Connecting in the dark

Nitin called me late at night, 8216;8216;apna Mehmood mamu gaya rey8217;8217;. He had never sounded so melancholic in our friendship spa...

Nitin called me late at night, 8216;8216;apna Mehmood mamu gaya rey8217;8217;. He had never sounded so melancholic in our friendship spanning over 30 years. 8216;8216;Should we phone Gaju? He must have got the news by now8230;8217;8217; When we did call up Gaju, who works some 400 km from Mumbai, he seemed completely crestfallen, 8216;8216;Yaar 8230; I lost my lifeline today8217;8217;.

I made a few more long distance calls to my childhood friends. They understood why Gaju had reacted in that way. We were all shocked to hear of the demise of Bollywood legend Mehmood. But all of us knew Gaju8217;s grief would be unimaginable.

Mehmood8217;s Kunwara Baap had inspired polio-affected Gaju to fight the odds to come out a winner in his life. I remember Gaju as my polio-affected nine-year-old classmate who shied away from mingling with the other children. Sitting forlorn in a corner of the school playground, he would watch us kick football, score a basket or hammer a boundary. He knew that we didn8217;t consider him one of us.

He was right. Forget other schoolmates, even I, his close neighbour, had hardly cared to make friends with him. I did not like seeing him walk wearing those uneven shoes. But over the next two years, Gaju managed to win me over. I understood he had the drive but lacked motivation.

He would sit on the sidelines of the playground 8212; still lonely, sharing a word or two on the sport with me. I could never have imagined our 8216;Golden Gang8217; would take Gaju into its fold.

Then, one afternoon, Mehmood made it happen. Fascinated by the posters, we decided to bunk the noon shift and watch Kunwara Baap in the only cinema hall in our small town in Vidarbha. I asked Gaju to join the party. The only purpose was to keep our bunking a secret.

By the interval, Nitin, Gopal and Dilip were darting surreptitiously sympathetic glances towards Gaju. But Gaju remained unfazed. Probably because he was too busy identifying himself with the film which depicted the painful struggle of a father and his polio-affected son.

Story continues below this ad

Gaju didn8217;t want sympathy. He didn8217;t want multiple chances when we played together. He demanded that we treat him equally. We were much too young to understand his feelings.

It took some time for us to understand that Gaju had become one of our main strike bowlers. He ran between the wickets faster than 8216;8216;motu8217;8217; Dilip. He even played physical sport like kabaddi for our school.

Now an engineer and not from any handicapped quota, Gaju realised his childhood dream of driving a locomotive some eight years ago. He will soon be a full-fledged driver.

8216;8216;Do you know what made it all click?8217;8217; he asked the all grown-up 8216;Golden Gang8217; at his wedding reception. 8216;8216;Remember Kunwara Baap? It made me forget my disability and be like you guys.8217;8217;

Story continues below this ad

We may need another director like Mehmood to tell Gaju that howsoever hard we tried, we could never be like him.