Humans of Lucknow , Chapter #01 | The old man at Hussainganj

“Dreams don’t have homes, they are like dove; They keep on changing nests.”

“ दो चाय दीजियेगा ( please give tea for two) “ , I asked to an old person, for me and a mate after finishing our late dinner. It was a normal flow only to have tea at the usual spots of India, we were at Hussaiganj, Lucknow.

I didn’t noticed about the old man’s touch and things kept in their specific order around his late night tea stall. An old man nearly of late 70s, having a generous gesture from olden hands with rough grace holding two glasses of chai. On the eye contact, he didn’t spoke but a talk happened somewhere.

My inner started smiling as I was having ideas for projects but can’t gave a kick start because of shortage of materials or requirements ; but today I felt the requirement was needed of a single thought. Why wasn’t I sharing the voices from humans of Lucknow? There it started and the next moment, with a quick sip of hot tea, I asked the old man,

“ बाबा , कितना वक़्त हो गया आपके यह चाय स्टाल सँभालते हुए ?( “Baba, how long it has been organizing a tea stall? “).

To which his eyes rose up from those old yet lenses with glimpse of spark and with covering up of his generous behavior he replied -

“ यह बात है सं1960 की, मेरे पिताजी यह चाय स्टाल सँभालते थे, दूसरी जगह. मैं यहाँ हुसैनगंज में आ गया। जो भी संभाल रहा हूँ , सब पिताजी की वजह से। चौतीस साल हो गए पूरी तरह से मुझे यहाँ पर. “

(“It has been from the early ’60s (1960), my dad used to handle the tea stall at another place. But I shifted to Hussainganj (Burlington Chauraha), after him; carrying his behavior and works further. I am organizing the stall properly from past 34 years. “)

Somewhere all was still and my inner was eager to listen; To listen not to his experiences, not to his tales, but to the moments he has lived around.

Me and my mate continued the tales of our sips , thinking of a namaskar and going back to our nests, but my inner was already hit somewhere from his spark.
Asking for another round of chai, we relaxed a bit more but I was stucked somewhere living his tales somewhere around my mind.

With another query I asked, “What’s the biggest difference you’ve seen? “. To which he gave an innocent wink, like he has seen the real ’ change ’ of every aspect of humans.

Saying, “The Population! It’s the biggest change. You can’t stand peacefully on road, why? Because of the vehicles and noise pollution. Today’s man has lost the behavior. In earlier times, there were few cars, few people and all were known. Today it’s all rush, hence I keep my stall from 8 o’clock night till early morning only. “

Inquiring about our status of knowledge about the city, he questioned “कितना घुमा है लखनऊ? “(How much Lucknow you’ve seen? “). To which my words fell weak, my experience and travel around Lucknow can’t stand in front of his times. Replying in a sober way and keeping his charm we talked about Banaras as I shared that my soul is in Banaras.

He became joyous and said — “बनारस की सुबह और लखनऊ की शाम,दोनों का अंदाज़ बहुत ही मशहूर है! “(The mornings of Banaras (Varanasi), and the evenings of Lucknow have always been famous! )”

I always waited for his talks as he always attended customers in between too but he was eager to share. His hands were olden, but strong enough to handle everything all alone.

Having a generous gesture of namaskar we’ve to hit our nests back. He was pleased to have time in discussion and keeping hope to meet next time, we said “चलते हैं बाबा, जल्द ही मिलेंगे | “(We’ve to go Baba, Will meet soon “).

Chapter One was never closed, more chai chapters will happen with the same oldman because the moments lived are never the experiences merely, they speak! They are treasures!

( from original post : http://anandppathak.tumblr.com/ )