OF NAILS AND MIRACLES

NAILS AND MIRACLES

On my way to the barber's shop in Hazratgunj Lucknow, I took a shortcut through a bylane in the Maqbara colony opposite the Halwasiya market. At a particular point in this deserted lane a crowd was spilling into the street from a house. It was early in the morning and the bylane had hardly any traffic except those going into that particular house.

As I walked by the house on my way to the barber, I asked a young man standing outside as to whose house it was.

"This is Dr. Pepper's clinic" he informed me "he is there, examining his patients."

I arrived at the barber's shop and settled down for a haircut. A barber is like the internet. You ask him about anything and he has the information !

"who is Dr. Pepper ?" I asked him as he got busy clipping my disorderly hair.

" He is not an M.B.B.S. doctor" he said, "He is a Miracle Worker. He inspects your nails and then tells you your health problems right from the day you were born. And he gives herbs. All free. If you have not visited him so far you have missed something remarkable."

" If everything is free what does he do for a living ?" I asked.

" He has a ten to five job." he said, "in the mechanical engineering line. People call him a doctor because he is far better than a doctor. Even doctors come to him for treatment -by the backdoor ofcourse, to save face !"

The next morning I was at Dr. Pepper's house.

He was a lean and thin aging and graceful man with clear intense eyes and a thundering voice. Sitting in an armchair in the covered verandah, Dr. Pepper kept examining a patient, tapping each nail with a matchstick. The patient had placed all the ten fingers on the wide arm-rest of the doctor's chair.

"Did you ever go to the sea shore for swimming?" he asked the patient.

The sea coast is a good thousand miles away from Lucknow.

"No. Never." replied the patient.

" But ten years back you were definitely doing something in the sea. Try to recollect" he insisted.

The man was silent for a while and then remembered something.

" Yes yes, I went on a pilgrimage to Puri in orissa ten years back and took bath in the sea." the patient said.

" And you were bitten by something while bathing. Here on the leg." he tapped the patient's right leg below the knee.

"Yes ofcourse. How do you know this ?" the patient interjected.

Dr. Pepper ignored the question and turned his eyes towards us.

"This man was bitten by a fish (he actually named the fish but I don't remember which). His present problem is the result of poison from that bite. He has been suffering for ten long years"

And Dr. Pepper then abruptly got up and left the clinic.

I was preparing to leave when, after fifteen minutes, he came back with a paperbag full of some kind of a grass.

"Here. Take this." he said, handing over the packet to that patient.

Then he asked the patient to note down in detail the method of treatment."You have this weed in plenty in your village." he informed to the patient.

I did not leave until the last patient had left. It was an awesome experience.And then when he asked me if I wanted anything, I asked him if I could have a photograph of his.

" what will you do with the photograph of an old man?" he asked, amused.

" I will write a feature on you for a magazine " I said. "this is my first visit and I find that you are an extraordinary person."

He was silent for a long time. I thought he was now waiting for me to get up and go. And then he spoke softly , almost inaudibly.

" You have asked me to choose between the gift that God has given me and publicity." He looked at me and smiled."what do you think I should do ?"

I had got my answer.

"I understand " I said " I am sorry it was a very inappropripate request"

I touched his feet and came out.

But I remained in touch with him for a long long time afterwards, visiting him whenever in Lucknow and taking people to his clinic - till his last days.

That was a long time back. Surprisingly nobody knows about him today, not even in his own colony. . . .That is the way the world is. That is also perhaps the way he always wanted he to be!

             ***************