The Messenger Arrow

A morning tea party. At the appointed hour, Sundarbabu appeared in his official regalia.

Manik asked, “Can you not discard your uniform even for tea?

“No, no! There’s no time, brother, there’s no time. I am always on duty, there’s no opportunity to take off the uniform.”

Jayanta smiled and said, “Like Chamberlain’s umbrella, Churchill’s cigar, and Gandhiji’s timepiece, Sundarbabu’s uniform is his identity. Don’t give it the evil eye, Manik.”

Sundarbabu said, “Hmm, Manik aside, there’s no dearth of people to give my uniform the evil eye.”

“How’s that?”

“In the very near future, I might have to depart for the other world in this uniform.”

Manik said, “That should come as no surprise. The thresher mills rice even when it’s in heaven.”

“No bhai, the affair isn’t that trivial – quite deadly, in fact.”

“Why is that?”

“I might die at any moment.”

“You don’t say! Has your blood pressure gone up?”

“It hasn’t gone up or down. You want to know the real reason? The enemy is lurking behind me at all times.”

“Enemy?”

“Yes, a fearsome enemy, an invisible enemy!”

“Tell us everything in detail.”

“That’s what I’ve come for. But wait bhai, let me just wet my throat a little, and fill the vacuum in my stomach a tad. What’s on the menu today?”

“We hope you’ll cheer up when you hear it.”

“Say no more, say no more! I have cheered up even without having heard it. But still, do elaborate a little.”

“As accompaniments with tea today, there’s asparagus omelet, chocolate sandwiches, sponge cake and a few other things.”

“Ah, a few other things as well? Now that is the sandesh on the tip of the god's meal. Bravo, bravo - eat and drink to your fill my lovelies, for life is but a two-day affair!”

Sundarbabu ensconced his enormous girth on to the chair with such great enthusiasm that it protested noisily.

Jayanta said, “But you know what Manik says?”

“I know Manik’s nature perfectly well, whatever he says is certain to be unpleasant.”

Manik said, “Oho, lord Krishna knows the lotus well!”

Jayanta said, “Manik is of the view that now that the nation is independent, we should give up these fancy English dishes just like we have given up the English.”

Manik grinned and said, “Is my proposition a bad one, Sundarbabu?”

“ It is a very bad proposition, a nefarious proposition.”

“Why?”

“Do we have to discard the good things about the English just because we have discarded English rule? And why will we discard the English just because the nation is independent? Do you know the greatness it takes for a race to come up with the fowl-cutlet?”

“And what is your view regarding the race that came up with the sandesh and the rasagolla?”

“I thank them too. I refuse to give up either cutlet or rasagolla. Like Gadadhar, I will partake of both milk and tobacco.”

“In all these years that the English ruled over us, did they ever want to taste the sandesh or the rasagolla?”

“They didn’t have the chance to taste them, so they didn’t know what they were missing.”

"Not at all. Sandesh-rasagolla are not suited to the English digestion. Similarly, English food might not be suitable for our digestion.”

Sundarbabu said in an annoyed tone, “Who are you, genius, to tell me what will suit me and what won’t? It suited me fine for all these years, why will it not suit me in the future as well? And the human that cannot digest a chicken cutlet is not worthy of being called a human. Anyway, let’s stop this nonsense. Here, Jayanta – where are your tea and accompaniments? I am dying here of both thirst and hunger, hmm, hmm!"

(to be continued)

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