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Saturday | 5 October 2024 | Epaper
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Reunion

Published : Saturday, 27 January, 2024 at 12:00 AM  Count : 2206
Faisal Ahmed
Ruhul Miya squinted his eyes as the rays of crimson morning sun percolated through the crevices of his plastic-fenced shabby shanty in Kolatoli rail line slum. The inter-city train, making a loud honking noise and hurling a gust of dusty air over the slum area, left the derelict station and the unable-to-walk paralytic octogenarian knew that it was time for him to awake Rana, his only grandson.

"Wake up, son", Ruhul Miya kept repeating the sentence in the most sluggish of the manner that was for him more of a morning ritual than urgency. But his adamant semi-clad grandson, his legs sprawling over the hard plank of the cot, rib cage peeping through the malnourished body, was still in his open-mouthed drool-spilling slumber. Gazing thoughtfully at the innocent face of the sleeping kiddo, the grandfathers lips curved into a cheeky smile and his quivering wrinkled hands cuddled the curly hair of the boy. But nobody knew that behind that smile had been a pricking pain burning like charcoals deep in his heart. The grandpas breaths turned deeper and eyes puffy pondering over how the birth had been a born sin for the boy who had lost his mother in the cradle; how his alcoholic father had been languishing in jail giving his son a fatherless childhood; how days after days his soft boyish hands blistered pulling the cart carrying his limp grandpa begging every corner of the city; how all the jubilation of school had been robbed of him and the colours of childhood snatched;  how fate made them feel like a pair of insects living on the crumbs left over by the society. His thoughts got interrupted as two slender arms, all on a sudden, wrapped up around his neck and said breaking the silence, "Dada".

After having plateful of soaked rice with green chillies in their drab and dull breakfast, the duo were all set to beg with their scruffy wooden four-wheeled cart; the old red bowl perched in front, to collect alms. But suddenly a baritone voice filled the air pausing their set off.  Jahirul-a bearded man in his late 30s who happened to be the boys distant uncle living in the same vicinity-appeared on the scene from out of nowhere, his eyes exuding exhilaration, and throated in a voice that really meant business," Ranas father is finally going to be released!", On 19th June", he continued with his unfinished sentence huffing and puffing as a wave of excitement chocked his voice. Ranas breath, in the meantime, turned smaller in length as his heart started pounding like never before upon knowing about the day-the day when he was going to see his father for the first time in his life. "On 19th June!", the boy mumbled the date with his eyes fixated at nothing while his subconscious mind calculated that just 5 days to go before the most  important day of the annals of his life.  

Ranas life had already been messy, and ever since he heard the date of his fathers release from prison, it was even messier- no meals; no sleep; no shower; no play; no chit-chat. All the while he pulled the cart carrying his grandpa begging off the city roads, a string of incessant thoughts flooded his mind engulfing his inner vision with the fantasy of the day he had been waiting for.

"What should be the first word he would say to his criminal dad? Would his dad talk to him? Would he love him the way every father does his child? Or dad will be callous about him as he was about everything in his life?" he kept muttering all day to himself in an interrogatory monologue.

Nights fell, days broke but his thoughts kept racing ceaseless round the clock and, thus, after long five insomniac nights, came the cherished day of 19th June, bringing the boys impatient wait to an end. Before the dawn broke, the boy, accompanied by Jahirul uncle, had   walked all the way to the jail premise jostling through the morning crowd. Delighted as he was, the boy kept standing in the throng all morning, braving the summer heat and watching people move in and out. Morning turned noon and noon afternoon; many got released and left the premise but the boys father did not. A sharp pain-caused by hours of standing- engulfed the ankles of the boy with empty stomach draining every ounce of his remaining energy but they were all overpowered by the psychic pain he felt during every minute of his bitterest wait.  

His tender legs could not carry him any more so he sat on a concrete platform, all tired and exhausted, under a giant tree beside the jail gate. Suddenly, the crowd became thin giving the area a deserted look, with twilight gradually plunging the whole land into darkness as it heralded yet another sunset. But the true sunset of the boys life, darkening it forever, happened fifteen years back when his mom left him for the land of no-return and dad was sentenced to life term jail for the crime he claimed he hadn committed. With a mother-sized void in his heart and the agonizing pain of being deprived of all the cuddles and caresses of his dad, a barrage of unanswered questions kept burning endlessly in his mind.

"Why me? Why did I have to endure all these?" his anguished heart mumbled only to be heard by none.

His head being buried in between his hands he, with the entire melancholy deep in his heart, had been waiting for his father to be released since dawn. All on a sudden, as tears were trickling down his face, he felt a gentle nudge on his neck and he turned around only to eye a pale weather-beaten face with a stubble chin much like the picture of whom, he had always known to be, was his father. Oblivious to the surroundings, the boy stood shakily rooted to the ground and casted a blank gaze at him with his mouth grappling to utter a word. They stared at each other, awe-struck as a bizarre silence filled the air. With his blurry eyes at his, the boy spoke to his dad through the unspoken words with countless innocent drops of tears uncontrollably streaming down his cheeks. In an almost inaudible whisper that died before it reached the ears of his dad,  the boys bruised heart cried "You are so close, yet so far, dad" as his heartache was mounting with every passing second.

The boy couldn take it anymore! He felt as if his heart got sliced into two parts: one part wishing to run-hug him and the other disapproving him as his dad. In the utter suddenness of the moment, the skinny arms of the boy wrapped up around the shoulders of his dad in the purest hug of the world with the years of grievances evaporating into thin air in the blink of an eye.
The boy took a deep breath as he completely submitted himself to the man who he was tied to with the cord of blood. Snug in his cosy arms, the boy could feel the tidal wave of emotions that swept deep in his dads aching heart that languished in jail for years; the boy could hear every beat of his dads heart that became brisk by the minute his chest touched his; He could sense the agonizing guilt that his dad carried like a gestating fetus in his mind all these years behind the bars. The dad smiled with tears and cried with smile in the divine embrace to get his son back in his warm lap after fifteen odd, rigorous years. Their monochromatic lives finally got some colours with their reunion.  

Faisal Ahmed teaches English Language & English Literature in ABC International School, Narayanganj


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