REVELLERY UNDER THE EUCALYPTUS TREE

For the past fortnight, I had been closely observing a tall, muscular man, heavily tattooed, coming to the park, a pug royally perched on his forearm. Every morning saw him attired in thoroughly matched clothes. If blue was the chosen colour of the morning, he was a fall back on Picasso’s blue period, right from his blue shirt to his blue vest, peeping through his unbuttoned shirt, the blue wrist band , the blue nose ring and even the blue cell phone cover! There was an unmistakable swagger in his walk, a royal hauteur in his body language, but no smile on his lips. Not even a teenie weenie blue one. If red was the colour of the day, even his eyes were bloodshot.

“How arrogant, he looks”, I often mumbled to myself, curling my lips in absolute derision. “Maybe, owning a pug does that, a pugnacious fellow, that is what he is”. I was absolutely confident of this judgement that I delivered about him.

Today morning when I went to the park, my attention was caught by a couple of squirrels which were having a fun time outside the rose garden where there was a profusion of bougainvillea flowers , a riot of pink and crimson surrounded by luxuriant greenery. Roses were conspicuous by their absence. All the trees appeared to beam with a repressed joy, but the Eucalyptus tree looked forlorn. Tall and skeletal and detached. Small and big clouds were heading towards the sun trying to arrest it.

Suddenly someone switched on the sprinklers, and the water started squishing forth like bursts of irrepressible laughter, it reached even the dejected looking tree. These staccato bursts of watery mirth soon gave birth to a small pond right under the Eucalyptus tree.

 In no time a swarm of egrets descended near the pond, some more squirrels   slithered down from the neem tree, joggers plucking neem sticks and berries from the neem tree, those picking up the aloea vera peelings from the juice vendor’s cart and rubbing it on their faces, all were so fascinated   that they forgot everything but the water and the egrets joyously playing in the pond.

 Suddenly all eyes turned towards a particular direction, even the leaves of the Eucalyptus tree stirred, gave up their languor and appeared to watch keenly.

 An extremely tall, muscular man appeared on the scene, his biceps bulging, and his chest peeping through the sleeveless black shirt that he had been wearing, a black   earring dangling from his ear lobe. His cell phone had a black cover.

 It was my pug man!

  At first people noticed only the man, then they noticed his proud possession, going into a series of ohs , ahs, and how cutes.

The  man bent down, and put the small pug near the pond, and now the pug appeared to go all crazy with excitement, it jumped in to the pond, gambolled around, came back running, snuggled   close to his knees, prodding him to play with him. It was as though some hidden magician had waved his magic wand at the arrogant looking, frowning boy. His face split into smiles upon smiles, and the scowls disappeared.

 Now the Eucalyptus tree suddenly appeared to glow, it looked almost as though it had received a new lease of life.

But the  sun was suddenly interned.

But rebellion stirred in its fiery breast, and yanking away the clouds restraining it from all sides, it burst forth in all its luminosity. Ah freedom! Liberation!

The reign of the clouds had ended, a coup had taken place. How could the sun be deprived of this absolutely bewitching scene? Triumphant at having staged a coup, it glowed with a new ardour.

 The clouds scurried away, and the sun reigned, spreading its loving warmth all around. I headed home, the pug and the pug man totally etched in my mind.

 As I walked on, my eyes fixed on the ground, I suddenly saw some movement right in front of me. Was it an, old dead leaf which had been suddenly infused with life?  I looked closer. I had never seen one before, but knew it was a snail. Do all snails move so agonisingly slowly, or was it ailing? Afflicted? Crippled? What if someone steps on it? Horrified by this thought, I bent down to pick it up, but it was too slippery, it kept slipping from my grasp.

 Suddenly a hand appeared and picked it up with awe inspiring effortlessness.

 It was the pug man.

 He put it near a tree, supposedly out of harm’s reach. Before I could thank him, another appeared , and then another, and before I could realise it , I noticed that the ground was swarming with snails-big and small- and the pug man was picking them up, and carrying them to safety-away from  unsuspecting feet, the tiny pug perched majestically on his left forearm.

The scales had fallen from my eyes. The person who had appeared to be the most arrogant man in the world, now appeared to be the most benevolent, selfless man in the universe, with the most disarming smile.

 “Do not be judgemental, mom, you have this tendency to jump to conclusions on the basis of a person’s attire, this is not at all fair”, my teenage daughter had remarked just the other day.

On the way home, I came across many faces. Sunny faces abounded and the not so sunny ones tried to sheepishly wipe away their frowns and beamed awkwardly, like sunbeams which did not know whether they were coming or going. On the pavements on both sides of the road, pots and pans, cots and cans abounded. Cans were picked up, pots and pans clattered, and the morning beckoned sleepyheads and the lazy laggards for the performance of everyday chores.

A street barber had already started his barbaric atrocities on a   tiny head. A group of five kids emerged from the deceptively colourful tenements lined against the wall, big water cans in small hands, the tiny tots squelched forth, on the water-splattered road, chattering excitedly.

There were at least twenty people lined up near the public tap. Among the kids was a tiny girl, who, somehow managed to fill her water can, but unable to carry the watery burden, lost her balance and stumbled, the water spilled on the ground.

 Suddenly appeared the pug man!

 While the others merely looked around, he stretched out a long , tattooed  arm, picked up the girl, wiped her tears and  holding  her hand, took her to the nearest bakery, bought a couple of cake pieces for her and while I watched enchanted, saw to it that she ate them both. The girl appeared to be really hungry, she forgot the water, and gobbled up the cake pieces, all the time smiling away at her tattooed benefactor. Then he picked up the water can, replenished it and carried it to her shack nearby, the tiny girl hugged him and hopped away towards her house, a thankful smile plastered on her tiny face.

The resplendent reality was dancing before my eyes in intoxicated dance steps. I caught the infection and danced all the way home, hugged my sleeping daughter and said, “I will never again be judgemental, sweetheart"