Temple Saga & Cab Wale Bhaiya

Once upon a time, in a fine morning, I was out with my prince charming on a voyage...

Hold on. Let me rephrase it.

In the month of August, when the sky tends to shower more and shine less, the day decides to be different and instead of the light drizzle, it began with the scorching heat of the ever burning sun. I was supposed to meet him around around 1000 hours which, due to my extreme laziness, got delayed and I reached the metro station exactly one hour late.

To describe him I will just use one word, 'Calm'. Hence, whether I reach early or late his reaction never changes and that day also he didn't mind me being late. His plan for that day was to visit few temples which were like poles apart in distance. But we decided to make it work.

Our first destination was Kalighat Temple which was still nearby from the place where we met. Before talking about anythings else let me just brief you all about this temple. Kalighat Temple is in Kolkata and one of the must visited places for the visitors as well as the people living here. So it was a clear instruction from his mother that he must visit the famous temples over here.

As we were walking towards the temple one guy came towards us to help in reaching the temple following the shortest route. Now, I was with the man who was adamant to listen to a stranger and politely denied his help.

To our surprise, as we reached the temple, the same person was waiting outside with a list of things. With his broken hindi he tried to make us understand that he had all the arrangements for 'Marriage' and we need not worry about anything as they will provide us with the 'mangal sutra', 'sindoor', 'chunni' etc.

Listening to him I almost burst into a great laughter to which the guy replied, "Arre didi, shaadi nahi karni hai? [Ain't you getting married?]

Seeing things going on another direction we asked him to get us the essentials for the puja rituals. With double excitement he narrated that he could help us with 'Badi wali puja', 'Normal puja', 'Special puja' and many other variations as well.

As I've already mentioned that it's one of the most famous temples here, it was as usual crowded. We entered only to see a long line waiting for the turn to go inside. But wait, the helpful person didn't leave us alone. While we were puzzled to see the line, he appeared from behind with his suggestion. Now the dilemma began only after hearing him. In god's place every man is equal. But wait, to go inside it varies.

"Dada, poisa lagega [Brother, it will take some money!]" he asserted in his broken Hindi while our eyes remained wide open.

Bribe!

That 'way too helpful' guy convinced us as we needed to cover one more temple which was far from the temple we were then; from South to North Kolkata. We take a short escape and entered the temple and finished all the puja rituals properly. By then I thought the man was gone. But wait, he was patiently waiting outside with an old lady.

We were clueless to see them smiling while looking at us.

"Are you sure we are not looking weird?" after a long pause he asked.

"I doubt though," I answered and started walking towards the exit.

"Arre dada..." hearing him screaming from behind we thought, "Not again!"

"He will leave us only after getting us married!" he murmured and we turned back.

"Dhoti ke paise nahi denge? [Won't you be paying for my cloth?]"

"Whaaaaat?" he was shocked and so was I.

We were in dilemma whether to refuse him or to do as he told. Thinking that he might be a needy we helped him with  a certain amount and left.

He was relieved as the man was no more there to force us to marry each other. "Is the same going to happen in the next place?" he was pretty scared which I could find in his word clearly.

"Nope! I have been there many a times," I laughed at his question.

"Yeah sure! Just like this one!" he mocked.

"I told you! I have never been to this place though heard a lot," and our arguments continued till the cab finally arrived.

A guy probably in his late twenties greeted us as we settled down in the cab.

"Dada kothay jaben?[Sir, where will you go?]" he politely asked while checking the drop location.

"Dakshineshwar Temple," I replied as 'Dada' was clueless hearing the Bengali words.

As the journey began, I was almost dozing off as I had to wake up early in the morning. Keeping my head on his shoulder I was about to dream and 'Thud!'

"Holy shit," I woke up to ground reality finding that our cab was standing still and there was another car which was standing just in the front.

"Take it easy. Don't rush!" he patted the cab driver's back and asked me, "are you okay?"

I nodded and decided not to sleep. Who knows the next time I might just fly out of the giant glass. No! I can't take that risk. So my eyes were wide open and I kept looking outside the window.

The road was semi filled and the view was soothing enough to forget things. The cab driver was driving the car, I was caressing the view outside and out of no where he started, "You know, during NDA..." and before he could say anything I cut his words saying, "Why?"

"Sorry?" he was clueless hearing my question.

"Nothing happened and how on earth you get something right here to remember your NDA days?" I rolled my eyes.

"You didn't even hear," he tried to make things sound interesting but trust me I had full faith that it was just another story which he had recited to me thousand times.

"When you are on leave, can't you talk normally? Like every other thing!" I continued.

"Okay! No more NDA stories madam!" he gave up and the cab bhaiya kept smiling which we noticed together.

Destination was still far and there was too much silence in the cab, breaking which I said, "I want to go somewhere."

"Let's plan for Bhutan. They will also come," he suggested. [They are his coursemates!]

"Cool. Only if you get the leave," I said in a hushing tone.

"Will you stop commenting on my leave all the time?"

"That's true. You cannot get a leave alone and want me to expect all of you will get leave at once," I burst out laughing.

And this time I wasn't the only one who laughed. The cab wale bhaiya joined me and said, "Sir, Fauj me hai?" [Sir is in forces?]

"Sab kismat ka khel hai bhaiya. [It's all about destiny]" I answered like a typical old woman from a bollywood movie.

He passed me a weird look and said, "What was that? Who answers like this?"

Again me and the cab wale bhaiya laughed out loud.

"You people don't get leave, Sir," by the time he understood that Sir wasn't at all good in Bengali; so he continued the conversation in Hindi. The rest of the journey continued with me pulling his leg, he trying me to shut my mouth and the cab wale bhaiya trying hard to control his laughter to maintain a decency.

After around 40 minutes drive we finally reached the temple, on the bank of river Ganges, a place to fall in love for. As the lane was pretty much congested due to the work of road, that bhaiya was kind enough to drive down to a safe and less crowded place so that we can easily make our way to the temple.

Before paying him the fair we thanked him for such an amazing ride which filled his face with a spark and our heart with delight. With a broad smile he concluded, "Bhiya achha kaam karte hai [Sir does a great job!]" and thanked us back for letting him take part in random conversation.

We meet many people everyday. Only a few leaves a happy mark. A little gesture, a little humbleness can make a person happy, which in return increases your happy time. We walked inside the temple, spent some peaceful time while sitting on the staircase and playing with the water of Ganges. Another chapter was added to our story that day which didn't have something unusual, but Lovely Little Things.