I think I was in sixth class when a lanky young man from our ancestral town came to live with us.He had travelled a good distance by road in the hills of Himalayas and he arrived at the railway terminus at the foot hills to catch a train to our place. There he came across a huge noisy railway steam engine for the first time in his life. There is a story that he was terribly frightened when the big black canadian engine arrived puffing and fuming at the platform !
He travelled a further long distance by train and arrived at our place one fine morning.He was looking for a job and had not passed the tenth class examination (known as High school exam.). Father got him a comfortable job and advised him to clear High School exam. for continued job security and better prospects which he eventually passed after some years. I do not remember if he was married at that time. I remember that for quite sometime he lived a bachelor's life.
I will prefer to refer to this young man here as DDP. This DDP was a very simple, sensible and honest man. He was carefree and happy. children liked him and his light hearted banter. He had a disarming radiant smile and a deep scar under his chin. He had got this scar when he fell down from a tree in his early teens.
The very day he arrived he teased my little sister thus : " khale khale jaungi (it means "I will prefer to walk"). And then he kept repeating this whenever he saw her. This continued for a long time and DDP enjoyed the amusement he caused by saying this in his characteristic way.
Now, there is a story behind this "khale khale" banter. It so happened that sometime before DDP's arrival we had visited our ancestral town in the cool hills in the raging summers. This sister was then having massive prickly heat in her legs and hands. So one day when we were walking on our way to visit someone quite a distance away, DDP lifted up the little sister to carry her so that she would not get tired. But the prickly heat spots got rubbed and caused her pain and she cried and said, "khale khale jaungi" (that is, "I will prefer to walk"). The prickly heat persisted and during our entire stay in the ancestral hometown and she said "khale khale jaungi" whenever anyone tried to carry her in his arms during long walks.
So now DDP mimicked a replay of that "khale khale" and this continued for such a long time that eventually DDP came to be associated with these words. So one day when Katwaroo, our cook, was conveying a message from DDP to my father, who had just come back from office, the dialogues were somewhat like this :
katwaroo, " that new gentleman has left a message for you"
father, " which new gentleman?"
Katwaroo,"That khale khale ji "
The nick name stuck ! As time roll on people started calling him khal khal ji ! In due course every one called him thus and never by his real name. Some people never even knew his real name ! And he also started identifying himself with this name ! DDP was transformed into KHAL KHAL JI !
Khal khal ji was a simple manof a friendly, helping nature. He loved eating lots of green chillies with each meal.He loved the company of good natured people.He loved to eat potato cutlets at the sher-e-punjab dhaba (food joint) adjascent to the new Venus cinema complex.He loved long walks in the evening with his friends and I sometimes accompanied him. He loved to wear trousers in Devanand style (Devanand was then a big filmstar of Bombay-Mumbai). And he loved Suraiya, the famous film actress of his time ! He loved to see all her films ! I remember a friend of my father once suggesting in my presence that money should be contributed by all of them to finance his trip to Bombay to meet Suraiya ! ofcourse it was never done!
How time flies !! That was a long time back . It is quite some time since khal khal ji left this world but I still remember him fondly. He was an essential, happy part of my carefree childhood. In a way he was a friend, philosopher and guide.
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