Cheeku,
Every dawn comes with a new promise soaked in a lament. As new possibilities open up, there is always this regret: why is Cheeku not here to share this.
A news item, the patient expectation of Shaitan, the resident Alsatian, that someone would pick up the ball and throw, sudden laughter of Kesari, the maid, early morning rush to get to office…each of these seem autonomous, but are so threaded in the one constant longing…how would Cheeku have driven all these moments in his inimitable manner.
Seven years and counting…you have been gone for that long but not a single memory fades. Sometimes a fragment of a memory floats into my consciousness sharpening the sense of that moment…when you did this and when you did that. The moment you walked a few steps on that fateful evening in Ajmer and then sat down…the first few steps! And how exciting it was, a moment of celebration to be proudly recounted days on end to anyone who would listen…Your twenty first birthday when I raised the first toast of wine (the day you were ‘permitted’ to drink, officially!) in Vijay Lobo’s house, the one who shared your birthday. You wore a blue bush-shirt, every bit a gentleman who had earned his spurs. One afternoon when a truck deep-scratched the Qualis when you were driving me to Delhi, somewhere near Achrol and you asked me if I wanted to drive, shaken by that experience…It wasn’t your fault and I asked you to continue to drive, I trusted you. I extended my hand and you gently put your hand in mine and then drove on…
Your presence is always felt, as if the parallel Universe is breaking into mine briefly. But it is most palpable when those who matter the most to you congregate. As they did on your birthday this year, on 28th June. Gaurav, Abhishek, Soumya, Tubby, Tintin…Deepesh couldn’t make it, his son is still tiny! As the evening deepened and stories of your escapades were told and retold, your booming laughter and the glint in your eyes…all of you…the presence was there. I recalled what the ninth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singhji had told his disciples. Where ever five devout Sikhs, the Panj Pyaras, congregate, the Guru would be present amongst them.
I sense that when your friends and brother congregate, you are inevitably there. And as they raise the glass to toast you, I hear you roar: “CHEERS!” And the celebration of life begins…
Love
Dad