The Obsession

That morning I was alone for my morning walk as my wife who normally accompanies me had gone to Pune for a week. Everyday I start from my house at 05:30 a.m. when the traffic on the road is very thin and street lights are still glowing. I was going towards my usual walking track in the social research Institute near Thaltej Chowkdi that graciously allows the city population to use their premises for morning walks and exercises and a laughing club activity carried out mostly of a few super senior citizens. I am still not a member of that Laughing Club as I am too junior to all of them and I can still laugh naturally in my daily schedule.

Much before I reached the Institute gate, a tall and decently dressed gentleman stopped me. He was little older than me and was wearing golden frame spectacles. "Can you tell me how to reach Judges Bungalow Road?", he asked me politely. I was surprised that he was going in a wrong direction. This is normally expected from a breed of smart auto-rickshaw drivers. They come from the Ahmedabad railway station early morning carrying unsuspecting passengers visiting the city for the first time. These rickshaw drivers stop a morning walker and with a very innocent face ask for an address pretending that it was not their normal area of operation. On the other hand somebody walking down a street at that early hour is usually familiar with the roads in the area.

When I gave him the directions the gentleman showed a blank face. Either he was under some tension or was suffering from a temporary memory loss which was common at his age, I thought to myself. I got puzzled a little bit about how I should respond to him.

"How did you reach here? Where are you coming from? Have you lost your way?" I asked him with some sympathy.

"I stay on Judges Bungalow Road. Came out for a morning walk and lost my way."

"Where on the J B road you want to go?"

He told me the name of the tower he was staying. Manas Tower. I knew Manas Tower due to some other reasons and realised that it would be difficult for me to give directions to him from the spot we were standing on. Also it was dark enough for him to trace the route, I thought.

"Do you have a cell phone? You can contact your people and at least inform them that you may be late else they will get worried."

"I don't have  a cell phone." The gentleman was barely giving any information and looked very tense. I felt pity on him. As I also had not carried my cell phone only possible way I could help him was to accompany him till he felt confident that he could trace the remaining route to his residence.

"Let's go. I will come with you."

On the way, I could only gather from him that he and his son's family had recently shifted from Rajkot to Ahmedabad and his son had purchased a flat in Manas Tower. The gentleman had come out for a morning walk without informing his son. He did not clarify the reasons for it if there were any. After walking for about half an hour we reached his Tower.

"Thanks a lot. Now I can go on my own."

"Are you sure? Otherwise I can come with you up to your flat. Hope your people have not gone out by chance and searching you."

"No. My son leaves at 8 O'clock. I will tell him. I stay in Flat No. 5. I have the key of the latch for the main door. Thanks again."

I felt that he was not very keen to take me to his house. May be he was not sure about the reaction of his son and his wife and wanted to avoid any scene in my presence. I had already concluded that his relations with his son may not be very cordial. After this I left him and went for my walk as usual.

For the next two days I was feeling a little elated as I had helped somebody in distress. But on the third day a small doubt in my mind brought me down. Did he really go upstairs to his flat? I had not waited to see him doing that. Or did he again go somewhere and lost his way again as he did not look to be in sound mental condition. This doubt disturbed my entire day and in the evening I just could not stop myself form going to Flat No. 5 in Manas Tower. The list of the members painted on a board on the ground floor showed the name Pankaj M Joshi against No. 5. A young woman answered the door-bell and looked at me with a question mark on her face.

"Is Pankajbhai at home?"

She signalled me to come in and asked me to take a seat. She went inside the adjacent room and a young man came out. Before he asked me anything I told him, "Pardon me Pankajbhai. We do not know each other but I met your Dad before a couple of days. How is he now? I mean he did not look in a very good condition. Hence I just thought of meeting him for a few minutes."

"He did not say anything about it. He has gone out now." Pankajbhai answered quietly.

For some time nobody spoke.

Then after a little hesitation I said, "I think you should not allow him to go out alone like this. At least, till he becomes familiar with the roads around."

"We cannot keep him under lock and key for the whole day." Pankajbhai answered with some irritation in his voice. I felt somewhat offended.

"In that case he should carry his photo-ID, residential address and a list of important telephone numbers with him. That will help others to bring him home in case of an emergency."

"We have just shifted here. It will take some time to get these things made."

After some pause Pankajbhai threw a strange question at me.

"By the way, how does he look like? I am curious to know. I have never seen him."

Pankajbhai's question created a wave of anger in me. I lost my temper.

"Come on! Have you not seen your Dad? Don't tell me that. You can't disown him like that just because he has gone old and you people are not pulling on well with him!"

Pankajbhai looked cool. He looked at his wife who was by now sitting on a chair opposite to me. She understood him and nodded her head in approval. I was still fuming.

"Uncle, now I must clarify. I have never seen this person you are referring to as my Dad. My Dad passed away when I was in school. You are the fourth person coming to this house with the same story. For the last few weeks we both are wondering as to who was this person claiming to be my Dad and what did he want from us. All the four persons visiting us had identical reaction that we were not taking enough care of him. He sent all of them back from the entrance of the building but he himself never came upstairs and met us. This is what is puzzling us also. Believe me. I am honestly telling you the truth."

I just didn't know what to say on this. I was pained to know that I was taken for a ride. Pankajbhai must have expected about what I must be thinking. He asked me softly, "Can you recognise him if you see him again?"

"I think so."

"In that case can you come and meet me on this Sunday morning? Our society has installed CCTV cameras in the Society everywhere recently. We both will go to the Society office and see the CCTV footage. If you could identify him I will also know how he looks. Then we can decide about a further action."

I readily agreed. On the following Sunday morning I did not have any difficulty in identifying the "Dad" as the CCTV footage showed we two talking to each other on the date and time we had met earlier. Myself and Pankajbhai decided not to report the matter to the police as the Dad had not harmed anybody till then. We just decided to wait and watch for his next appearance. We gave our contact details to each other. After that I returned home.

After a week or so I received a phone call from Pankajbhai that with the help of a smart security guard in their society he has nabbed the culprit who is sitting in Pankajbhai's flat. Dad had apparently not resisted and was ready to tell everything. Pankajbhai wanted me to immediately rush to his house and be there to listen to what he would tell. When I went there Dad recognised me and even gave me a faint smile.

"So, tell us your story. But no tricks. You have troubled us enough. I must warn you that we may call the police if required." Pankajbhai told him curtly.

The Dad smiled and apologised to both of us for his acts. After drinking some water he cleared his throat and said the following which I am reproducing below and is almost true word by word.
      
"I am Prof. Mehta. I retired as Professor of Mathematics from University ten years ago. I still give a series of lectures on a specific subjects when invited. I stay alone in a 1 BHK flat in Gurukul area.

"Long back I was happily staying in Flat No. 5 in Manas Tower with my wife and two children - a daughter studying in a college and a son in a high school. My world got shattered on 26th January 2001 when a devastating earthquake struck Gujarat. On the morning that day I had gone to the University Ground for the Republic Day Ceremony. At about 8:40 a.m. everything started shaking and all of us realised that it was a massive earthquake. The celebration was wound up and everybody rushed home. When I reached Manas Tower the damage was already done. The tower had collapsed like a pack of cards burying under the rubble almost everybody present in the building. I went blank.

"It was in a way good for me. It helped me go through the ordeal of witnessing the rescue operations that went on for days together. The rescue team was trying to pull out the possible survivors and dead bodies from the debris. Without any emotions I could identify the bodies of my wife, daughter and son and took them for cremation. During all this, my colleagues from University were by my side. They helped me shift into a University Quarter and fed me with food and medicines and took care of me round the clock. Slowly I came to senses and understood the gravity of the situation I was in and went into a deep depression. "Why me?", I went on asking myself.

"The medicines were working but the doctors had no solution for the vacuum I was facing in my lonely life. I was sent to a Trauma Centre. There they told me that things happened in the past could not be reverted and I should make myself ready for the future. I should find ways to make my remaining life purposeful and stop brooding about the past events on which I had no control.

"I was still not getting an answer to my question, "Why me?". When I went to astrologers they told me about a few deadly planetary combinations in my birth chart that were responsible for this. When I met spiritual Gurus they told me it was a result of my karmas in my previous birth(s) and I must learn to take my life as it comes and try to remain happy in any situation. "A situation is never good or bad . It is our reaction to it that makes us either happy or sad. By regularly practising meditation one becomes immune to the external stimuli and could remain peaceful in whatever happens around", a Guru told me with a smile.

"I even went to a Parapsychologist who took Rs. 8000 from me and arranged my meeting with my departed family members in a dark room in his flat. My wife and children whom I could not see could talk to me. They told me that there association with me in my present birth was over and they were waiting for their turn to get a rebirth in some other human body like many others who died in the earthquake. Later, I came to know that the meeting was a fraud. The Parapsychologist and his gang were playing with the emotions of the people who had lost their family members in the quake. They were using electronic voice synthesiser and other sound effects to make the meeting with the departed souls appear very real!

"Slowly but surely I was becoming normal. My interest in Mathematics helped me a lot and I had steadied myself in my lonely life only because I could fully concentrate on Mathematical problems for hours together. My colleagues in the Department were my entire support system. They convinced me that all the accidents happen when two or more things come together at the same time and same place. If a probability of happening a certain thing is p, always less than one, and that for some other thing is q, also less than one, the probability of both the things happening simultaneously is p x q, the product of the two which is much smaller than one. But it is never zero and that's what had happened with me.

"My Geologist friends also told me the same thing in a different context. They said that the Geologists can only predict the probability of an earthquake taking place in certain region in near future but cannot tell in advance about its exact time, magnitude and the extent of the geographical area to which the earthquake ground waves will travel and through what ground fault lines. If a building is on a fault line it has a greater chance of damage during the earthquake.

"When I saw my friends discussing with each other about their family affairs, their children and grandchildren I used to feel upset as I had nothing to share with them. No joy or no sorrow. Your sadness reduces and joy gets multiplied when you share it with your friends, I always thought.

"For many years I used to visit the site of Manas Tower whenever I remembered the happy days spent with my family. I used to see only an empty plot there. Never saw any activity going on there. My frequency of visits to Manas Tower site also reduced as the days and years passed. I had achieved a stability in my life.

"And suddenly I saw one day that Manas Towers was getting reconstructed again. I thought of booking a flat there. But the compensation I had received from the authorities in 2001 was so meagre that I had to forget the idea of booking a flat there. If it was possible, I would have certainly booked Flat No. 5 in Manas tower!

"In a course of time the construction of the Manas Tower was complete. I saw people had started occupying the flats one after the other. Whenever I went by Manas Tower I started getting the dreams that I was actually staying in Manas Tower. Had the 2001 earthquake not occurred I would have really stayed there happily with my wife, beta-bahu, my daughter married to a suitable boy who would occasionally visit us along with her husband. I also imagined that every morning I would go for a morning walk from Manas Tower and return leisurely as the sun rose. These thoughts used to lift my spirits so high that I developed an obsession for them. I knew it was a mirage but was addicted to fantasise about it every now and then. I now wanted to share this fantasy with others but not with those who knew the reality.

"Hence, I stopped a stranger during my morning walk one day and on some pretext or the other I took him to Manas Tower. After the stranger was convinced that I lived in Flat No. 5 of Manas Tower I moved away after the stranger left the place. As it worked flawlessly I repeated the act a few more times at intervals till you caught me today. I am embarrassed and feeling very guilty that just for a small pleasure I forgot my educational qualifications, age and respect I carry from my colleagues. It never occurred to me that some of these strangers would actually contact Pankajbhai and express concern about my condition. I never wanted to trouble Pankajbhai whose name I had seen on the ground floor board. I never met him also. It was just a pleasure game for me. Never realised that my stories were showing Pankajbhai and his wife in a very bad light. I am really sorry, Pankajbhai, for this and request you to pardon me. I assure that I will stop this game once and for all."

"It's all right. Now I understand." Pankajbahi said softly.

They then talked many things. I did not intervene. I took their leave after some time and returned home.

I don't know how is the relationship between Pankajbhai and Prof. Mehta now. Nor I want to know also. I leave it entirely to your imagination!