From The Times Past

Not everyone can remember his date of birth, only others tell you when you were born. During his times even mothers did not recollect the exact date of birth of their children. However, he had the privilege of knowing his exact date of birth. He was born on 15th August 1750. This was known to him because he was the spirit and he had left his earthly abode a long time ago. He had forgotten everything about that birth till the time he got an opportunity to travel back to his place.

Memories are something you don’t carry to this place. Maybe you have some of them when you come to this place, but soon they are lost. He doesn’t know how they came flooding back when he was given an option to travel to earth to visit his place. Not many got this privilege and he considered himself lucky for the favour.

It had been so long ago that things must have changed at his place. It was twenty first century. He hoped against hope that he would be able to see his children, at least some of his descendants may still be there.

He dressed up in the best attire which was not very different from the one borne by East India company officials. He hoped to get some respect from the people with this attire. Not many could afford this kind of dress during his lifetime.

He opened his eyes to see where he had landed. He was pleasantly surprised that he had straightaway landed in the place which used to be his capital. He was standing at the place where the boundaries of his capital started.

He had been a small king ruling over a sparsely populated area, so the size of kingdom compared to the population was large. His capital was, however, densely populated. Although, technically his kingdom was under the rule of the East India Company, he was largely left alone by the company. He had to pay only annual tribute to the company.

He was surprised that the path which was made for the horses, horse-carts and bullock carts was much wider than he remembered. It also had some kind of black surface which probably made it all-weather path. It was so broad that even two bullock carts could cross each other without even stopping. He looked around, but did not see any shops which used to line up the roadside.

Just when he was enjoying the surroundings, he heard some loud sound coming from behind. It did not sound human at all. He turned around and looked behind. There was some large metal box and there was a man sitting in it. The man was visible as he had some kind of glass screen from which he could see outside. The box had some wheels with which it could go on road like any bullock cart.

He knew that he was supposed to give way but took his own time to walk to the side of the road.

The vehicles had just stopped and he saw a man walking out of it towards him.

The man looked at him curiously and asked, “Where are you going? Can I drop you somewhere? He paused for a while and remarked, “Where did you get this dress? I haven’t seen anyone in this kind of dress in my lifetime and I have travelled quite far and wide.”

He was wondering if should tell the man truth about himself. But something told him that it won’t be wise. The reasons for his prevarication were that even though he was wearing a dress of kings, the man hadn’t been respectful in his presence. He was talking to him as if he was his equal.

Then he looked at the man and the dress he was wearing. This wasn’t a dress of either a commoner or a king. But it looked very impressive. Maybe he was the present-day king.

He asked the man, “Are you the king?”

The man was confused for a while then he laughed loudly. “I have nothing to do with kings. I haven’t seen any king so far. They disappeared much before my time.”

‘So there were no kings now, it was good that he had not introduced himself as king. So what else had changed?’



He wanted to know what had changed during his absence. “I have been away from this place for a long time. Can you tell me who is the king at present?”

The man looked at him in a strange manner. “Perhaps you are talking about an MLA or maybe a District Collector. We are not having any kings, at least I haven’t seen or heard of any present day king.”

He kept quiet for some time. Perhaps they have changed to some kind of republic about which he had read earlier. Not to confuse the man further, he switched to something which may not show his ignorance.

“I guess there was a fort somewhere here. At least that is what I remember.”

The man was silent for a while. Perhaps his questions were making him uneasy.

Finally he opened his mouth, “Pardon me. I am not able to make sense of your questions. But I will drop you at a place where there used to be a Fort. I have only heard about it, not seen it ever.”

The fort was situated on a small hill, the vehicle owner dropped him when the ascent to the hill started, with a cryptic remark. “Enjoy the view of fort.”

He thanked the vehicle owner and started the upward climb to the hill-top. As he reached at the top of hill, he saw that instead of fort, there was a large level ground. There were some groups of children playing a game which foreigners used to play. It seems that there were many teams playing in different parts of the large ground as the fort had been spread over a large piece of land. He could not see even a single stone of the fort or even any traces of the fort.

Some of the children noticed him standing at the edge of ground, but none of them bothered to wish him. He had expected them to bow to their king, but nobody seemed to be bothered about him. Perhaps the vehicle owner was right, the system of kingdom must have been abolished. If at all his lineage had survived, he was sure that they won’t be dressed like him.

He noticed that some of the children were pointing towards him and laughing. Perhaps they were laughing at his dress.

Disheartened, he walked back in the direction from which he had come. The place which used to be a bustling city had shrunk into a small village. He was keen to talk to someone to find out about the way place had changed for the worse.

…

As he was slowly trudging back, he saw a tree on the road-side. If he remembered correctly then he had planted it many years ago. From a small sapling, it had grown into an old tree. He decided to rest awhile under the shade of the tree. It was the only living being known to him. Rest all were strangers. Perhaps these people were not bad, they just did not care for kings anymore.

He must have closed his eyes when he heard a voice. Someone was speaking to him. The voice was full of concern. “Are you alright, my friend?”

He slowly opened his eyes and saw a person looking at him with concern. The person saw him opening the eyes, “I saw that you were inactive for a long time and thought you were not well.”

He looked at the kind stranger. “I am fine. It is just that all this change in the town has shocked me.”

The stranger looked at him carefully. “You don’t seem to be from this place. I have stayed in this place for a long time, rather since my birth but haven’t seen you around. You must have stayed here much before my time.”

He replied, “I am coming to this place after a long time. When I left this place, it was a big city ruled by kings.” He immediately regretted saying this, hoping that stranger won’t catch him or call him a liar.

But the man was nice. “I must have been hundreds of years ago. The place has been like this since long. There has not been any king here for almost two hundred years. Perhaps you are referring to hereditary kings. But the descendants of kings have not visited this place for a long time.”

He uttered, “Oh!”

The man saw the disappointment on his face and was sympathetic. “Why don’t you come to my place and have some food before you go back to from wherever you have come.”

He was touched by the gesture, but politely declined the offer. “I think I better get going.” There was still kindness in this world even though the place had changed for the worse.

And he was gone.

The stranger was left looking at the empty space which had been occupied a few moments ago.