Phatik Ganguly is the caretaker of the Brabourne road cemetery. For the past twenty five years Phatikbabu is taking care of the dead, literally! He has a room in the compound and his personal interests (of whatever few he has) are met by the honorarium paid by the trust responsible for running the cemetery. He ensures upkeep of the compound, waters the plants, keeps a check on vagabonds or ruffians who will not leave any grave stone unturned to encroach on the property, drives away stray animals that saunter in and provide the necessary service to people who need to use the cemetery. The cemetery is not in use much. There is hardly any space. Whatever is left has been kept lest someone walk in with a recommendation. Surprising! Recommendations help us even after we die! A proposal to get more land is lying with the local municipal authorities. But like all government files and projects which never see light of the day, this too has very slim chances unless some local heavyweight or a politician takes fancy with the issues of the dead!
Phatikbabu hardly has any visitors calling on him. Except for Dinu who brings him his daily lunch and dinner, there is Sujoyda another octogenarian and Phatikbabu’s classmate, who comes for the occasional hookah and chitchat. However for the last couple of days Phatikbabu has a new friend. Initially the man would come in at around four–thirty, very quietly walk towards one of the grave stones and silently sit there. For the first couple of days Phatikbabu did not want to bother him, but when the visits became regular he decided to inquire more.
Aroon Sarkar, Phatikbabu had to cajole him to know his name, is in his late thirties. With a stooping figure, droopy eyes, a receding hairline Aroon seemed to melt in the surroundings of the cemetery. When the sun shone on his bald plate it seemed to emit a strange light. This was the only light that emanated from Aroon, everything else about him was sad. He hardly ever spoke except the monosyllabic answers in response to Phatikbabu’s questions. Aroon is an English teacher at the municipal school. He is unmarried and lives in a one room apartment in the old city. Of whatever meager he earned, he kept a little for himself and the rest he donated to a local orphanage.
Every day at four-thirty in the evening Aroon would enter the cemetery compound. After a quick nod at Phatikbabu he would walk to the corner of the cemetery. He would always bring a bunch of white lilies and lay them at the grave of Roopa Sarkar. Lilies were her favorite flowers.
Roopa Sarkar was Aroon’s mother. Not many people would know her by her maiden name. She was Roopa the yesteryears movie star. A woman of astounding beauty, during her heydays she had the Calcutta public eating out of her hands. More than her stardom she made headlines with her whirlwind romance with one of the most influential man in the city. However things did not work between them as desired. When things turned sour the man used his influence and clout to ensure Roopa lose out on all her movie offers. Relations between them reached its nadir with the birth of Aroon. The man feared Roopa would use the baby to extract money out of him. The rumors had it that he even sent hired goons to get Roopa and the child eliminated.
Roopa was a lady of iron will. She quit films and decided to bring up Aroon as a single mother. Not that it was easy. Many wanted to help her. Roopa was clever enough to see through the façade. She stayed away from one and all. She was ostracized from society, her trusted aides who during her good times swore by her, deserted her one by one. There were days when she and Aroon went hungry yet she never lost her dignity. She clung on to her faith and her ability to rise above all odds saw them through the worst of times. Her hard work paid when Aroon got a job at the local municipal school.
However all this had a toll on her health. She had a wiry frame and was prone to bouts of depression. During her movie days she would smoke occasionally. Due to the depression she picked it up again. The doctors advised her against it many times, but she would never pay heed to them. She said this was the only luxury she permitted herself. The heavy smoking damaged sixty percent of her lungs. She died in sleep due a massive heart attack.
Aroon’s world came to an end with Roopa’s death. He had read somewhere “God could not be everywhere so he made mothers”. He found this coming true in his life. His mother’s entire life was one of struggle. Things which were taken for granted in other households were a luxury for them. All the trial and tribulations went by this mother son duo turned Aroon into a sensitive person. He grew up to be introspective. One could find him sitting quietly lost in his thoughts. He often wondered on the purpose of his mother’s life. He could not fathom the treatment meted out to her by the man she loved and for whom she forsook her career. He had tried many times to know the antecedents of her life. He wanted her to tell him who his father was and why did he not stay with them? Roopa never relented. She always avoided the topic. On being pestered too much she would tell him that his father had died while he was very young. Somehow Aroon could not make himself believe this.
While sitting at the foot of his mother’s grave he would wonder at the way his life had taken its course. The serenity of the cemetery was a perfect foil to his agitating mind. Aroon felt that the cemetery was a man’s final destination. It was very humbling here. The cemetery was a great leveler. It did not matter if you are a blue blood royalty, rich or poor, clergy or laity, prince or pauper. The cemetery meted the same treatment to everyone. No one jingles coins here. No one flaunts big cars here. You would not find any ostentatious display of wealth or any rowdy show of pseudo masochism. Time stood still here. There is no hurry of meeting deadlines; no pressure of being perfect. Death is the final perfection!
But if man knows that this is the inevitable, why does he behave insanely? Why is there mindless killing? Why is man baying for another’s blood in this “dog-eat-dog-world?” If we cannot carry all that we hoard during the lifetime, why don’t we see the futility of our actions? When immortality is Nature’s closely guarded secret never to be revealed to anyone, what prompts us to act so vainly? What went in his father’s mind while he treated his mother so badly? Was the desire to control his mother a vain attempt to hide his own imperfections? He thought and thought but the answers eluded him.
After Roopa died Aroon decided to rent a portion of the house to someone in need. While he was clearing the room to be rented he chanced upon an iron chest. This one had escaped his attention while his mother was alive. Maybe she had kept it hidden from him. Besides old clothes, a few of his mother’s saris, in the chest he also found old magazines, newspaper clippings and a few letters written to her by one Indrajit Talukdar. Aroon immediately knew he had struck gold. He set out to find more about Indrajit.
Indrajit Talukdar was from a zamindar family. His father Mahendranath Talukdar had come to Calcutta during the partition. He had set up a rice mill and a sugar mill in the city. Being a god-fearing man Mahendranath had also set up free schools for the poor, opened many ashrams and day care centers. Due to his philanthropy Mahendranath was very popular. His well wishers asked him to contest the local municipal elections and he was elected the mayor of Calcutta.
Mahendranath had two sons and a daughter. Indrajit was his youngest son. He was a pampered child. Every wish of his was fulfilled even before he would say it. Servants were at his beck and call all through the day. He threw tantrums, became very violent if things were not to his liking. During his adolescent days he fell into bad company. Initially money was not a problem. Slowly when his demand for money could not be met by his father Indrajit got involved in nefarious activities such as land grabbing, extortion, and kidnapping. He did everything to bring infamy to his father's reputation. Things came to such a pass that Mahendranath disowned him. Seeing that he would lose out on such a huge inheritance Indrajit went to court against his father. He was helped in all these by his father’s political opponents and other relatives who were never happy with the rise of Mahendranath.
Indrajit was also into movie financing. In a ceremony to award movie stars he noticed Roopa. He was awe-struck by her dazzling beauty. She was new to tinsel town and would frequent such parties to seek audience with the leading directors and producers. She hoped to get work this way. Within minutes of seeing Roopa, Indrajit announced a new movie with Roopa as the leading lady. He signed the best crew. The movie also had a huge budget. The movie went on floors and on the pretext of overseeing production Indrajit started meeting Roopa every-day. As luck would have it Indrajit’s gamble paid off and the movie turned out to be blockbuster. Overnight Roopa was a sensation.
After the movie’s unprecedented success Roopa was flooded with more offers. She and Indrajit were now completely into each other. Her affair starting feeding the gossip mills and it soon became the talk of the town. But nobody dare say anything to them, not even Roopa’s family. Everyone knew Indrajit’s influence. It was said that Indrajit ensured many of Roopa’s competitors went without work. All of those movies came to her kitty. Everything went well for a couple of years. Then one day she discovered Indrajit was not only married but also had a child. When she confronted Indrajit about this he had no qualms in accepting it. He said it was none of her business to know about his past life. She should only be bothered about her stardom which was his mercy to her and no price is ever too high for Roopa to pay it. It did not matter much to him when Roopa told him that she was carrying his child, he asked her to drop it.
The jolt woke Roopa out of her reverie. Suddenly she felt she had been cheated. She told Indrajit that whatever happens she would never drop the child. Indrajit walked out of her life leaving her in the lurch. He also threatened her with dire consequences.
It was six-thirty now. Aroon has been in the cemetery for more than usual today. He felt a light tap on his shoulder. He turned around and saw the benign face of Phatikbabu. He asked Aroon to come and sit in his room then. A local politician had died and his body had come to the cemetery. But there is no space insisted Aroon, where will this body be laid? Phatikbabu asked him to not to meddle in affairs of the cemetery. Space would be made next to Roopa Sarkar’s grave. A few plots had been left to accommodate any such pressing need. Moreover he could not refuse as the trust has the final say in such matters. Without much ado Aroon got up and made a quiet exit.
The next morning the following newspaper headline caught his attention “Councilor brutally murdered in his sleep. Old animosity suspected.” He was about to toss the newspaper away as such things had almost become routine, when the name of the councilor forbade him to do so. The fine print said “Indrajit Talukdar murdered in his sleep. A local miscreant stabbed him seventy two times before fleeing away. Nothing has been stolen. Tension grips south Calcutta, his constituency. Police have been deployed to prevent any untoward incident. Indrajit Talukdar has been laid to rest in the Brabourne road cemetery….”
Aroon finally tossed the paper aside. He was getting late for school.
