Raju and the Bananas

Raju's real name is Raju Mathur, but everyone in Dharamshala called him Raju Gentleman. Raju never needed to become a gentleman; he was born a gentleman. The general perception is that one needs to go through some tedious processes to become a gentleman, but not Raju.

Raju had never seen anything in life. Although he had been taught about the five senses—sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing—he learned those things blindly.

Nobody knows exactly at what age he was admitted to the Dharamshala; some say he was six months old, some say he was three days old, and brought in only bones and skin. Some say he was left at the door of Dharamshala in a dustbin bag, whereas some say the police brought him to Dharamshala by magistrate's order. That's the peculiarity of Dharamshala. Nobody knows the exact whereabouts of anyone. Dharamshala used to accommodate 85 people who had lost their eyes, but with government donations gone, they can now only accommodate 35 people, and only kids. Getting aged and growing up in Dharamshala is considered a curse. Raju is reaching 18 soon and is worried about his future in a blind world where the blind are simply considered blind. Maybe some temple, religious place, or trust will adopt him for the rest of his life. Nobody knows!

Dharamshala was started by Shree Sandesh ji, who had lost both his eyes in an acid attack. A few say it was a property matter, and some say it was a love matter. Anyway, in both cases, he had lost his eyes. He sold his inherited massive property in Dehradun and established Dharamshala in the Galwar town of Rajasthan. He used to be a renowned persona in the region for his generosity. Now, with his old age, all charm has gone. He is just spending his retirement days with very limited funds to take care of Dharamshala.

When Raju arrived at the Dharamshala, he had no name. Some theories from Dharamshala suggested that during those days, posters of the Bollywood movie Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman were everywhere in the town. Raju derived his name from the movie. Some theories suggested that because of this movie, they missed giving him some patriotic surname like Nehru or Gandhi. For infants arriving at Dharamshala with no name, they are given a "super name." That's the nomenclature method in Dharamshala.

Dharamshala is a dwelling place for passers-by, a halting place for marriage parties, and a staying place for crowds during cremations and death anniversaries. Also, those who don't afford to stay in hotels can rest here with nominal tariffs. Objectives vary according to the seasons. We can say that these earnings act as the bread and butter for all of them.

When there was a large crowd, all of a sudden, the children's rooms became vacant to make them available for guests. They had been told that guests are gods and they had to respect them. After all, "Athithi Devo Bhava" is an important line in their culture. All 35 of them were dumped into a small room till the time the "gods" vacated the other rooms. There were clear instructions for them not to step out of the room, and they were prohibited from interacting with the guests in order to maintain the standards of Dharamshala. All of them followed these instructions religiously. After all, they believed in the righteousness of Sandesh ji.

With the doddering age of Sandesh ji, all walls of Dharamshala dilapidated. It drastically hammered their food. Initially, their meal quality reduced drastically. Then, the quantity reduced drastically. Three meals a day became two, and two meals became one. The good thing about this was that it was a gradual reduction. They got sufficient time to adopt and evolve as per the food patterns. Still, they had no complaints or grudges about it.

I wonder how faces without eyesight have big smiles. Unwavering, equanimous smiles. Maybe they haven't seen agonies through their eyes.

There were times when all vessels in the kitchen were empty. And the MasterChef used to prepare pudding from whatever was available. One would not have tasted the myriad varieties of pudding in the entire world that MasterChef used to prepare: rice pudding, daal pudding, potato pudding, wheat flour pudding. All sorts of available things could be turned into pudding. MasterChef was blessed with the art of making pudding.

The situation improved when a new initiative came in: leftovers from parties, marriages, and anniversaries started arriving. It was the best option for rich people to dispose of food in a much more humane way. And they all started getting myriad varieties of delicious food, at least far better than puddings.

Raju Gentleman will never forget his special association with bananas. Dharamshala started providing them with bananas when they were running short of food. These bananas were provided by the rich people of the town as a mark of their contribution towards social responsibility—kings of a utopian society in a dystopian world. Two bananas in the morning, two at noon, and two at night. Immense energy percolated in their bodies once the bananas dissolved in their stomachs. Raju was unaware of the yellow color, in fact, any color. He registered everything in his mind whatever people had told him. He had to learn with the four remaining senses.

Banana was introduced to him at the age of 12. It was prasad from some Ganesh pandal. The offering to Lord Ganesha was so fresh and tantalizing. They had never seen any god, but they had been told gods reside in them. Idols are meant to bring the internal locus to feel them in others. That’s why the gods are just "seeing" the offering and leaving them to be consumed by their devotees. Bananas are sojourners in their journey. Their errand for stomach-full food never ended. They were adapting to survive with less food in their empty stomachs but with a zeal for a complete meal. If a doctor had to prescribe some medicine for an empty stomach, he would write Bananas after Rx. Bananas became his sojourn in his hunger journey. Raju had enjoyed the Bananas most when India won the cricket world cup under the leadership of Dhoni, those were the very turbulent times for Dharamshala and victory over Ceyton proved to be triumph over hunger. Cricket offers many benefits and one of them was Bananas. Donations in the form of Bananas started pouring in Dharamshala. 

"Bananas are a very unique thing" Sukhdev ji of Krishi Vikas Kendra told us it is not fruit but its berry. For them these things are unbelievable. How can someone distinguish Fruits and Berries? Raju used to think that it's not Sukhdev ji knowledge but his doddering age that forces him to blabber these things into our innocent mind. He also disturbed the image of the Banana tree by telling them it is not a tree its hurb. Raju always used to assume that it must be a very big tree as it has to support heavy bunches bearing bananas. 

They have been told that people use banana leaves as plates for eating out food. For people like Raju, staying at Dharamshala felt like new dining paraphernalia. Dining on a banana leaf, It must require tremendous eye- hand coordination to eat a morsel from the leaf of the banana. Curries must be flowing helter and skelter once poured on the banana place. It must be scary to eat in floods of dal and curries. They have never got an opportunity to dine out on banana leaves. From medicines, foods to clothes, bananas have myriads of usage. 

It really became Kalpataru after the coconut tree. Many stories woven into a fabric of banana and their affection towards bananas had increased many fold. Raju has been told by the Dharamshala administration that one day and very soon he will have to move out of Dharamshala. And his next destination would be a temple, where he would have to work as per his gifted capabilities. In the temple he will always get plenty of bananas as its predominant and readily available fruit throughout the year. Even devotees with empty stomachs are offering bananas to gods residing in a temple. This is how Banana had conquered Raju's life.

Raju the gentleman is 73 years old and he used to tell Banana stories to pilgrims staying at the temple's ashram. A fascination grows into passion. Raju the gentle man will continue to tell the stories of Banana till the time he lives. 

Faith 

Amol Nakve