The Skinny Man

It was the winter breaks of 12’th, which had just commenced and I were to stay back in the hostel for an additional ten days before I could head back to my place to have the parathas and the delicious sweets custom made for my taste buds’ delight. The more I was missing the ‘beneath the blanket-sleeping like a log’ the lesser I was enjoying my stay each day. My chores basically included surfing net, doing some research, visiting seniors’ hostel and most important eating the crap at ‘MESS @ Kesura’(also Khosla) for which by the way I  had to pay separately.

Walking from Khosla(seniors’ hostel) to Insti after lunch daily became a thing for me during the stay and I sort of enjoyed the walk of half a kilo-meter under the bright sun with the shade of ‘Odiya’ trees. The walk stood out also because of one more so to say ‘element of walk’. Some hundred meters before the insti there were these huts made up of mud and clay aligned by the roadside. The huts presenting like any other view of the city that I had been in for past year or so, what stood out for me was the character  ‘the skinny man’ probably in his late fifties, perfectly malnourished, his teeth resembled to those shown to us in the EVS under deficiency of Fluorine in water (yes I paid this much attention!!) and  wore the same yellow turned banyan over his dark skin and something similar to a ‘lungi’ everyday.

I remember his appetite which was almost the same every-day. His steel plate had those thick and small grains of rice and some barely yellowish dal poured over them. I almost encountered him daily during his meal and each day I would see him sitting in the same composure with his legs struck together and his buttocks and feet touching ground, hand-picking his bunch of rice to one corner of the plate and mixing it with some subji and he would do this maintaining the same sense of calmness on his forehead making me feel how petty my issues or for that sake my whole life was. All his senses cared, was not-so-petty anymore plate of his somehow reminded me of the Tolstoy’s story where he explains a king so animatedly that what is important is now, the present.

Even though I didn’t feel any high of myself while passing by him daily but I made sure that I took the walk instead of getting a lift. I would gently slow my pace and give a casual look over him not to make the poor guy let know of my prying. I found some unusual peace in those ten seconds each day during my stay. Probably it had also to do with trees providing complacent shade in the bright or may be because of the subtle stillness in the man’s life and composure or even maybe that I respected food even more, having been paying extra charges for the mess food but what was more important for me was to know that even without having any luxuries in this gold chauvinistic society there was this guy who had peace.

I LOVE HERE @ COLLEGE

Bright heads lying on the desk remembering the good old days when they used to solve deadly problems of mechanics from ‘Irodov’ or the vicious questions of calculus. Not too long ago the same minds had conviction to change the world, to explore the aglow world of knowledge and to study when they would go to college. College that too an IIT meant and still means for those who are entirely secluded from it, a sort of a knowledge shrine where one could pursue all his scientific temperaments through research. The clueless faces occupying seats in class at college are the same that used to be in perfect synergy when they were taught much deeper and tougher concepts at their coaching classes during JEE preparations. Surely it can’t be that their IQ disappeared in thin air. Keeping track of what is being ‘taught’ suddenly appears to be a challenge worth great deal for those who came off their schools in flying colours. And exams!, they are differently perceived now. More than knowledge its management skill that one performs in two days before the exams to get fair grades. Arranging Xerox of the notes, books and more importantly the syllabus are the tasks of utmost importance before any exam. Surely there are some questions that why an IIT undergrad might say “MAA  C****** MID-SEM END-SEM PHODENGE” ? Are we accomplishing what we wanted to when we entered the gates of JEE centers? Or rather are we inspired to accomplish anything like that?But wait..! did you think this was going all dark shady?? And that someone experiencing this might some day call it off by scripting “I QUIT” on the walls of his room then I would say you are ummm…….?? a bit judgemental .  College my dear is that Pandora box where you get all the shortcuts to success, an exhilarating ride into the world of fun and adventure. Fun that teaches a lot, funny isn’t it? A maze with only two ends, “You get in somehow and get out somehow”!