• PAGE ONE
• INDEX
• HOME

A season of bonding

P. Devarajan

SOMEDAY in August, 50 years ago, Lachman Singh was born in a village off Dehra Dun. Going by his mother's word, the day was bright and sunny when he made an entry and which scanty detail still denies him a ration card in Mumbai and Dun. He grew up with t he lichi, mango and tamarind trees packed with various birds and all his know-how has been oral. In the mood he sang and on Raksha Bandhan day, was whistling a tune to the winds at the edge of the rice-fields when one caught up with him.

He had bought some 50 rakhis for the kids of the Toddler's School and seniors at Yoginagar along with sweets and was getting ready for the festivity. Over the last few years, the kids were more comfortable with him than with their parents as he dropped t hem lovingly to school in his auto. ``Saab, bachchon ko dekhke dil khush ho jata hai (One is happy watching the kids),'' he told me as we invited Lachman home.

In someway the word had spread of Lachman's 50th birthday and the family had prepared his favourite idli with onion sambar and hot coffee. Lachman and my son Ganesh are the best of friends and they have to meet every day. Lachman loves to listen to Bismi llah Khan and to the tunes of the shehnai, he went about the idlis. As he finished the eats, Lachman tied rakhis on everyone and the family in turn tied a rakhi and a Titan watch to his right wrist. Lachman beamed at Ganesh as a watch was something he ha d longed for from the first day in Mumbai.

Proudly displaying the watch Lachman got out to be met on the road by some 20 kids with whistles and small drums. They exchanged rakhis and sweets as the public watched. By 10 in the morning, Lachman's right forearm was covered with colourful rakhis and he admitted, ``Mere jindagi mein aise din bahut kam aaye hain (Such days have been rare in my life).''

In our area Lachman Singh is known as the most helpful auto driver and plied the vehicle in the off-hours from farm duty. He was always dressed in a white dhoti and a matching kurta and Ganesh's friends had decided to effect a change. They wanted to see him in a T-shirt and jeans and had collected enough funds to buy him his first set of city clothes. Lachman went along without making a fuss and for the afternoon lunch came in a red T-shirt and black jeans. Lachman had turned an urbanite and his family was not there to watch the change. For the record, the kids dragged him to Popular Photos and took his snaps which he now proposes to send home.

It was during lunch at home that one saw Lachman flying out like a butterfly from a pupal home in rural Dehra Dun. Ganesh and his friends were going through the day's English newspapers when Lachman picked one and started reading the front page loudly. H is fair face was firmly alert as he went over Vajpayee's agony and Tendulkar's sore toe. Lachman had established contact with urban India.

Over the last six months, Lachman had been taking free tuitions in English and Hindi from some kids and the first book Vidya offered him was Nature Watch an illustrated book by Khushwant Singh and Suddhasastwa Basu apart from a few issues of Hornbill. Th e book is about Nature's ways every month of the year in New Delhi with drawings by Basu and Lachman related easily with the contents. In the intro, Khushwant Singh says, ``This is the diary of a nature lover patterned after the traditional Baramasi (12 months) of Indian poets,'' and one had picked it from the pavement for Rs 20.

Its something genetic. Lachman was a part of the trees, skies and air of Dun and continues to be so. An issue of Hornbill from the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) is for Lachman a rewind into a familiar past in Dun. It was the traditional south Ind ian lunch served on banana leaves. Lachman has a problem with leaves as his strong fingers tore them up while mixing rice with sambar but on this day it went off well. As we neared the end, Lachman made a request to Vidya to train him on computers at Rao 's Computer Institute. Vidya is a counsellor at the place and promised to enroll Lachman for computer classes on Independence Day. Lachman Singh today belongs to the 21st century.