The story so far: When Rahman’s mother died when he was 21, the jobless Rahman became homeless too. Rambling here and there as a vagabond Rahman met a dying lady who gave him some coins. The last coin was a bit bizarre. It had an arrow on it. Whenever Rahman tossed it, the arrow side would be on top and pointing to a particular direction. Having nothing to do Rahman followed the direction and reached a small teashop where he bought bread. But as soon as the shopkeeper saw the coin in Rahman’s hand, they seemed to recognize him as the sacred walker walking the path of end unknown.
Rahman reached the shop. He could only afford one half breads with the one rupee left. Hesitating whether to spend or not spend, Raman entered the shop.
“Get me one of those half breads” said Rahman.
The bulky shopkeeper woman barked, “It costs one rupee.”
“Yes, give me that. I am hungry” said Rahman.
“Show me the money first. Lot’s of people from the poor village comes and eats and then asks us to write down the bill in the credit book which is not ever paid. Our cashbox are filling with credit book instead of cash. The shop will shut down if things keeps on going like this”, the woman barked again.
Well, that was not the behavior a first time customer expects from a shopkeeper. But in life the expected things does not always happen. Rahman was still reluctant to spend the last coin, so he was hesitating.
“Give me the money or move your butt out of my shop” the woman barked at the highest possible pitch. Rahman was jerked with the intensity and loudness and slowly gave her the coin.
But as soon as the woman saw the one rupee coin, the body language of the woman changed. She handed over him one half bread and gave the one rupee back to him.
Rahman said, “The coin is perfectly alright. It is not disputed. You must take this one. I have none other left.”
The woman responded, “Son, First stop people do not take money from the sacred walkers.” Rahman could not get the meaning. He was too amazed to ask what she meant. The woman said, “Take this bread son.”
As Rahman was leaving the shop, he heard the woman saying to the aged man “Saw him? He is the chosen one.”
Rahman’s ear drums were buzzing. What were these things? What is meant by sacred walkers? What was the meaning of the chosen one? Totally puzzled Rahman stood in front of the shop and tossed the coin again. This time the coin landed vertically.
The coin landed vertically… wait, this means this is the place where the coin was intending to take me. The coin guided me here… Yes, this is the place. But why is that? What is special in this distant teashop in this godforsaken place?
“I must check it out” thought Rahman. Forgetting all his earthly needs like appetite, Rahman went back to the shop and his jaw dropped. He first thought he must have been forgot the path back to the teashop. He went back and came again to make sure he was right. But where the hell is the teashop? There was nothing. The landscape was just empty; only some bushes scattered here and there and some cows grazing. Puzzled Rahman tossed the coin again, this time it was pointing somewhere else.
“What the hell is this happening?” Rahman cried aloud and sat on the empty field. His brain had just ceased to process the unnatural data which was in contrary to the logics it learned from Rahman’s childhood. First a dying grandma, then a bizarre coin, then some dream sequences, after that some bizarre people in a teashop with their God-knows-what-it-means set of dialogs and now all of a sudden the shop is vanished. All I got is this coin and this half bread.
“I need to use my brain” thought Rahman. What was the shopkeeper saying? “First stop people…” this means there are more. There is way ahead; perhaps a very long journey towards the end unknown.
“What should I do? Continue walking or get back to my village home and continue to work in Sadhan Kaka’s grocery shop as a helper for a meager 100 rupees at the month’s end? Whatever; let me eat the bread first”
Being too puzzled amidst these weird scenes Rahman forgot his appetite. Suddenly it came back. He tore off the paper wrapping and had a bite.
“WHACKK!!! There is something inside. A piece of plastic coated paper was peeping out from the bitten off corner of the bread. Rahman quickly ate the bread and got the paper out. Some message was written on it.
(May be continued)
- Joydip Datta
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