Saheb Main to Saala Ban Gaya
I saw him for the first time in a class at the Maurya College where I was a part timer. Saw is the right word as he was a very quiet individual with hardly any interaction. Later, Jaya told me that he had joined Engineering and due to ragging episodes there, he and his family decided to shift him to a different course and that’s how he landed up in this field. The three years that he spent there he developed a respect bordering on obsession with Jaya. Her word was final. In fact, the only reason he fared well in his exams was due to her insistence.
His absolute loyalty towards her was observed in a couple of incidents that I recall. On the bus to college which Jaya also took, he offered her a bar of chocolate. She refused it stating it was not proper and in a fit of rage, he threw it out of the bus. There was another similar incident with a pen too. On a college trip to Ooty, he became the elder brother to Ben, who had joined them. He took care of him the entire time.
He was and is a teetotaller and non-smoker throughout and hence was a favourite among seniors of the college to go buy booze and ciggies. His only addiction was to fitness and he would spend hours doing freehand exercises.
He passed out of college and went back to his home town in Delhi and briefly worked at a hotel, but the crazy hours caused his father to ask him to help out his sister who was a Homeopathic Doctor. This lead to him opening a Homeo Pharmacy and till date he runs the same. What a turnaround from Engineering to Hospitality to Medicine.
We were invited for his sister’s wedding and we went to their pleasant surprise. We stayed at their home in Vasant Vihar and took part in the entire two day event with gusto. We got close to his family too at that time. His wedding too was attended by both of us and his family was very happy to see me dancing at his baarat before entering the girl’s home. I even made to see his child as it coincided with another couple of events in 2006.
He had become family and that was formalise when Jaya started sending “Rakhis” to him during Rakshabandhan and he became her protector in good times and bad. Our birthdays were never forgotten in three decades and cake and flowers would arrive like clockwork. On occasion, he would drop in too. His parents have visited us when we were in a rented place and the latest visit by the family was during Ben’s nuptials at Goa, when all of them made it.
It is indeed very rare when students cross the boundary and become family and we have been lucky in many occasions in this. We are blessed in their company and they add to the strength of our family. Ben and Denis can always call upon him as an elder brother and uncle and we can rest assured pass on to the next world with the comforting thought that there is somebody looking out for them.
Thank you Ajay Yadav for being around since 1995 and you are a true example of an extended family. I know you are not comfortable with superlatives and would like to play down the association, typically. But today being your birthday, I could not help myself. God bless you and your upbringing, Saalesahab!!
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