My favourite food story

Sukant Panigrahy recounts how a chance meeting with an old man in a forest gave him food for his hunger and soul.

Film work can be very stressful,and there are days when you just want to get away from it all. There are times when we have to work through the day and night and hardly ever get to go home on time. It was on such a day,about 10 years ago,that I returned home very late after work. My wife was so angry that she didnt let me in. I lived near the film city in Goregaon,where there was a forest nearby. I decided to walk into the forest since I was already stressed because of work that day.

This was at 2 in the morning and I knew the forest had dangers such as snakes and leopards but I just kept walking well into the morning,by which time I couldnt even see the city behind me.

Tired and hungry,I dozed off under a tree and woke up when I heard a noise. I saw an old man working there all alone. He seemed very mysterious and I got curious. He had a little hut made of bamboo and some dry twigs,and a vegetable patch where he was working. I saw a cucumber and asked him whether I could eat it,but he didnt reply. I asked him other questions but he refused to speak to me. Suddenly,he came up to me and gave me a cucumber. It was unlike anything I had seen in the city,so large and rich,I could only finish half of it.

Then he began to speak in a mix of Hindi,Marathi and some tribal dialect. He asked me what I was running away from and told me that the forest was no place for me and I should go back to my life. By then I had recovered and I knew my wife and friends would be worried about me,so I began my walk back to the city in the evening. I was quite scared because I didnt know how far I had gone,and though I couldnt see any animals,I could smell them around me. I eventually found my way home. Even now,I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I hadnt met the man who gave me the cucumber for my hunger and an ear for my despair.

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