UNCLE

UNCLE

2 mins
9.1K


I owe my uncle a lot, right from the day he started picking me up from pre-school on the front seat of his bicycle to dropping me at the railway station in his auto rickshaw whenever I returned back to Bangalore. Poor guy he is, who loves me a lot more than his kids and I grew up shifting my place from the front seat of his bicycle to the pillion seat of the same bicycle.



I remember the day when he forgot to pick me up from school and it was slightly raining, almost every kids left the school but I stood there crying asking the caretaker “where is my uncle” and she replied that he hadn’t come yet. I cried until he came and he held me close and said “I am really sorry da, I slept off.” I realised that he couldn’t stand seeing me cry and he never ever came late since then.



He drives an auto rickshaw with a label named Ganga (named after my grandmother) and that’s what his livelihood is/was and no other source of income he had. He is a person who stores an abundance of love inside his heart which I have seen and felt ever since I saw him and half of my childhood was on his shoulders than on my parents.



He is the one who took me to watch theatre films & also bought cassettes so that everyone can watch it together. He used to bring me daily a packet of groundnuts from the local seller who roams around my hood. He is my moms closest brother & if I give him some money to spend then the first thing he would do is to inform her that I gave him some money.


His name is Gopakumar but for me he is my Gomaman and it’s been 30 years I have been using that name. I don’t think I can ever been a brother who loves his sister as much as he do & I remember the day when he was admitted in hospital & my mom was crying relentlessly telling me he is not well.



I am proud to be born to a middle class family who ordeal through many crisis to become what I am now but when I look at him who drives an auto-rickshaw for living and still be the same person I have met 20 years back and still loves me the same way as if I am picked back from my school.


Look at him, he doesn’t even know how to use a phone properly but he is my childhood hero.


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