The Hemlock

With the numb eyes and wrinkled face , he was looking the passengers at the platform . There was nothing special to notice about as we find such people at such places in abundance , specially in India. The lachrymose eyes were searching for something in Ajmeri Gate terminus . Unlike other people I eschewed him and trying to listen to anouncements made regarding the RajendraNagar Rajdhani Express by P.A. system. It was the July evening time before dusk , the hot , dusty, noisy Delhi railway station proved to be a gadfly for me. I went near a IRCTC cafe to buy a cup of iced tea . At a sudden I gave a glance to that fellow , he was whispering something and that too continuously . I ignored him again and had my tea .
Suddenly I heard a folk song which I could not understand . To my utmost surprise I saw the same man singing and playing an indigenous instrument which again difficult for me to coin . A friend of mine whose grandmother is from Jammu told me that the language was dogri . Though I couldnot understand the lyrics but music was bland . I went to him and offered a five rupee coin , he screamed then genuflected with folded hands and said ,"Babu , Jehar kha lun ..bhikh lene se pahle ".
He picked his long stick with crooked handle and his soiled bag and tried to get up but quivered and collapsed .
His belongings scatterd on the platform floor . I had collected his entire tressure and put back in his bag . There were diaries , some dogri literature , a potrait of a family and some dry leaves and roots. I bought a bottle of water for him , few minutes later he regained consciousness and opened his bucolic eyes . I was wordless , he broken the silence and said he was searching his lost son for ten years . Since a month daily he thought of consuming those leaves and roots to get himself hemlocked , but every time when he intended to do so he recalled his only left dream to return to his soil with his lost son and compose dogri folks . This is a vicious circle , but an ignored truth and a bitter reality of our secular India .