Resurrection

 Resurrection

Some incidents in history are simply unbelievable like the coming back from the land of the departed…we reverently call it Resurrection. This is the realm of the superhumanly being and not for ordinary mortals like you and me. But recently, I actually got a jolt witnessing an almost resurrection like phenomenon.

The story revolves around a sweet middle-aged man and his devoted wife working in perfect tandem to make ends meet.

This sweet middle-aged man brings milk products like paneer, dahi and ghee to our office every week. We fondly call him ‘paneer dada’. The products are so fresh and the quality is awesome and everyone buys from him regularly. The price is also of wholesale rate and we are getting all these items at a very economical rate. Whenever we want these items out of his routine schedule, he is just a phone call away and he would bring our orders promptly. So, everyone was enjoying a very comfortable service regarding one of the coveted delicacies in our cuisine.

Lately, his wife has been accompanying him in his duty. His wife is younger, taller and stronger. She has been helping him out by bringing these items with him as he could not carry weight anymore due to a newly developed heart problem. The fact that his wife is as sweet as him is not surprising at all. So, we took an instant liking to her too.

For about two weeks now, neither the man nor his wife has been coming. We were beginning to wonder what the problem was. Because, they were so regular. Moreover, the dairy products were already in demand on the homefront too.  So, I called him up one day and asked him why he had not been coming and whether there was any problem and so on. I was not at all prepared for the answer. He said, “Mama expired” and that he had to wait till the ‘Shradh’ ceremony was over.

Now, in our society, husbands usually refer to their wives as ‘mama’ and wives refer to their husbands as ‘papa’ just like their children do instead of calling each other by name as in other customs. Having recently made the acquaintance of his wife who I mentioned was sweet-natured and younger and had a courageous attitude to life, I just could not believe that she was no more.

I felt very sad at this news. He was ill now and the only person to help him was his wife and now she was gone too. The ugly twist of fate! Well, life moves on. The moment you blink, there is another episode unfolding. Nothing is more dynamic than our existence on this planet.

The demands of the day take me to the next lap of my journey. Dahi and paneer are consumed on a daily basis in our household. So, I set out to buy these items from the wholesale store from where he had been bringing for us without any increase in the price. This is a semi-governmental organisation run by the local men and women. The production is done on a large scale and prices are minimal.

On reaching the place and waiting for my turn, I started chatting with the saleswomen there and talked about this particular couple who had been bringing us the dairy products to our office. They all knew about them and talked fondly of them.

I expressed my grief over the personal loss of our ‘paneer dada’. They were so surprised at what I said. Then, one of the women saw the ‘mix-up’ in the whole scenario and suddenly burst out laughing. I was shocked and looked at her. Then she said it was not his wife but his ‘mama’, literally his mother. It was his aged mother who was no more and not his wife. I had never thought that he would be calling his mother ‘mama’ or for that matter, that his mother had still been around. So, the messy mix-up. O my God! What a presumptuous assumption I had been making!

I gaped at her and could not help myself from laughing. It was a laughter not just of glee but of relief too… as the particular incident was nothing short of a resurrection for me!

Resurrections can happen depending on the context and like all resurrections do, something good is always in the offing and this one had one too as it washed away all my sorrow.

Memchoubi Phanjoubam.