On a silent chilly night, all alone in my room reading "Far from the Madding Crowd" I involuntarily switched on the tape. Slowly Kishore Kumar's melody in the melancholic number Zindagi ka safar / Hai yeh kaisa safar / Koi samjhaa nahin / Koi Jaanaa nahin... filled my room.
This song virtually opened the floodgates of my memory. A million thoughts rushed and swirled in my mind trying to gush out. One single thought connected to a recent incident made its way out and onto a blank white sheet. Yes, I would not be writing this if I hadn’t persuaded my friend for an extended trip.
One of my friends bought a motorcycle. It was dream come true for him. For the last couple of years, he was yearning to own a bike. And as brick and brick make a building, every buck and pie he saved served to that end - buying his dream-bike. Caressing his bike, he said to me, "Yaar, let's go to Tirupati and thank the Lord for this long-cherished wonderful gift". I agreed enthusiastically.
For both of us, it was a first trip to the Hills and we decided to make it a joyous one on his new bike. With a small kit of travelling accessories hanging on our backs through our shoulders and with a little bit of extra fittings to our bike, off we went to the Hills. We rode in turns, sometimes dropping our breakneck speed a little and negotiating tactfully the threat of lorries which we nearly rammed into twice. We gave ourselves small periods of rest in between, allowing the cute bike to cool off.
We reached Tirumala Hills and had a good darshan of Lord Balaji. Well, it's really a treat to watch the Lord of the Hills bedecked with jewels, well enshrined in HIS Sanctum Sanctorum and presiding as many darshans as we had. In our ecstasy, we did not forget our bike. We had arranged a grand pooja for it and sought the Lord's blessings.
After enjoying the trip to the Hills, He suggested to me that we pay a visit to his only brother staying in Chennai. I was reluctant and disagreed. "Look," he said, "we have come this far, let's go a bit further. It makes no difference. With him, we threesome could have fun.
He also reasoned that the visit to Chennai would also help us have a feel of things with him – like how's he doing all alone over there with his wife sitting pretty at her mother's place to be delivered of a child.
I was disdainful as if having a foreboding of the things to come. Yet I agreed somewhat reluctantly. So we, with a kick-start zoomed off to Chennai. Just as we entered into the city, our bike broke down and refused to budge.
Nevertheless, we doggedly pulled the bike along to our destination. We were tired. But his brother's child-like happiness banished all our exhaustion. The welcome was warm and very much affectionate.
After exchanging embraces and pleasantries for a couple of hours, we got down to business – that of getting the bike repaired first. His brother immediately took our bike to a nearby workshop.
That was the end of it. For a couple of days we had a jolly good time in Chennai. But our bike didn't turn up for some reason or the other. We cursed the mechanic. His brother assured us to send it back by any means he could get at as soon as possible. We agreed as there was no other alternative.
But then on the third day of our reaching Hyderabad, my friend received a telegram from Chennai. It said in effect that one person died in a road accident while riding a bike with a registration mark of Hyderabad. The bike was so badly mangled that the victim died on the spot. Rush immediately. It screamed.
The news shook him badly. He was silently sobbing. He cursed himself. He had purchased the bike and took it all along to Chennai. It did the rest. Killed him instantly – his only brother. Fate! What about his wife and his yet to be born child. All these thoughts sank him in utter sorrow. His voice trailed off. He was still sobbing silently.
'Easy friend, it all happened with Lord's connivance. For we humans cannot see the death's sting. Neither can we read Lord's thoughts. We really had a death-ride all the way to Chennai. Yet we were not stumped'. I trembled with a guilty conscience not knowing what to say further...
