SOUGATO’S TRYST
SNEHASIS
GANGULY
Sougato was watching
“Byomkesh Parbo” at the newly opened multiplex in the Mofussil town with his
family. He had come to India on a Holiday. Like in previous years, this was an
opportunity to watch some Bengali movies on big screen. He was a fan of all
Bengali detectives like Byomkesh, Feluda and Kiriti. That day, however
something else tugged at his heart. He could hardly focus on the movie. His
mind was on one specific incident in the movie. That happened basically in the
beginning. The story was set up in newly independent India. It was based on
arms left behind by American Soldiers in North Bengal and how it was exploited
by the merchants. That part hit him real bad. His grandfather was a Zamindar in
those days. They were a wealthy family. However, he was killed by an accidental
gunfire by someone when he was on a Shikar of birds. The gun was from those
left behind by the American soldiers. Grandfather’s death was a big blow for
Sougato’s family. Soon the Govt. took everything. The corrupt officials in
collusion with some enemies deemed that his grandfather had not paid taxes to
Government and they took all his land and wealth. Sougato’s father along with
other brothers and sisters had nothing to live on. His father immigrated to
Kolkata and somehow managed to raise his family on his meager income from Government.
service. Sougato grew up hearing what could have been and what the reality was.
After graduating from a
college in Kolkata in Physiotherapy, Sougato landed in Detroit Michigan. Slowly
through his hard work learnt from his time in India, he built up a life for
himself. He would take an occasional trip back to India with his family. But
very soon, the time came when he had to head back to his work and his home. So,
after this trip he came back to his home in Detroit and went about his
business. His work involved visiting patients at their homes and providing them
with treatment and self help.
That particular day, he went
into Southfield, a suburb of Detroit. The black person’s apartment he was
visiting was very run down. However, Sougato was used to seeing such people.
This particular person was a new patient. As he knocked on the door, it was
opened by a person in a wheelchair. He was a really old man, perhaps in his
eighties, living alone.
“Hi Steve, how are you?”
Sougato said.
“Well, I am ok, sir. Please
take a seat.” The old man replied.
Sougato slowly sat down and
started the treatment of his patient. While the physical aspect of his
treatment was important, Sougato knew that part of his job involved the mental counseling
as well. Very soon he found out that the old man had no close family. His wife
had died years ago. He had a daughter who also died. His son was following the
family tradition of joining the military service. At that point his son was
away overseas. As he was looking around, he saw a medal of honor displayed on a
wall.
“What is that Steve?”
“That is my father’s second
world war medal. Oh, are you Indian? I can tell by your accent?”
“Yes, absolutely, I am “
“Oh, wow, which part of India
are you from?”
“West Bengal”, Sougato
replied.
“Oh, wow, that’s exactly
where my father was at the end of the world war.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful. So,
where in West Bengal was your father?”
“He was in Siliguri; at the
end of his stay he had lots of fun. Do you know, Saugaato he made lots of money towards the end?”
“How?”
“Well, he had lots of guns
and arms. He became like a broker for his friends and ended up selling a lot of
stuff. He was the only broker in Siliguri. I know that some of those guns were
used by the natives to cause chaos and kill each other.”
Suddenly, Sougato’s head
started to spin. What was this man telling him? Right in front on him was the
person whose father created all this trouble. After all these years he found
the man who created such a big chaos in his life. Sougato was extremely mad. At
that instant, he wanted to twist this man’s back the wrong way to increase his
pain. However, he immediately got a text. He had to go away to his next
appointment.
“Well, Steve, do the
exercises as I told you. I will be back tomorrow, man.”
“Ok, Saugaato, you are a nice man.”
The next twenty four hours
were pure hell for Sougato. He could hardly concentrate on other patients or
feel connected to his work. His mind was in turmoil and he was trying to devise
ways to extract revenge. He was hell bent on twisting this person’s back the
wrong way and make his pain worse. He knew how to do it. He would give him
wrong medicine and suggest wrong exercises. This was totally against the
Hippocratic Oath, but what did Sougato care? This was his chance for revenge.
So the next day at the scheduled time he reached Steve’s apartment. He was about
to push the bell when he saw an ugly graffiti outside Steve’s door.
“Black man, you are dead, we
won”, it said on the wall. There were more obscene comments at different places
on this door. Sougato was stunned. He somehow pushed the bell.
“Come on in” Steve was happy
to see him.
“What’s all that graffiti,
Steve?”
“Hey them bad dudes screw up
my door man, they don’t like black man.” Steve said.
Sougato came in and was very
sad. He took a moment to look out of the man’s window outside. He could at once
see what was going on. The very person whose father caused the biggest chaos in
his life and whom he wanted to harm was a sad victim himself. But should
Sougato become weak? Why? This very man was responsible for pushing his family
to the brink.
Sougato turned back from the
window and looked at the man inside. He touched the pendant hanging around his
neck. That had his grandfather’s picture. He lightly rubbed it.
“Steve, turn around”, he said
gently.
Once Steve turned around, he
began his normal massage. He just stuck to the script and did everything that
he was supposed to do normally.
“I feel good,” Steve said at
the end.
Sougato smiled and stepped
away from the apartment. As he started his car outside, he felt a wave of relief
in his body. All his tension was gone. Before turning the radio on, he said
loudly to himself,
“Dadu(Grandfather), I have
avenged your death”.
SNEHASIS GANGULY lives in Detroit Michigan.
He works in automobile industry by the day and pursues his habit of writing
during spare time. His other hobbies are sports, music, gardening etc.
Nice story - Snehashsis.
ReplyDeleteJishnu Sen