OF BABAS AND HORSE SHOES

 

 

OF BABAS AND HORSE SHOES

 

 

‘I hope No 1 Guest Room is ready to receive the General’ Inquired Maj Nagender, Officer Commanding, Animal Transport Company ‘I told you its only his love for me from our days in XXX Battalion when I was his Adjutant otherwise he can stay in any VIP Guest room in the station’. ‘I Know sir. Everything’s looked after’ I assured him in our small Officers Mess which came into being as a result of my posting to the unit. Nagender had converted an existing building to Officers Mess, before my arrival. We were three officers posted including Capt Thomas, 2IC and with me, the bachelor on first posting, the Officers Mess got an in-living officer who could look after the Mess. In the bargain, our officers quit membership of Officers Mess of Col Shekhars Officers Mess and with it the daily kich kich.

General Tanwar was our head in the Command HQ and probable to become Head of our Department in the Army HQ. Besides his vast knowledge, as he rose in rank he had turned spiritual and was known for his interest in the Vedas and Upanishads along with Yoga and Meditation. At every opportunity he used to lecture officers on the greatness of our mythology and power of Yoga and rattle out non-stop Sanskrit shlokas which none understood. He was an avuncular gentleman who was large hearted and extremely polite to all. The General held in high regard a Baba from Udalgudi called Fakkad Baba whom he had known since two decades back when he was commanding our unit. Some said Baba was originally from Naxal Bari, an innocent looking village nearby that gave us the dreaded word – Naxal for the communist revolutionaries of 1960s Bengal. Baba, they said was an accomplice of ‘The’ Charu Majumdar but after success of movement gave up politics and took up Theology.

‘I hope Fakkad Baba will come on time’ wondered Nagender ‘Do you really think he is 500 years old as General says’? ‘Sir, don’t believe all that the General, says. He is too much under spell of the Baba. There’s no record of humans living beyond 130 years. Last time the General also said Baba once fasted for 2 months’! I assured him. ‘You know what Fakkad Baba’s USP is? He can predict future postings and results of Selection Boards’ disclosed the Major. Hmm, that’s why he was in such high demand amongst the faujis, the lucky dude!’ I ruminated. ‘Sir, you can also ask him about your prospects in SB 4 then” I suggested. Nagender was perpetually thinking about his promotion to select rank of Lt Colonel those days and I was sick of his daily analysis of his course mates’ weak and strong points. “Yes, I am looking forward to that’ He disclosed. ‘I hope the room is all set to receive the General and more important the lady’! Here comes my wife, where is the bouquet for the Generals wife? ‘DR has gone to get the fresh flower bouquet from city sir. He will be here soon’ I assured the couple.

It was customary to present a bouquet (pronounce Bukka by our jawans) to the lady as she alighted from the car. And I was getting jittery as minutes passed and there was no sign of the DR. I told my Buddy to call the Cantt gate to inform us as soon as the DR entered. But before that we got the message that the entourage of the General had entered! There was no sign of DR when the pilot Gypsy became visible and I could no longer sustain the inquiring gaze of Nagenders. In desperation I went to nearby flowerbeds, plucked a bunch of Sweet Williams, tied them with a twig and handed over to a bewildered Mrs Nagender. Now I could make out the faint silhouette of a bike behind the cavalcade. Sure enough it was our DR but of no use as the Generals car entered the drive of our Officers Mess. Mrs Nagender sheepishly presented the improvised bouquet to the Generals wife who looked at the flowers then the presenter and again the flowers. She couldn’t fathom the strange item but thankfully chose discretion over fretting and passed it on to the waiting steward.

Anyway, the General gave us his usual spiritual gyan. After sometime our unit punditji arrived and presented the General with a mantra fortified black horse’s shoe and soon Baba arrived in his car with few disciples. Baba was a middle aged thin man with wheatish complexion and a stubble. He wore a saffron robe and a few rudraksh malas. I thought he would make an excellent screcrow. The General and his wife bowed reverentially to Baba who blessed them. I left the room as both the couples interacted with Baba and pushed in the refreshments. As the Baba was leaving, the General kept imploring him to stay for a night making us very uncomfortable as there was no extra room other than mine which was very basic and unworthy of the General or his Guru. The General knew Baba had his engagements and could not stay back and so was being over hospitable. The Baba left and as we were preparing to leave the General to take rest (We coined the term'executive time for this siesta) we saw Baba’s car returning suddenly. The Baba alighted and with folded hands announced he had changed his mind and agreed to our request to stay back. Now, I found the General even more shocked than my OC as he imagined shifting to some obscure room to make way for his Guru. However, the clairvoyant Baba sensed the consternation in no time and disclosed he had left his sunglasses by mistake and had come to fetch them. To our utter relief the party left soon.

Later I asked the OC where the pundit had found Black horse’s shoe as our only black horse Zorawar had passed away 6 months back. ‘Oh! Don’t worry your little head on such trifles’ Said Nagender ‘I told Punditji to get any large used Mule shoe for the General. It’s all Hogwash anyway’!  He then disclosed that Fakkad Baba had prophesized success for him as well as the General’. However, the final result after a couple of months was a mixed bag with Nagender sailing through but the General getting stuck!.  I sometimes wonder whether it was the Baba or the Mule shoe that let the General down!

I am also reminded of a disclosure by the inimitable Khushwant Singh that once in absence of any astrologer he had successfully written the horoscope for Illustrated Weekly for a year with no representation from readers. That much for astrology and Babas.

And Yes, Never trust a gifted horse or for that matter a gifted Horse Shoe!!!