finding the sofa chairs in the same sitting room and in the same condition, made them emotional. There were some eternal causes behind that, and I too very well could realize that. Since, I am also a human being and harnessed with the same human weaknesses. My personal experience of life was sufficed to inform me that in those old bygone days, when this furniture would have been purchased by the old couple, at that time, the flow of hard cash money in our Indian society was scarce.
To buy such furniture ( of course a new trend of that old time), they might needed a good deal of amount and naturally some extra efforts to arrange the cash. Indubitably, on installing the new trendy furniture, the feelings of joyous they would have entertained as well. But natural, with a sense of proud, they would have boasted of being in possession of that. It happens with every one, when one buys some costly item of the time. Besides its utility, the element of ” social status” of being in possession of some modern furniture too can’t be ignored. This is an omnipresent mind set of the Indian middle class.
The furniture items, that once had been like a member of the house and circumstances forced to leave that behind. Now when they were finding the opportunity to look at that once again was enough to make them sentimental. It had invoked all the memories, that were attached with it. The same phenomenon was taking them into grip.
With melting wordings they told, when and under what kind of circumstances. they managed to buy this furniture. They specifically mentioned, at that time, to own this kind of furniture was a symbol of affluence. Then, old couple requested to have a look of the orchard and after that they planned to throw a deep glance inside the house. I took them to the orchard. ( Cont’d) … Penned by — Vinay Pharasi ….
