October 23, 2012
Mark saw his best buddy’s body burning in the flame. He was going to miss Swamy badly, he thought. Then he saw Swamy’s son Krishna looking in his direction. Mark suddenly broke the eye contact and looked away. As it was late people were leaving one by one. Swamy’s son walked towards him. Mark didn’t know what to do. He knew fighting, accusing, blaming was common at a funeral. Mark held his breath and his grip on his walking stick increased. If he was a little younger by now he would have ran, he thought. Krishna stood in from of Mark and said, "I don’t blame you for what my father has done to me. It was his decision." Mark nodded, not knowing what else to do.
Mark was shocked when Krishna told him that it was his father's wish that he do his last rights. Mark had seen the pain in Krishna’s eyes. He stood there watching his best friend’s lifeless body on the pile of wood. He was overwhelmed seeing his buddy's last desire. When he had the set the fire he had said a prayer in his own way.
Krishna’s sudden question interrupted his rail of thoughts. "How are you going? Should I drop you?" Mark coughed and said, "the driver will come and pick me up. Anyway, thank you." Krsihna nodded his head and stood beside Mark. Mark was not good with modern grown up men. Maybe it was because he never had a son. Unlike other fathers he didn’t feel he was missing something in his life as his daughter was everything to him.
It was almost half an hour and there was no sign of the driver. Mark looked at the watch impatiently as it was getting dark. Krishna said "looks like your driver is not coming. Come on sir, I will drop you." Mark slowly followed Krishna towards his Audi car. He smiled looking at the beauty. If Swamy was alive he could have taken him for a long drive in the car. He wiped his tears remembering his lost friend. Krishna started the engine and Mark started recalling the days with his buddy.
*********************
Mark was around 66 when he joined the old age home "St Xavier." By profession he was techie. It was his own decision to live there. He lost his wife years ago. It was his loneliness that made him join the old age home. His daughter had begged him to stay with her in her house but Mark had denied the offer without thinking twice. He had taken a shared room and was scared like a kitten thinking about his roommate. When he was young, before joining the hostel he had similar fear. He smiled when he realized that only the age changes but not the feeling.
He had taken his favourite 6-inch flat screen TV, laptop and full length mirror. When he had knocked on the door a middle aged man had opened with a question mark on his face. It was then that Mark had introduced himself extending his hand. Mark took 5 long minutes to understand that the person staring at him had hearing problem. He started coughing after repeating his name ten times at the top of his voice. The man who stood in front of him ran inside and brought a glass of water. Mark drank the water and looked at the man wondering whether he made a mistake coming here.
Mark stood there wondering how to communicate when sister Flavia came to his aid. She was young and pretty. Seeing the nun the old man ran away and came out with his hearing instrument. Mark hid his smile seeing the old man. Sister Flavia said "Swamy this is Mark your roommate, you both will be sharing this room." Swamy then extended his hand towards Mark and said "Nice to meet you Mark , I am Rama Swamy, you can call me Swamy." I am a retired Bank employee." Mark smiled seeing Swamy’s missing teeth, and thinking how his artificial teeth made a good impression.
When Swamy saw Mark's TV he said, "I already have one.." Mark interrupted saying "come on dude I can’t watch my Pamela in that freaky small TV." Swamy said "who? News reader?." Mark laughed and said "hahhh so what we got here? ancient masterpiece? Pamela the Baywatch queen, Don’t you watch it?" Swamy adjusted his hearing instrument and said "I watch only news and cricket." Mark sat on the bed and said "ha you are really true Indian old citizen. Good for you." Swamy stared at Mark not understanding what Mark was talking about.
Mark said "you are in FB?."
Swamy said "I have some FD’s but not many."
Mark said "I will have a tough time teaching you all this dude."
Mark opened his laptop and sat on Swamy bed and said "you are in 2012 and you must have an FB account, else people think you are the grandfather of Adam." Swamy adjusted his spectacle and glared at Mark's laptop. He almost fainted seeing the picture of a lady who was holding a gun with tag line "I am gonna kill you." Mark patted his desktop and said "that’s her I was talking about. You must watch her in action. She’s awesome." Swamy stared at Mark. He was sure that Mark was a perverted old man.
Mark started to explain about Facebook. He explained briefly about how one could find school friends and upload pictures. He showed his granddaughter's picture and said "that’s Patty, a computer freak. She’s in 1st standard and she has 200 friends in her friend list. Can you beat that?." Swamy said "god save this generation, wonder what will happen." Mark then created an FB account for Swamy. He started unpacking his things while Swamy started exploring FB.
The first name he typed was "Krishna Swamy." His eyes were misty when he hit the search button. He didn’t say a word when he found his son. He touched the son's picture and closed the laptop. Like always he hid his pain and helped Mark in his task.
It was prayer time. Swamy was praying when Mark emerged from the bathroom singing some song. Mark didn’t stop singing even when he saw Swamy praying. He sprayed his deodorant and took out his night clothes. He smiled seeing his teddy bear print pajama suit. It was Patty who suggested him that they both should have similar pajama suits. Swamy said angrily "Mark will you stop singing, can't you see I am praying." Mark said "to whom? If god were listening to your prayer you wouldn’t have been here."
Swamy removed his spectacles and wiped his eyes and said "Yes, I wouldn’t have been here. But you see I was destined to be here. My son doesn’t want me. He is happy with his wife and son in US...." Swamy was very disturbed after seeing his son's FB account. Mark walked towards Swamy and put his hand around his shoulder and said "Come on dude I didn’t intend to hurt you. Don’t think about your useless son and cry. You have life and money, just enjoy. I will teach you to do that. Now wipe your tears." For the first time in his old age Swamy felt good. Even though he didn’t like Mark he felt Mark knew to live life.
After dinner Mark took out his Jack Daniel and poured him a stiff drink. He offered Swamy but the latter denied politely. Mark said "live your life Swamy, at least when you are 70 try something you never tried." Swamy glared at Mark and Mark shut his mouth.
Swamy was able to find his school friends in FB. Now most of his time he spent on laptop and watching all modern stuff on TV. He started to like Mark. He remembered how happy he was on Christmas.
Mark's daughter Clera had come to take her father home for Christmas. It was Mark who requested Sister Flavia to grant permission so that he could take Swamy along. Swamy eyes filled with tears and he hugged Mark. Swamy said, "My son never came to see me. Taking me home is out of question. Thank you Mark." Mark hugged Swamy and said "Chillax dude, I am taking you home only on one condition - you will have a peg with me!" Swamy smiled and said, "I will have as many as you want."
Mark's daughter was very gentle and courteous. Patty called him grandpa too. Mark took him on his Yezdi for a ride. They both shopped and bought new clothes. Mark had gifted Swamy a trendy pair of jeans. Swamy smiled looking at himself in the mirror and said, "I cant wear them, I never wore jeans." Mark said, "It's time you started wearing them." Swamy never felt so alive and happy. He never thought life could be so colourful despite being alone.
It was two days later when Mark was riding the bike that he had a heart attack. He was in the ICU for two days. Swamy prayed to god to save his best buddy. When Mark opened his eyes he found Swamy dozing in the chair. Swamy said, "How are you Mark?" Mark smiled and said "You thought I would die? I can't...My Pamela won't let me go." Swamy smiled listening to Mark’s silly talk.
Mark was discharged and his daughter took him home. Swamy missed his buddy. To be alone in the room was painful for him. Even he had started watching Baywatch. Even though it was an old TV show he started liking it.
It was after a month that Mark came back. As a welcome gift Swamy gave Mark a walking stick. Mark hugged Swamy and said, "Missed you man."
Mark knew that Swamy missed his son. He tried contacting him but his efforts went in vain. Whenever he went home he took Swamy along.
One late night they were playing cards when Swamy a cardiac arrest. Mark didn’t waste time and called the ambulance. Swamy’s condtion was very critical. Nurses informed his son Krishna and he came down to see his father. Mark felt like punching him right on his nose. When doctors came and said "Swamy wants to talk to Mark" Krishna’s face fell. Mark stopped in front of Krishna and said, "You came a bit early, looks like he is not yet dead." And then he was gone. He didn’t stop to see Krishna’s reaction.
Swamy held Mark's hand in his and said, "Looks like I am the first one to go and I am happy about that."
"Stop it Swamy, now we are even. We still have many things to do. Next Christmas will go to LA and meet Pamela."
"Oh Mark I don’t want to die if we are going to meet her."
Mark paused for a while and said, "Krishna is here, should I call him in?." Swamy looked away and said "No Mark. When I die I want to see your face not his." Marks eyes welled with tears. With a low voice he said, "Don’t say that Swamy."
Swamy continued, "You taught me to live, you taught me to enjoy my life, it's you who taught me to chase away the loneliness. And my son taught me nothing and gave me only misery and distress." Mark was silent. He sat beside his bed and held his hand in his.
**************************
Mark wiped his eyes. It was his last talk with Swamy. Krishna stopped the car in front of the old age home. Krishna said, "don’t cry Mr. Mark. We can't bring him back."
Mark said, "You will never understand Krishna. May be one day when you are old you will. May be in this same old age home. Thank you for the drive anyway." With that, Mark got down from car and walked towards his room. He looked at the sky and said, "We will meet again soon, Swamy. Till then hang in there...."
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