No Parking

Rohit looked at himself in the mirror. He felt little awkward in this parrot green T shirt. Earlier he had never worn such bright colors. When it came to clothes, he always stuck to his basic blacks, whites and blues. But today was different. It was a gift from Meera. Her first gift to him after marriage. Today they were going out together for the first time. So it was a special day and definitely demanded for some special clothing. Rohit smiled at himself wondering how this awkwardness felt strangely good.

“Shall we go? ”

Rohit got startled and turned. He wasn’t yet accustomed to a woman speaking in his home. But was purely delighted at the softness of the voice.

“Yeah… I’m ready..”, he said.

She smiled. The most charming smile ever. At least that is what Rohit thought. It melted his heart. Rohit had always sidelined his marriage due to his career ambitions. His hectic high profile job occupied most of his time. Finally his parents got fed up of asking him to check out the photos they kept sending him regularly of the prospective brides and fixed a bride for him themselves. They told him that they have selected a good match for him and he has to accept it, no matter what.

Initially Rohit protested on being forced into marriage but when he met the girl, all his protests went poof! Not because she was extremely beautiful but there was something very attractive about her whole personality which Rohit liked instantly. She had big bright beautiful eyes which shone while she spoke. Her hair was long, black and straight. She conducted herself with a lot of maturity but also had a childlike innocence about her. She talked to him like she had known him for ages. Rohit felt he could spend his whole life just listening to her.

Today she wore a green silk saree with intricate multicolored thread work to match with him and the jasmine gajra in her hair added to her beauty. Rohit felt elated.

Both of them started for the market in their car. The whole car smelled of jasmine.

“Is the scent bothering you? If I had known it would be so fragrant then I wouldn’t have worn it in the car with AC on…”, Meera asked with concern.

“No no… Not at all”, replied Rohit.

Usually he didn’t like any kind of scent in his car. But today he felt intoxicated with the fragrance of jasmine from her gajra.

“Such is the effect of love.. Is it..”. He smiled and said to himself.

The market was teeming with people since it was a weekend. Meera looked around.

“Where will you park our car? Parking is full!”

Rohit replied coolly, “I have a way…”

Meera looked at him questioningly.

Rohit drove to a narrow lane just near the main market. There was minimal traffic in that area . Only a big garbage dump. He parked his car just behind the garbage dump on the side of the narrow street and smiled triumphantly at her.

Rohit used to come to the market every weekend for his groceries and faced the same situation of full parking each time. One day he noticed this secluded spot and from then onwards he started parking his car there. It was a ‘No Parking’ zone but because of the garbage dump, not many people noticed him except one person, a ragpicker.

He always seemed to be there in his dusty oversized shirt and blue faded lungi, rummaging through the garbage to find plastics, bottles and whatnots and filling his huge gunny bag. Maybe selling them out later for his living. Both noticed each other every time and chose to ignore.

Today also he was present. He was knee deep in garbage sorting out plastic bottles and waste papers and stuffing them in two separate bags. His lungi was tied high up on his waist.Tiny bits of papers stuck to his unruly hair as he bent down and went on with his job. He was working non stop in the scorching sun.

Rohit turned to Meera and said with an air of confidence, “One needs to find ways to survive in this world which is getting filled up at a lightening speed you know…We will have to drive approximately one km to find a vacant parking spot and then walk all the way back to the main market in this hot weather….it would be tiresome…. So I found this secret way out!”

Meera looked impressed by her husband’s smartness.

Rohit also felt like a knight in shining armor in front of his newly wedded beloved wife. She looked at him playfully and Rohit wanted to drown himself in those eyes. He was transported to another world where only he and Meera existed surrounded by love and romance. But unfortunately he was forced back to the real world too soon by a loud tap on his car window. He got startled and irritated at the same time.

It was the ragpicker. He was signalling him to open the car window with his hands.

Rohit muttered to himself, “What on earth… All these days this man just stared at me knowing very well that I won’t give him a penny… today he saw a woman with me and came to beg… Disgusting..”.

Meera asked, “What does he want?”

Rohit replied, “Money…. what else…what do such people want..”

The man tapped the car window again.

Rohit slided the window glass down a little bit and said curtly, “Please go… Don’t disturb… You won’t get anything here..”

The moment Rohit started sliding it back, the man grabbed the glass and stopped it from closing with his dirt laden fingers. He brought his face closer to the window and peeped in. Sweat beads were glistening on his temple. He looked at Rohit with his hollow sunken deep set eyes and said out loud,

“Babu listen to me! ”

Rohit got furious. The way the man dared to invade his privacy was beyond his tolerance. But before he could blurt out anything unpleasant, the man quickly spoke,

“Police is out on round today..”

At first Rohit was taken aback. He somehow couldn’t make sense of what he was hearing. And when he did, he had the same effect which everybody has on hearing the word ‘Police’.

He just kept looking at the ragpicker blankly.

Now that the man had Rohit’s attention, he left the window glass and continued,

“ Yes Babu…They towed many vehicles which were in ‘No Parking’ area”
“ So move your car from here before they notice you… why to pay fine unnecessarily….that’s what I came to say”

Then he held the bottom edge of his tattered lungi with both the hands, tied it around his waist again and left.

Rohit’s face was flushed. Not with anger but with embarrassment. Suddenly he didn’t know what to say or do. The man had left and resumed his work. Meera was quiet.

Rohit closed the window and immediately drove out of that area. As expected, he got a parking place far away from the main market. They both had to walk quite a distance to come back. But it wasn’t so bad after all as they walked hand in hand all the way.

Both had a great time. They had lunch outside, watched a movie and did a lot of shopping. Back home Meera couldn’t stop gushing about how much she enjoyed the day but she didn’t utter a single word about the parking incident. Rohit appreciated it. Maybe she didn’t want to embarrass her husband further. His respect for her increased a tad bit more because of this.

But Rohit couldn’t stop thinking about it. He felt ashamed of himself for judging a person by his type of work and clothes. He had read in numerous books right from childhood that a work which is done honestly is worship. One should treat people equally and not form an opinion about them beforehand based on their clothes or social status. But when he faced such a situation in reality, he did exactly the opposite. He was so much drowned in his personal emotions that he failed to conduct his behavior rationally.

Next week Rohit went to do groceries in the same market alone. While crossing the dump yard, his eyes automatically searched for the ragpicker and fortunately or not, found him. He was as usual busy at his work.

Rohit lowered his eyelashes. He didn’t want to confront him out of guilt in his own subconscious mind. But after walking few steps, he realized that the man had already spotted him and was looking in his direction.

So Rohit looked back at him. He nodded his head slightly acknowledging him and smiled.

The man smiled back at him with his full set of yellow teeth visible.