My Wanderings 100 Short Story No.56 Genius versus Moroon

My Wanderings 100

Short Story No. 56

Genius Versus Moroon 

                 While working as Incharge of International Banking Division jammu Branch ,  I had varied  experiences  of encounter with various types of  customers. They included NRI customers living in different foreign countries, people requiring foreign cash or remittance facilities or foreign exchange for visiting foreign lands as tourists or sending their wards for higher education etc, people doing import export business or foreign trade which included issuing letter of credit or letter of comfort and arranging buyers credit or sellers credit for them, sometimes in foreign currency only. 

              The importers and exporters were  high fi customers as they were usually proprietor of big companies and arranged to get their Bank work done through their employees. There were some small importers also who would usually visit the Bank personally. One of the small  importers who attracted my attention was Mr. Mohan Raina .He was a person of small frame , wearing specs and clad in ordinary attire, with an air of shrewdness.   He was importing some chinese goods and paid his Bill's through our bank. His business was very small as compared to other importers . He had opened a  firm  in his name , the address of which was shown by him as  his rented residential accommodation at Jammu. He was sometimes accompanied by his elder son Ashoo , who would always remain silent in presence of his father. 

               Once, Mr. Raina  told me that he has  two sons. Both were the students of   prestigious Burn Hall School  at Srinagar . The elder son Ashoo could not show much aptitude in studies and left the same  only after passing his 12th exam  , but his younger son is very brilliant and he did his engineering with merit and now he is posted in US. 

             Later on I came to know, through his acquaintances , that Mr Mohan Raina was a big business man while  at Srinagar . He was a proud possessor of a luxurious car , when personal cars were not  much available in Srinagar city. But only one habit that ruined his business was that he was seen daily visiting  the bars , in evenings , alongwith his friends.

              Then after turmoil in Kashmir  , he had to shift to jammu alongwith his family , which totally collapsed his business. 

After shifting to Jammu , he tried much to restart his business but of no avail.  He had to encounter failures only for a long time. Then he started the present business on smaller scale from his residence only, which picked up a little and became a source of  his sustenance at Jammu. But misfortunes did not leave him  alone here .  He was concerned about the future of his elder son Ashoo, who had left his studies altogether. While he was thinking of adjusting his elder son Ashoo  somewhere , whom he considered as a moroon , his wife died all of a sudden in road accident at jammu. The death of his wife gave him a big blow in his life from which he never thought of recovering again . In the mean time his younger son got engineering seat at pune for which he gathered enough  courage to look after his education,  as he was very proud of him and he considered him very brilliant. 

Then he thought of adjusting Ashoo, his elder son with his own business , and started teaching him the tricks of trade. 

                 At  the time I met this gentleman Mohan Raina , he had already married both his  sons . His younger son was already settled in USA along with his well educated and working wife. He had also married his elder son Ashoo , with an  illiterate girl from Batote area, who looked after their house hold chores  at jammu very nicely . Their business was also picking up in a better way. 

                             After few years , health of Mohan Raina started deteriorating day by day . Now Ashoo was looking after the business independently  and he used to visit the bank with out his father.  Ashoo had become very bold and had learned the trade nicely. We also came to know that he and his wife were looking after the health of their father with concern. 

Whenever,  he visited the bank he would entertain me and my colleagues with his jokes and simplicity. Once , one of my colleagues told us in his presence that Ashoo is very much  scared of his wife , in a lighter vein . But Ashoo could  not conceive the humour in these words . He became very serious and while putting his right hand on his head he  said with all audacity , oh  no !, Never at all ," I am never  afraid  of my wife . I swear by myself and my only daughter." Then I told him he should not get so much agitated over a small thing  . Every body Is afraid  of their  wives . But he never agreed with me and never accepted the blame on him . All the staff and myself helped him unusually and sometimes gave him a peace of mind , when he was in difficulty  , because we liked him  all  for  his simplicity and honesty. 

             One day Ashoo told me that his father is very sick ,but his younger brother does not seem to be interested in their affairs . He had rarely visited them since he left for USA. Now he has  stopped communicating with them also. I told Ashoo , to help his father in this time of  sickness and distress and don't let him feel the absence of his younger son.  Ashoo assured me that his wife and he himself is serving his father with all dedication.  I believed Ashoo because I knew that he was not so intelligent to coin lies. 

                        After some time , we came to know that Sh. Mohan Raina left this mortal world for good,  quit peacefully and his head resting on  the lap of his maroon son,  Ashoo.

  On the 10th day after his death , his brilliant younger son  also reached jammu with out his wife to pay last homage to his father. 

                 Ashoo told me, later  on,  that after 12th day , when all the relatives had left their home, his younger brother started enquiring about the business of their  father and told Ashoo,  outrightly that he should make him sleeping partner in the business and divide the profit equally. This outrageous statement of his brother had really frightened Ashoo  , as the later was hardly able to meet his both ends with a little profit he made out of business. Moreover, Ashoo had to pay monthly rent for his residential cum official accommodation. 

After some time, it transpired that younger brother of Ashoo,  had to eat a humble pie after intervention of their close relatives, who gave him a bit of mind and due to the paucity of time as he was in hurry to leave for America , he could not pursue the case . 

Then on somebody's advice ,  Ashoo also opened a new firm in his own  name and started bringing chinese goods consignment on new firm, as he was scared of his younger brother,  that he may come anytime from America to rob him of his livelihood. 

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My Wanderings 99 Short Story No.55 A Unique Visitor

My father after retirement, at the age of fifty five only, as Incharge of Khrew Alopathic Dispensary opened a medical shop near his residence at Purshyar locality in Srinagar city. He started practicing medicine and providing medical services at his shop to all locals at  very low charges due to his spiritual insight and background. Sometimes he would provide free medical assistance and  services to poor and needy . Therefore, most of the locals became his permanent customers. It was not a commercial  but mere a sustenance venture and a pastime hub of  my father. Moreover,  being a thorough gentleman and honest to the core, his customers and all the shopkeepers around respected him very much. It was not only customers but most of his acquaintances , who were of allied nature would visit his shop on daily basis for religious discussions. It also became a meeting place for most of his retired childhood  friends. Pt. Janki Nath Kaul ' Kamal ' , a renowned religious scholar , Pt.Niranjan Nath Karihaloo , director of Sericuture dept. , Pt. Kanth Ram, head master of Mission School and many more  scholars and like minded people. They  started visiting his shop almost on daily basis  . My father after attending his patients would also indulge with them in religious and literary discourses and discussions . Pt. Janki Nath Kaul ' Kamal ' has given reference of my father and crux of their discussions   in many of his religious books, which he authored later on. Whenever there were no patients and friends at his shop, he would mostly be seen  involved in reading religious  scriptures. 

Actually religious journey of my father started at very young age, when he was a bachelor and newly posted at Badgam village . He used to visit a river  near by for a bath and sandhya vandana early in the morning , when it was quite dark. One day a  great saint Sh. Nand Lal ji Mahraj, who later on became his Guru  , found him on  the stairs of river and after observing his spiritual bent of mind asked him , if  he was intrested in reading religious  scriptures, then he should visit my ashram in the evenings . My father readily accepted his offer and started visiting his ashram which was adjacent to local temple of Budgam. After sometime,  his Guru asked him to stay with him permanently in the ashram as   many other disciples of Guru Mahraj  were  living there. Then my father started living  in ashram under the  full discipline and curriculum of Ashram for many more years until his transfer. But Guru shisha legacy remained alive until the death of his Guru Mahraj. 

I had seen my father daily reciting the verses of Shrimadbagwadgita. It was not only receiting but he had become the embodiment of its virtues and personification of its ideals. He was not a millionaire but ordinary middle class person  He did philonothropy in his own way and within his means . In other way he attributed his actions and services towards the almighty . He did actions for  sustenance of himself and his family only and beyond that  he would help the needy and provided  his services free of cost to the  poor. He never involved himself in the bondage of his actions and remained absorbed  in Nishkam karma. 

Most of the patients always remained obliged to my father because of his spiritual  attitude and healing touch in his hands while treating them. 

One day a stranger visited his shop. He appeared very well to do person because of his attire and personality . He asked my father that he needed his  consultation for some ailment from which he was suffering . My father also injected him from an injection vile which he had brought with himself . When stranger wanted to pay my father for his services,  latter outrightly refused to accept the  payment. But stranger was very much particular to make his payment. Later on the stranger told my father that he has made it a point in his  life not to withhold anybody's payment or debt, because he has  learnt the lesson regarding this  from his personal experience. Then he started to narrate his experience to my father. 

On day it happened that I was visiting some village on a Tongha,  a horse driven cart. I was seated on the back seat and driver was driving the cart on a country road . The cool spring  air was full of fragrance due to the surrounding trees with blossoms . The sweet scent of blossoms  intoxicated my nerves and I had a wink of sleep. While sleeping I saw a dream that the horse , who was pulling my cart came close to me and talked to me  like any other gentleman . He told me that I owe this cart driver Rupees two  in my last janma and now I have become his slave in this janma . I want to leave this janma now as I feel very much tired of it.  if you  can  help me and repay him Rupees two with out his knowlege , I will remain obliged to you. 

Later on I recovered from my dream and picked up Rs two note from my pocket and threw it slowly on the front side of cart with out the knowledge of cart driver . In the mean time , cart driver observed the note. He asked me whether it was my note . But I shaked my head in refusal. He took the note from the deck of cart and put it into his pocket. 

Within a short span of time. I could observe the legs of Horse wavering and he instaneously fell dead  on the road. 

Now my father could not discuss any  more on this subject and accepted his payment reluctantly. 

My father could not make millions but he lived his life most satisfactorily and in peaceful manner. He was not much  ambitious person but his needs were taken care of by the Almighty quite comfortably. 

 His  legacy of goodwill, high moral character and spiritual insight is worth trillions and a matter of pride for his descendants and acquaintances.