Sukhi - An unusual Character

                    “  Sukhi – An unusual character “

“Sukhi” was a strange man. not only from his looks but from his behaviour and entire personality as well.

The first time, we saw him he was dressed quite weirdly. A total white safari suit , with a strange cloth tied around his head like a turban,. A brush like lean moustache , big hairy eyebrows and a wheatish complexion in totality, made him look like a participant in some fancy dress competition. He told us that though he belonged to a well educated family, he was a driver by profession. When we asked about his family he told us that his father was a high ranking government official and his siblings were well placed in some good companies .

He said that he became a driver by choice, as he had no interest in studies, he quit his studies. That was one of the reasons he could never get along with his father and preferred to stay away from his family as far as possible. As he put up in our neighbourhood  itself , his visits became quite frequent at our place.

Apart from being harsh by tone, he was very helpful and was ready to help us whenever we needed his help. He had a very restless temperament and whenever he visited our house seldom sat down and always stood  near the door literally shaking his body.

As we also had a car in our possession, Sukhi would accompany us whenever was possible, be it for short or long trips. Though his driving was rash still he regarded himself as an expert driver. Speeding was one of his major issues and he would scare people by taking car besides them on the road scaring them unawares. This game of his seemed to amuse Sukhi a lot.

As “Sukhi” was rude in tone, by heart he was a fine person, it just took us sometime to get a hang of him. We had a pet dog with its 2 little pups, and often Sukhi would accompany us taking them for walks. Sukhi was so weird that once he took all the three dogs simultaneously together and created a lot of havoc on the road. He was later scolded by our mother and brother and was advised to be more sensitive towards animals and also tolerant with them.

“Sukhi” was very well versed with the repair works as well. He helped us with electricity repairs , plumbing work, gardening, driving , even cooking and bringing groceries for us at times.

We wanted to pay him for his services ,but he denied everytime and laughingly used to tell us “Maybe it’s a debt that I am repaying with you guys from my last birth”. I do not need any money”.

We were quite amazed with his behaviour, so fond had he become for us that even while he was ill he used to come at our place. We used to ask him to go and take rest at home and visit some doctor but he refused telling us that his body was strong enough and that he dint require any medicines. He was lucky enough to get well each time he would fall sick.

One incident which I still remember was , that our mother and sister had to leave outstation for some urgent work and only me and my brother were supposed to stay back. As the train was late night, we decided to hire some auto or taxi for them as we both dint know driving and we dint want to disturb Sukhi at that late hour.

Sukhi , somehow came to know of this and offered that he would drive all of us to the station , see off our mother and sister , and would even drop me and my brother back to our place safely. We dint want to bother him that much, but he said to my mother that he regarded himself as a part of our family and it was his duty to make sure everything turns out well for us.

So , things went out pretty well , we came back home safely after dropping our mother and sister at the station though it was almost 12 ‘o clock at night.

When we extended our gratitude to him, Sukhi seemed to be more than happy and also he took good care of us like a elder brother while our folks weren’t around.

One thing which Sukhi was very much keen on trying his hands on was learning of English Language. He was full of confidence, of his being clad in white safari dress always no matter the occasion, could meet anyone from any strata of society. The only weakness he felt he had was his inability to converse in English or understand the language . We used to help him out off and on , even handed him the book on learning Quick English , but somehow he could never pick up the language.

He was always jovial and full of life, always cracking funny jokes. He had the strength and confidence to live life on his own terms and was never ashamed to be himself.

One fine morning , I remember we had to go out of station to visit one of our friend’s mother who was ill. We planned to take Sukhi along and were about to call him. Just as we were about to move to our landline phone, the phone bell rang. When we picked up the phone, there was a heavy sounding man on the other side of the phone. Yes, it was Sukhi’s father. What he said next was something that was unbelievable for us. He broke the terrible news to us that “Sukhi” had met with a terrible accident previous night while he were on his way back, with some foreign tourists.

The accident was so bad , that his entire top body was torn as the steering feel crushed his entire rib cage under the impact of the car when brakes were applied. It appeared to be some head on collision with some powerful vehicle and as Sukhi was not in the habit of applying brakes often, tried to escape the accident but could not do so unfortunately.

We were all broken on hearing this. It was very tough to digest that our strange brother like friend was no more ….he was taken away by the cruel hands of destiny from us… we will never be able to hear his hoarse voice or see him smiling in his white safari suit…..

Yes our Sukhi….. our unsual friend was no more ……after his leaving us we went to his house but his family seemed to be very indifferent as they knew very little about us, still they greeted us. We paid our last respects to him and till date his words are not forgotton by us “ Auntyji who knows I am repaying my debts to you guys from last birth!!”