Once Viju and his rajasthani friend Ram Soni were returning to the naval base after viewing a late night cinema. At the outer gate the DSC sentry said ‘ Ram Ram’ ‘ustad’, Soni replied. ‘ ganja peneka hai kya [want to smoke ganja] to which Soni replied in affirmative. Then ustad took then them to them to the small nook of the entry post shelter and offered chillum [ conical smoking pipe made of clay, first appeared to have been used in India in the eighteenth century; a small stone is used as a stopper in the stem ]. Ram Soni received it with attention and respect; the sentry lit up the ganja pipe for them. It was indeed gave a great joy and enchantment.
Thereafter both Viju and Ram Soni sometimes accompanied by their other friends, had many encounter’s with ustad and he always addressed Viju as ‘ Bada Sahib’ and ustad had couple of such bada sahib’s . Ustad was a bachelor, tall, was in good state of health and spoke very little; he always put a tilak on his forehead. He hailed from Rajasthan and most of the time used to be under the influence of ganja; was very religious, kind harted, god fearing and spiritual. Ustad never took a leave or went out of that post or area and read as well as recited ‘ Ramayana and Mahabharata’ . Everyone called him ‘Ustad’ and it seemed none knew or remembered his name and perhaps that rested only on his records or in the pay book. The name plate on his uniform was faded and unreadable.
Though nobody knew anything this, Viju learnt quite a bit of his background through occasional revelations made by ustad. Viju and Ram Soni were good friends, got along very well and moved around together most of the time, though both had a few other friends as well in the naval base. Both liked lobster and prawns, brandi and whisky but did not like ‘Fenny’ the local alcohol in different names, names like kaju fenny, pinnaple fenny, mosambi fenny, jeera fenny and so on but they couldn’t stand for the smell, though merely tasted this once or twice in their togetherness in Goa. They had a mood around the entire Goa i.e, that is all the beaches, places restaurants, churches and it’s better to sum up that they had hardly missed anything in Goa and all those had special charm and appeal.
People were generally peaceful and were never in any hurry but enjoyed life happily. Street fights, strikes, hartals, or rallies were not in vogue. The houses, plenty of them did not lock or close the doors as none would
ever ventured to steal; the bars were just managed by one or two abd usually by women. They found fish market full of ladies who sat around with their fish basket and sold while men mere assistants or helpers in lifting and moving these baskets. The fisher women looked attracted, very good in shape and nature and their full and flowing body parts were feasts for eyes for any new comers or visitors; a lot of navy men who used to stroll around the market in the evenings, though not necessarily to buy fish as most of them lived at naval establishments, where all facilities like mess, bars, accommodation, canteen facility and the things like that were provided.
But in the evenings most of the people went around, moved around, drank, ate and returned to the base around midnight or even a bit late; and in anyway things were not at all expensive in Goa. Viju and Ram Soni generally went out of the naval base by six in the evening, straight walked to the hotel Annapurna, adjustsent to Vasco de gama railway station, which was a walk of 15 – 20 minutes and the hotel served the very tasty madhu vada sambgar, masala doa or a mix of vada and idli. The taste was unmatchable, the quality, quantity and service was excellent; this was usual start of their evening and then proceeded to the port area, the beautiful fish market and later sat up in the kasamonderio bar or any other, ate and drank and then walked back to the base.
Occasionally they took the help of motor bike taxi which they had seen for the first time and the place was full of such taxi services, again in expensive and two or even three were seated in one without any hastle. The police controls and rules were never a scene there, and all helped each other and leaved harmoniously. No baggers were seen and also no shouts or quarrels – the life was very simple and straight.
Many Sundays early morning itself they went to one of the beautiful beaches, spent lots of time swimming, drinking, eating but the best attraction were those foreigners who wore no costumes while swimming or moving around which in itself was sumptuous feast. All women were quite pretty and never had any qualms or inhibitions what so ever. Several times people took photographs with them and many were sailors.
Though Viju and Soni had many things in common there were dissimilarities as well. For instance Viju was a voracious reader though he
was not a fan of Agatha Christie or Perry Mason, iin Fleming or Chase unlike most of them around. His eagerness and interest lied in knowing Dande , Johnson, Doste Vovskey, Victor Hugo, Francois Villon, Vyasa, Valmiki, Kalidas, Arbindo Gosh and such great authors. As a usual thing Ram Soni did not read two serial books, though Viju directly or indirectly might have influenced him to an extent, slowly.
Viju used to separate in his own way several words such as closeness, affection, liking and love. He maintained that love is mostly blind, illogical and a weak feeble feeling but Viju fell in love numerous times inspite of his views and knowledge. And Soni was in complete agreement with these. Whenever Viju discussed the topic of his love with a former college mate Leela and got very emotional, Soni at times felt that Viju indeed had a too softer side and that were deep buried, but often propped up.
He had shown him copy of his first letter which was very lengthy and sometime appeared stupid for a person of his stature. For him Leela was ‘ Beatris, Helen and Juliet’. Beatris was the love of Italian poet Dante. Viju had once told him that the love feeling of Dante towards Beatris was pure love which had paved way for his greatest comedy – ‘ Divine Comedy’. But Helen was the penultimate form and essence of classic beauty. Dr . Faustus – the story of a very talented German scholar who decried the boundaries of human knowledge and chosen christen conscience by a good angel and the path to damnation by an evil angel. In classical greek mythology Helen was the daughter of Zeus and Ledas considered to be the most beautiful women in the entire world. Juliet met Romeo in the play of Shakespeare defied father, married Romeo and ultimately committed suicide. Though she was a shy and innocent girl at the start, the depth of her character made her to abandoned them in order to marry Romeo. However, all these did not make much appeal to Soni.
Ustad studied upto eleventh standard, was more better than an average student and was very good in maths. He never told lies, was honest and always helped his friends in general whenever they needed. He never expected anything in return; was an ardent devotee of Lord Shree Ram, had great respect for women and he thought many women in his village were hapless and their plight was miserable. He always stood for truth and spoke against atrocities and suppression of women. For this he naturally got isolated and lost many friends or support.
It was around that time he chanced to like and love his classmate, who hailed from a rich and higher community but the love got only deeper and he was warned a couple of times but that seldom mitigated his steadfastness. When things became extreme and unbearable Ustad and the girl decided to elope in the early morning of a Sunday. Unfortunately the people came to know about it, caught them on the road leading to the railway station. He was beaten up badly, brought back to the village Panchayat and he was given several beatings one by one as dictated by the Panchayat. All people at his place were willing to shun him including his own home people and relatives. That was his last day in the village and leaf, eventually joined in the DSC [ The Defence Security Corps] which usually provided security to Defence Establishment.
After many years, amongst a few other matters Viju was narrating the Ustad episode to his wife; he did not notice his eight year old son playing with something who suddenly interjected “I too will become Ustad and will smoke ganja”. The perplexed father swiftly added “and the Ustad was caught by police”. “ ok then I will become police”. Viju’s charming wife gifted him naughty smile and gave a good pinch on his cheek.
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a little bit more. Appreciate it!