At a fine evening, city clock was reading 5:45 PM. Sitting on the bench of a park, having a cigarette between his fingers he didn’t know if he was anti-meditating or what but he had millions of thought in his mind that time. It was a neem tree under which the stone bench was fixed. The bench read like a grave stone “shri Ram Narayan 1912-1980”. Roshan began to think the purpose of such bench advertising something. “Whom should I thank for bench, Late Shri Ram Narayan that he died in time and his family fixed a bench here in the park for me or to his family who are announcing his demise”, Roshan thought. Such thoughts came to the mind when you are so thoughtless that you start counting every breath you take. But for Roshan it works differently. Such thought comes to his mind when his mind is full of the most sublime riddles.
Suddenly something dropped on his head.
“Shit, how can these birds do this so freely and anywhere?”
Scared, he moved a finger in his hair. “Gosh, it’s a neemboli. Yellow, pulpy neemboli.”
“We don’t find apple trees in our parks in this part of India, otherwise it was a chance of discovering something,” he chuckled.
Wondering with his thoughts suddenly an exhausted old man in his sixties stopped in front of Roshan’s bench. He wasn’t too fast on his feet but it took few seconds to him to slow down and stop. He sat at one corner of the bench while Roshan sitting at the center.
Sitting beside Roshan the old man inhaled and exhaled deeply several times.
Gosh, I was here for peace and these old parasites can be found at every part of the world. Actually Roshan always hated the way old men preach.
“They can preach on almost everything, even on girls or on sex or on para-diving”, Roshan thought.
Irritated with his deep breaths finally Roshan said, “Uncle at this hour, it’s carbon di oxide you are deeply inhaling”
“Yeah, I know, and I also know that it’s purely oxygen that you are getting from this cigarette.”, he said in a careless tone.
“Gosh, I opened a window for him, now he will bore me to death”, Roshan thought.
“By the way, can I have one?”, old man asked roshan.
“What? Are you serious?”
“Yeah, I need to forget my girl friend”, Old man chuckled.
Smiling over the old man’s humor, Roshan said “Ok, but I guess it’s injurious for your health”, and he offered cigarette with light.
Old man lighted up the cigarette and took a puff and said, “Yeah I know, my lungs are not made of steel like yours”, smoke was still coming out of his mouth while he completed his sentence.
Roshan laughed.
“I like sarcasm”, Roshon said as if he was announcing it.
“Don’t be that sarcastic to yourself”, the old man said carelessly with a smile on his face.
Roshan begin laughing like a goose. “You are unbelievable”.
“Stop. Where have I heard it before.”, “where I heard it? , where I heard it ?”, Yeah, “I heard it from my girl friend”.
“Are you serious?”, Roshan asked in an astonishing tone.
“Yeah my wife was used to say this when she was my girl friend”
“ohhh, and now?”
“Now she believes me”, the old man said with a hint of laugh.
“great … ”, roshan laughed.
“So, what do you do young man?”, old man asked.
“I am pursuing my M.B.B.S, final year”
“ohhh .. that’s why you don’t care about smoking”, old man murmured sarcastically
“may be … ” , roshan replied with a smile
“What do you do?”
“I am done doing, I mean I m retired and I was used to be an engineer, a mechanical engineer”
There was a long pause as both of them were thinking about the other’s profession.
“you know what’s the difference between an engineer and a doctor?”, the old man asked.
“what’s similar, I mean both of them are very different jobs” , Roshan replied.
“No, we engineers mend what we have created and you mend what god has created”
“yeahh .. right, I have never thought like that before.”, Roshan was surprised.
“God created man or man created god? What say?”, the old man asked Roshan.
“Hey let’s not mess up with god u know. He has taught me many things”, Roshan said.
“Where does he run his coaching classes, are people of my age admissible?”, old man said plainly.
Next few moments passed in silence. Their cigarettes have been extinguished.
“God teaches us many things, it’s up to us if we understand it or not”, Roshan said looking at the bright yellow sky.
“Yeah surely, it’s always up to your learning and reading capabilities. By the way what you have learned in your short span of time. And ya, I am impressed to know that you believe in god as this generation of young man follow atheism like a vogue”
Roshan was gathering his thoughts. It took few moments before he speak “God has taught me the lesson of patience”, he finally uttered.
“Congratulations, you have learned it. My son, it take lives to learn that lesson of patience and I am happy for you. Can you explain me how god taught you this thing?”
“I always had many questions about everything. About human, about life, love, emotions, day, night, success, debacle, luck and many other intangible things. I asked most of them to internet and got satisfactory answers from many philosophers too. But during that span of time I was so irritated to get the reply that I abused and blamed god plethora of times. On every bad thing happened to me I abused and blamed god for it. I blamed my luck, I blamed it on every possible invisible thing.”
Rohsan continued “but after seeing a lot in my life while keeping mum god taught me patience. He doesn’t look in any haste to meet me. I am still alive. He is not impatient to answer my every abuse. He is not impatient to teach me a lesson. He is quite. He is calm. He has left me alone and he wants me to continue my abuses. You know what, I am really graced that my god is so patient. He has won my heart by not reacting. He has won my heart by not hitting me back.”
It was almost dark by now. None of them could clearly see the face of the other. Roshan could only see the shining white hair of the old man. He wasn’t looking at him. Old man turned his face to roshan, and in the most polite and calm words he said, “Isn’t this the first time you are thinking like this.”
“Yes”, roshan replied, “But how do you know that?”, roshan asked, His eyes widened.
“I come over here every day. I have seen you many times smoking over here. You are used to sit on the same bench under the same tree but this was the first time you noticed the bench. You come here infrequently, but I have noticed you every time you come. I have seen you doing nothing but smoking and looking here and there. I was anxious to know what’s wrong with you. I quit smoking when I was 45, almost 20 years back. But for you I smoked again today. Don’t worry it won’t harm me. But I wanted to know what’s wrong with you.”
“you know what son, we lose most of the fights of our life just because of this impatience. I am telling you this by my personal experience and I am not only preaching this to you. Once I read few pages of You can win by Shiv Khera, and I liked one of his preaching. It said something like "Winners don’t have more strength or more power it’s just that they continue fighting for few more moments while others quit”. Promise me that you won’t ever appear here again with a cigarette in your hand.
Roshan was completely lost. He didn’t have anything but to say “yes I promise, SIR”.
“Ok son, you have made my evening today. I am going to write down this whole conversation in my diary today so that I can cherish this evening any time I wish. “
“It’s dark now and I have to purchase something to eat before I get into my home, otherwise I will have to sleep empty stomach with my pet. “, the old man said.
Wishing him good night, Roshan saw him walking briskly and soon the man disappeared in the dark.
“what did he said, sleep with my pet??? He mentioned his wife too?? ” Roshan also started to move towards his home, suddenly he realized that old man only mentioned his wife as a girl friend to know his reactions over it. He just wanted to know whether it’s a girl for which Roshan was worried about.
“He lives alone, all alone”, Roshan thought before he rang the door bell of his home.
