His Name is Danapal

In the middle of the decade, 1960s, the school bell rang and the students were waiting for the next class, there was a chitter chatter among the boys of  the class sixth. A new student got admitted to the class of the government school of periyakulam. Shafi , one of the students, the brightest and brilliant, who was the son of the Sub registrar,had his good time with other friends, looked at the new boy, a dusky young boy,limped a little , entered the classroom after the admission process was over. In a few days their friendship bloomed and continued . Children of those days had umpteen fields of games to enjoy. Climbing up the coconut trees, jumping into the adjacent well ,swam ,bathed and climbed up like the spirit from the film the Ring. Every grove, stream , fruits and the flowers narrate their story. There was no such place left untouched by them. Shafi, Danapal, Bram Baig, Venkatesan, the school topper Edward. They grew ip and chose fields of their likes and passion. Shafi loved physics and mathematics yet the sudden demise of his father made him stay confused of his choices after the SSLC exams even though he came second in the district in the tenth board exams. Danapal chose the field of sums, Shafi chose Botany at the American College Madurai. They no longer stayed in Periyakulam and settled in the southern hub of all kinds of expertise known asMadurai. Shafi and Danapal's friendship grew over the years. People born in 1950s hardly adhere to progressive ideas but Danapal had stood different from them. He married a woman of his choice despite belonging to his traditional status. He had two children. He christened his children with the names of his other friends. He never worried about the religion of which the names belonged to. He would make everyone at ease and loved to explore things all over the world . He was a globetrotter and he would visit many Asian countries while he was in a service, working for the bank. His love for learning new things lead him to try new medicines in homeopathy in the late 90s. In fact homeopathy was not even considered as a serious medical service those days. He had his own room with all bottles of liquids and sweet balls in the form of medicine. He had his friends cured of certain diseases like ulcer etc. Over the days he had to give up working on it as the field, homeopathy became a renowned course in the hospitals. There was hardly any such things that he was unaware of. He collected stamps , coins and cash notes from many countries and kept them safe. His presence could be confirmed during the festive days like Pongal and Deepawali at the house of Shafi. His daughter often remembered Danapal saying , "marumagalae" which means "dear daughter in law" and " happy a irunga" in Tamil. Danapal decided to give a voluntary retirement service from his bank job owing to the constant stress he had faced in the bank and his life. He was financially safe with his monthly retirement money and decided to buy a car and took rides to various places. From temple to seashores, to ports , to airports, to bazaars where foreign products were avalaible. Shafi's daughter still remembered how her father and Danapal uncle had brought a video game from the bazaar which was the advanced version of the basic black coloured hand video game. After the demise of Shafi's wife , Shafi had shifted his dwelling to the new place where Danapal used to park his car. Nobody could buy the perfume Danapalan had brought for its originality was quite remarkable. He lived in a two storeyed house and he had a friendly tenant in the ground floor for years. The family who stayed there had expanded with children and grandchildren and decided to shift to the better place . Danapal refused to let them leave yet he was open to their choices. He was progressive and was very much attached to his daughter Sim. Both of them used to roam on the streets and roads of Madurai, tasted different foods , checked many shops and had a very good time together since she was born. Nobody could be as friendly as Danapal to his child and he used to discuss and share ideas , thoughts ,news and issues of all sorts and he had never confined his mind to the stereotypical father expected by the society. He went along with Shafi to meet Shafi's son in law. One day Danapal got wind of the demise of Edward, who used to be the district topper of his days. He died of kidney failure. Danapal and Shafi regretted about the painful state of Edward in his last days. Danapal took immense care of his father during his last days. It was not easy as his father lost his vision out of old age. Shafi's daughter cherishes the memory of being in a car, on the way to the wedding hall on her wedding day. The day came when he fell ill of heart ailments He was in the intensive care unit for a few days and returned. It is said that people don't die of old age but out of illness. After some days of treatment and cure, he visited Shafi's house and met his daughter. He had a tea and a sweet. He spoke to the neighbour whose husband was also working at the same bank where Danapal had worked . In two weeks ,the day had come. It was the superstar Rajnikant's birthday. The social media and the status expressed birthday wishes to the actor. That day the entire city was drenched in rain. It was raining from the morning; the morning Danapal came bathed , had his sudden agitation in his chest. He just sat on the floor with his towel in his waist. The phone rang with no one to answer. His daughter was on the other side of the call. She reached to find her father collapsed forever. Shafi's daughter who was working at the college received the news from her colleague, who was the son of the sams amiable tenant of Danapal. They did share a lot about Danapal mama at their work place. Shafi's son in law delivered the message of Danapal's demise to Shafi. Shafi, who once had encountered the demise of his wife and recovered, accepted his death. Shafi's daughter was afraid of him but surprised at the composed nature of Shafi. It rained like it was ordained by nature. He is one of the atheists loved by God. Shafi and his daughter reached the place amidst heavy rain the next day as well. The weather was cool and grim. Shafi and his daughter were lead by her colleague to pay the final tribute of the traveller, philanthropist, progressive thinker ; the breaker of strict and unnecessary regulations of society, Danapal was amidst the relatives and family performing the rituals as per the order. Shafi's daughter in tears looked at her father. He was serious yet unperturbed, composed with no tears. She saw the room where all ironed shirts were in the hanger in line, as if they were ready for the next ride. Danapal's mortal remains were carried to the ambulance to the crematorium. Shafi said, "Come, it's getting late for you . I will drop you at the college.", to his daughter. Danapal and Shafi left the place in opposite directions en route to the destinations.