“Pa, mom…come quickly…is this colour enough?” “Mom, just check out… Is this much bhang enough in the thandai?” There is a whole world within so replete with sounds of your shouting, your laughter, your colour! I am looking at the picture of you and your gang of friends coloured from head to toe, standing in front of the car shed in Gopal Sadan, in the verandah-your foot crossed over the other, your face reflecting such immense satisfaction at another Holi well played!
There is a world outside, outside of our home…the world in which crowds and crowds of people are going around in groups playing Holi, so much laughter and joy…its Phag again. Inside our home there is a quiet, stillness.
Then there is a world within-full of the sounds of Cheeku and Tubby, full of life so embedded within my consciousness-never Cheeku or Tubby, always Cheeku-Tubby-the two but one, the two spaces on both sides filled by strapping young men, the four strong arms that would carry me to my salvation…colour, music, laughter, mithai, Bhang, thandai, friends, more friends, still more…!
“Aaj rang hai, ri maa, aaj rang hai”…as if Amir Khusro knew of Cheeku would come and give Holi another dimension. And then move on.
You have given to me so much Cheeku. And you have taken away so much with you. As I sit quietly thinking of where you would be holding court, which world would be resounding with your laughter and who are the blessed ones who can hold you in their arms and feel your warmth and love seep into them, I wonder if you would be thinking of your dad, your mom, your brother Tubby, your bum chums Kashyap, Sunny, Soumya, Deepu? Would you be laughing at your own jokes loudly and then pausing to think how your dad would sit riveted with pride of having a son who made the world so much brighter and livable?
“Bhuli bisri chand ummeden, chand fasane yaad aaye,
Tum yaad aye aur tumhare sang zamane yaad aaye?.?
Aaj rang he re Cheeku…aaj rang hai…
Dad