Conversations - 18

Welcome back, dad.

Hi, Greenie. Thanks.

How was your trip to Rampur, dad?

Hmmm. Great.

Must have been hectic, no?

Sure.

Can I ask you a question, dad?

Why not?

By any chance ...

Go ahead, Greenie.

By any chance, did you remember me at anytime during this trip?

Haha... Honestly, no.

What?

Yes. The answer is: no. ... Sorry. It was not intentional that no thought about you crossed my cranium.

What's cranium, dad?

Relax. I mean my mind.

Greenie did not figure in your thoughts, dad?

Your understanding is perfect, Greenie.

Why? I mean you did not think about me?

Dunno.

Did you think about your wife and daughter?

Yes.... That's because ...

No explanations, please dad.

Look. Please try to undersand. They kept calling me or texting me.

What's texting?

Texting means they were sending messages on my phone.

You mean "SMS'ing, dad?

Oh mi god, you know SMS.

Sure, dad. Had they not texted or SMS-ed you, you won't have remembered them, dad?

Maybe.

You're bad, dad.

Greenie, you sound like my wife. After every trip outside Delhi, she poses two questions: Did you remember us?....

What's the second question, dad?

What did you eat?

Oh.

Most of the time I am tired of both these questions.

Why, dad?

Simple. I eat more or less the same food. Roti, dal, green sabji as salad. Sugarless tea or coffee. 99% avoid sweets. 99% no to liquor.

Are you a saint, dad?

No. No. Bit of self control due to health conditons. I love food.

And what about the first question?

You mean that part about 'remembering them"?

Yes, dad.

Greenie, mostly I totally get engrossed in my work and no space to remember them. But I do remember them occasionally. I avoid this trap because the thought about them disturbs me - emotionally. I want to pack up and return home when I think about them.Then this disturbs my work. I don't like that.

There must have been a lot of greenery all around you during your recent trip to Rampur...

You said it. Rampur is situated 120 kilometres away from Simla. Full of deodar treets and green valleys. Recent heavy rains had turned the entire stretch into a verdant valley.

What's 'verdant'?

Green, greenie. Like your body colour.

Still you did not remember me?

Come on. You've also become emotional. Not remembering you does not mean I don't love you. I love you immensely, darling.

What's darling, dad?

YOu're apple of my eye, Greenie.

You're very confusing. Green first, then darling. Now apple of my eye. What is apple got to do with eye?

(Tring, Tring)

Dad, your phone is ringing.

Give a sec.

Take more time, dad.

(A few minutes later)

Greenie, I have noticed something in you.

What?

Your colour is changing.

What do you mean, dad?

You are not 100% green. Some portions of your body is turning yellow.

....

Are you like chameleon which changes body colour as protection against predators?

....

Okay, okay. You change your body colour to hide away from your enemies?

Now you make perfect sense. In a way, yes. Now I live in your home - not in the green bushes or tree tops or green grass bed. Most of them, I hang around your washbasin or the water tap. I myself surprised that I have not lost my green-ness.

If you wish, I can take you out for a walk, Greenie.

That's a nice one. Going for a walk with a grasshopper? Am trying to imagine that scene...

What's wrong? Mind you, there will no leashes. You will fly or hop on your own. I will walk along side.

Very imaginative, dad. Let me sleep over the idea and come back.

Sleep over, Greenie? You're fast catching up.

What?

Nothing.

Dad...

....

Dad?

...

I think he is totally lost perhaps thinking about our proposed walk. Dad? I know he is reliving his morning walks with Zack..... Memories are not good. Look, how it is turning dad distraughtful. If there are no memories will it be good? Everyday if
memories are flushed out, how life will be?

Dunno. I have to ask him. Later, not now.

He's totally lost.

(To be continued)