Family Short Story – Silence of Eternity
Photo credit: cooee from morguefile.com
TA is his name and he is from a remote village in unknown places in India, so much unknown to even any known Indian.
TA is not educated. He speaks many languages as he wonders throughout India, you know there are so many languages in India called mother tongues.
TA came to Mumbai searching a friend from his village. TA lost his wife and he has his five year old daughter always with him. TA’s daughter has no name and people call her as Baby. Somebody gave his friend’s address written on a piece of paper. It is in English and as he cannot read it, somebody has to read and tell where his friend lives in Mumbai.
After a journey of one week, what he found in Mumbai is only the native language Marathi which he does not know a bit. At last he found somebody who can read English. That somebody told him that the person he is searching is in Matunga.
TA is confused with this name. He entered the City Bus with his baby and asked the conductor for two tickets to Tanga. The conductor smiled and gave tickets to the Terminus. He got down when everybody from the Bus got down and walked for a while. Baby said that she is hungry, so they had some roadside food. They again started the journey.
TA says for the people and the people do not know what he is asking. Luckily he met a wise guy who looked at the address slip and took TA to Matunga and helped him in finding the addressee.
It is told there that the addressee MK has gone for Kedarnath. TA also liked to go to Kedarnath and search his friend there. TA has good money with him. (He sold his land in his village after the demise of his wife and he wants to do something in a city with the help of a known person. This is the reason why he is searching his friend in Mumbai.) Taking decisions with very short notice is his habit
*****.
TA is like a kite cut off from the thread. He has no house, no wife and no known persons. His only hope is his friend. TA is not moved by any devotion to go there and he also does not know how difficult journey he has to take to reach there. What he knows is one thing, his friend is there and so he has to go there to meet him at the earliest.
TA is asking the people about the way. Everybody knows what he is asking and he has been given correct directions. Nobody knows that TA has a good sum of money in his rags like bag, so it is safe. What he keeps in his pocket is some change enough for the day.
It is in Uttarakhand that a great disaster took place due to heavy rains and floods. This was the time when TA with his little baby reached there to see that it is raining cats and dogs around and floods are eating away roads and bridges. Houses are floating on flood waters.
Gushing waters, cloud bursts and flash floods at twelve thousand feet above sea level have wreaked havoc for several hours. Hundreds died within minutes and thousands more lost their lives during the next few days. Homes, bridges and roads simply caved in. This was the scene at Kedarnath, the abode of Shiva, and the neighboring towns and villages in Uttarakhand. With clarity, the reality of the massive tragedy hit the people there and also the newlt visited pilgrims there. The roads and bridges had been wiped out. It is a night and darkness around TA. He is like a leaf cut from the branch and floating in the gushing water. Baby is clung to TA’s chest like an inseparable limb of father.
How many days and how many nights passed, not known. No food and no water but going in the water. TA and his baby are separated. TA is searching for his baby. “Where are you, Baby! Baby! Baby!” he cried. He called crying for her. But there is no answer.
Finally the nature is calm. TA reached Kedarnath as a mad man. He sits here and there with some holy men and sages. The pilgrims, the devotees give something to eat. He had a long beard and he appears like a sage. He speaks nothing. If anybody offers him something, he does not look at them. People call him Bairagi Baba.
He got a famous in kedarnath and a small ashram is built for Bairagi Baba.
One day Baby came in rags to him and called him “baba, where are you all these days?”
Baba is not in natural way to think and talk. He did not recognize her. But the people who built the ashram for Baba are aware that she is the daughter of Baba. So they allowed her to be with Baba. Baba is worshiped and baby is the main worshiper to her father.
One day Mk came to kedarnath and saw Bairagi Baba. He recognized him and tried to talk with him. Baba did not answer. MK wanted to take him with him but the ashram management did not agree. They said that he is not his friend and he is Bairagi Baba sent by god to bless the pilgrims here. So MK failed and he took Baby with him.
Bairagi Baba is in Kedarnath as if he is born for the blessings of the pilgrims.
“Jai Bairagi Baba Ki! Jai Kedarnath JiKi! Jai Shiv Shankar Ji ki!” These are the slogans heard every day there in Kedarnath. But Bairagi Baba is always silent, looking in to the silence that lasted eternity.
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