He was sitting in the corner of an open place where the local municipality had provided with seats for people to sit and breath fresh air. The open ground was used by the children of the area to play. In the evenings old and aged or infirm come and sit in the seat and either just close their eyes and doze off or look into the horizon with a blank look. This old man was no exception to that rule. Passers by if by chance looked at this old man should think, he was watching the children play. But it was not so he was lost in his thoughts, nothing but blank thoughts. Can there be blank thoughts, yes it happens with old people. He was deliberately keeping his thoughts blank without relating to his experiences in life because he never wanted to recollect his past, his days of youth or childhood. It was eventful but without any consequence. Yes, like any other young men, he had a girl friend and both of them had dreamt of leading a married life but their dream remained only a dream as the circumstances did not allow them to become man and wife. This young man was so frustrated in life that he after getting a couple of degrees left his native town and went abroad and spent almost all his life time abroad without keeping touch with his native town. He was a broken hearted man. After his long journey, in the evening of his life, he thought that he should breath his last in his native place. Thus he came to this town but he was left alone … alone to muse for himself. The life for him always remained a single blessedness.
Sitting in that corner in the evenings became his daily routine because of his age, his world had got shrunk. He was pushed aside in his own home town from every walk of life. He was a great man with hundreds of people waiting for him for his advice, guidance, for his reassuring words, for his very presence. But they were now mere memories which would not carry him any farther. His past by then became a thing of the past and this taught him that what was most important was the present not even the future. One is reckoned by his present status and not what he was. He found the human memory was very short though every human being remembers whatever had happened in his life. People do tend to pretend forgetting their bitter past and feigning ignorance but no one can forget it. It is like ones shadow which never leaves him.
The old man would sit there till the sun sets or a few minutes before the sun sets so that he should not forget his way home from the said open place. He had eye sight problem. He was using magnifying glasses to read the daily newspaper. He did not want to step on stones or pebbles or into any ditch lest he should hurt himself and become a burden for others. “Others” who are they? The old man started smiling to himself. He knew that he was alone and there was no ‘other’ person in his life. Yes, there were other persons. Anyway, therefore he wanted to be careful.
But what stuck him was the presence of an old frail lady at a distance always sitting under a tree on the roots grown outside the ground of a tree reading some books. It was clear that she was coming there like any other strollers to breath fresh air, but the mystery was her presence every day at the same place a little distance from this old man. Then the old man thought to himself, why not? Was he not coming every day! Another sequence which stuck him was the time she used to come and take her place under the tree. She would be there whenever this old man reached that place. She would give a glance at this old man when he took his seat. He never saw her talking to any body nor watching the children play. She always used to be immersed in reading. She would leave the said place only after the old man walked away from that place. Again he thought it could be a coincidence because by the time he left the place, it was becoming dark and it was time for the young and old to retire to their residences..
The old man did not waste time in trying to know the old lady. He had lost interest in life and it mattered very little for him whosoever sat around or beside him. He was unmarried. He did not want to recount his youth when he had fallen in love with a woman but failed to make it permanent. Since then he had lost interest in what is called as “woman”. He felt that if only he had not fallen for that woman, he would have like any other would have married a girl chosen by his parents and would have led a family life. But he did not want such alliance. There was a woman in his life when he was young and he wanted to marry her only but adverse circumstances worked adversely against him which prevented him from marrying her and left him alone. Therefore the woman sitting under the tree did not even provoke him to know her. He did not want any new acquaintances and he was not sure how any other person would take him as he was old.
It was the rainy season and the old man could not go to the open place as it used to rain heavily. Whenever there was no rain, the old man would venture to go to the open place and walk near about the seat. To his surprise, even though it was rainy season, he would invariably see the old lady standing under the tree under an umbrella. The old man would not sit there as either the seat or the ground used to be wet. He did not want to get wet and become ill.
The Old man though had lost interest in life, had not lost interest to read the obituary column of the newspaper. He used to get the newspaper only to read that page. He always wanted to know whether any person whom he knew had been called by the Almighty. So as usual, that day also he sat in his reclining chair and opened the morning newspaper and directly went to the obituary column. He read a news item with the photograph of a car and in the inset a lady’s picture. The news item stated as follows: A woman aged about 76 years was knocked down by a speeding car when she was trying to cross the road near the popular open place where old people and children go for recreation. It was raining heavily and the woman perhaps had not seen the car coming on the wrong side of the road. She had a book in her hand. Enquiry of this newspaper has revealed that she was a spinster living alone at No. 2 M.G.Road. Her name is Nenapu!
At that time the milkman came with a pouch to deliver the milk to the old man. He called the old man but there was no response from him. There was a broken magnifying glass on the floor. The newspaper had covered the face of the old man. He went near him and lifted the paper. The old man had closed his eyes. The old man had stopped breathing.