One For All

How calmly he slept with the sun looking down on him. Even the sun had a smile, looking at him sleep like that everyday. Bhola was accustomed to hearing different sounds in his sleep, chewing and mooing of cows, cursing and laughing of women, birds calling out names to each other, wind in the trees, friction of stray animals with the standing crops, shouting of his master and sometimes even his snores. Yet amongst these, he slept like he is never going to get up again except that he always does and that too with a start. Not because he had a bad dream but that’s how he was and the next moment he will assume the role he has been assigned with so much of energy and suddenness that to an unknown eye he will appear to be working the whole night. He will make the birds fly, animals run, silence the women and cow, all with one shout.

Bhola was a hired help for protecting the crops and the house from trespassers. But even his masters didn’t mind his sleeping till late, for a mind like that needs a proper rest. His reputation was more out of word that followed him than on any facts. The story around the village was that Bhola was from a distant village. He was an orphan at a very early age, no one to take care of him and no one whom he has to take care of. He was raised in streets, temples, bus stations, fairs, government buildings, shops etc. Well built young man of about thirty, he had a rough handsomeness in a peculiar way of unknown origin and his voice and smile just guided the point home. Nobody knew his real name or the village where he comes from but everybody looked at him with an unknown affection. His unknown past didn’t bother anyone instead they kept it that way because the same fact has entertained them for as many days as they can remember to have spent with Bhola. Every time someone asks him about where he comes from, the ingenious storyteller called Bhola spuns a velvety tale with design of laughter, emotion and tragedy all weaved together to make a colorful past. He made the experience so realistic that men and women cried, laughed and cursed equally with every twist and turn.