Part-1
1971-1981
It was a chilly winter night of December 1971. India was at war with its unrestrained neighbour and in the cacophony of Rajouri Garden market, a 7 year old kid looked wide eyed at the chaos all around, as the siren sounded. His thoughts were torn between imaginary scenes of fighter planes blazing overhead and the inner turmoil staring him at home where an unfathomable discord was shattering its peace.
Silent and confused, young Jasbir cuddled up in his grandfather’s lap and found some solace in the warmth and serenity in the gentle prayer that he was muttering. He looked up at his inscrutable face to see if he could unravel his perplexity. Darji silently cradled him and turned his face away from the commotion and prepared to put him to sleep. The innocent boy soon wafted into his dreams of flying fighter planes; dropping bombs on the enemy, forgetting the pain of his separation from someone that loved him the most.
Startled by the sudden turn of events at home and the turbulence all around, the kid started looking for answers to his unsettled thoughts, while his mates were lost in the merriment and so-called small joys of boyhood. Soon, this young boy developed severe mood swings and a confused and brittle temperament. But he always found comfort in the incoherent prayers and mumblings of his affable grandfather whom he lovingly called 'Darji'.
Darji was a source of soothing charm that mothered and somehow always alleviated the pains of Jasbir. He started teaching him the daily prayers 'Nitnem' and most afternoons were spent intently listening to mystical 'Saakhis' about the lives and teachings of the Sikh Gurus. The experienced eyes of the wizened old man sensed the young soul's desires and sympathetically started offering him 'boondi parshad' after the midday sojourn ended in 'samapti'.
Unknowingly, the young lad got hooked to the sweet partaking and along with it; he also lapped up the enchanting divine stories of his religious masters. While others were lost in the fascinating allure of Tintin and Phantom comics, this boy started fantasizing and living his own world of mythological spiritual beings.
Never a brilliant student, a disinterested Jasbir found schooling to be an agonizing experience. Getting teased by other students, just because he was ordinary disarranged dressed, made him go deeper into his shell; his uncommon behavior contributing copiously to aggravate this problem. But none around him realized that the young lad, although feeling angry brooded over the idea of some day joining a ‘Gurukul’ school that he was told; never discriminated between the rich and the poor; the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’.
Unknowingly the innocent withdrawn child developed a passion for day dreaming things and situations that were conducive to peace and happiness in the world around him although most of the time he found that he was surrounded by angry, sad and miserable people. In the midst of these chaotic and depressing scenes, he started chasing an elusive rainbow of permanent peace that would make this world a happy place to live in.
While coming back from school, he always used to stop by at the Church that was on its path. He could feel the warmth and love of Mother Mary’s statue holding Jesus in her lap. The serenity and sheer calmness of her countenance held him stupefied in his tracks for hours every day. His friends never realized that the young brat longed for the same love, affection and care that the child Jesus got in Mary’s arms.
From a distance, he could momentarily feel his sadness vanishing and getting filled up with a cold soothing draft leaving him assuaged and tranquilized. This scene haunted him for hours together and Jasbir, instead of crying, used to fantasize of being a Phantom who could paste a smile on every child that was motherless. Somehow at this age he resolved that crying made him a lesser man and he desired to be like his religious masters.
............Contd. (see Part - 2)
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