I have come across men and women too, of whom I long to keep
no memory and I have come across a few men and women of who, I would always
think with pleasantness and with deference.
He was a man in his early sixties and a doctor. It was in
2010 that I first communicated with him through comments that were exchanged on
my blog. For an amateur writer I was
easily excited with an endorsement of sort on my views and writings per se, it was fantastic. There were
disagreements too but he was quite impressed with my style of penning. We found that we were from the same city. He
was living in the UAE and his spouse was in Thiruvananthapuram. It was then
that he messaged me that he would like to meet me and another friend of mine
with whom he developed acquaintance on the blog. That chap was a fantastic
writer and a passionate poet. His verses used to drip with feel and pathos.
Doctor was very impressed with him.
I would not digress here. So there, then was the Doctor,
during his visit home arriving one evening to meet us with a bottle Glenlivet Single
Malt. What fabulous way to toast a friendship, I mused! It was during the
course of that evening which lasted till late into the night that I told a
little bit of myself. It was the immediate aftermath of a nerve racking and ravaging
turmoil in my life and the Doctor could gather a little bit from my
conversation, though pride ensured, I revealed little as possible or necessary.
But the doc ( as I began to address him) got a complete
status report of myself from my friend and he invited me to go to the UAE and I could
use his home as a base for any venture I want to prospect there. “That can be
your home too.” he said. I was wordless!
I soon reached Sharjha and he was at the Airport driving
some 125 kilometers from Fujairah, where he lived. I lived there for more than t
a month and he was absolutely unbelievable. It was an apartment with a huge
bedroom a living room and kitchen. The very first day itself he picked up his mattress
and began sleeping on the sofa in the living room. It was awkward that he did
that and told me, the bedroom was mine. He ensured the kitchen was packed with
food and asked me to feel free to use whatever I wanted in there. I was quite embarrassed
to be a piggybacking on him. He out rightly refused to take money from me and
after finding that one day I replenished something for the kitchen by picking
up things from the Super market down below, he chided me and sent down an
instruction to the Super market to provide me whatever I wanted , but not to
take any payment from me. It was awkward but humbling! I remembered the
Shylocks I have encountered!
Doc ensured that the liquor cabinet was always full and we
used to sit and chat over a few drinks in the evenings after he came back from
his clinic past 8 in the night. In course of those conversations we got to know
more about each other, our life, our past, our disappointments and triumphs.
One day, Doc offered to help me revive my wrecked business
back home. I was utterly speechless and plowed down by his offer. It was
gracious of him, but I told him the chapter was closed.
We are in touch often and meet up when he is in
Thiruvanathapuram. And again during one of those meetings Doc was at his altruistic
self. My daughter was going abroad for her studies and he egged me to feel easy
to ask him any help that I require to provide for her.
I wonder often why at all must a person who has had no long
term connect no relationship through blood or clanship offer and actually selflessly
do things for you. Perhaps such people with their acts goading the world to
turn around!
Can’t agree more with H.G.Wells, “One of the darkest evils
of our world is surely the unteachable wildness of the Good”.
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