A light stroll turned into a brisk walk when I saw a young man standing outside my gate, eyeing my home rather suspiciously. I was still a few metres away debating whether to shout a question at him.I asked the said gentleman what he was doing outside my house and what he was looking at. He answered rather sheepishly in a Hindi peculiar to the Hindi heartland of UP and Rajasthan. He was looking for a room for rent. He was from Jaipur and he had just found a job in this big IT company based in Mysuru. He wanted to know if any rooms in my house were available for rent. He had been combing the area since morning and still hadn’t found any place to stay. The company would provide him accommodation for another week and then he had to move into his own place. He was in a hurry.
After staying down South for more than a decade, my heart craves for the language I grew up speaking while living in Agra, with the same ease, colloquialism and dialect that we speak up North. I get such chances very rarely; there is a natural affinity one feels with people sharing the same roots.
I understand now why so many of my South Indian relatives living in Delhi want to settle down in Chennai or Coimbatore after retirement.I told him that we didn’t have a room available for rent but would inform him if I found any nearby. We exchanged numbers and he left, happy to have found somebody if not from his hometown, but somewhere very close to it.
Two days later was the festival of Janmashtami and he called to wish my family. He hesitantly asked if he could come and join us in the festivities since he was missing home. My husband and I readily agreed and invited him over for lunch. He came on time and helped my kids decorate the temple and the whole Gokulashtami presentation.
He gorged on the buckwheat puris and pakodas and fruit salad, since we fast on the day of the festival. We break the fast at midnight, the time when Krishna was born, with a scrumptious meal to ring in the Lord’s arrival.
He didn’t stay for all that but we definitely found a friend in him. A friendship that started with doubt and suspicion is now going strong with love and understanding. The cynics might question the foolhardiness but then as they say, cynics have never built a cathedral.
Email: muktakgupta@gmail.com