It was just six in the evening and already dark. He sat in an easy chair in front of his plush farm house, where he has been living for last 40 years, with high spirits in his veins. He was in his late eighties and has been always proud of his carefully done up hair and mustache for its glazing jet black finish! His family barber visits him weekly to dress him up on a routine.

Once he held the largest land bank in the region and the revolutionary land reforms act has forfeited major portions of his land despite his desperate efforts of saving it by some benamic transfers. However, he still owned a lot of property and he continues to be the feudal land lord of the village.

The systemic change brought in apparent difference in the society and the old feudal system gave in for a radical reformist system with a blend of capitalist glimpses and he was quite clever enough to absorb the change and act accordingly. However, he remained a core feudal lord inside and his thoughts were always conservative. The untouchability has become a fading memory of the ancient past and the society no longer discriminated anyone on the basis of caste or religion. Come what may, our hero neither changed his conservative mindset and nor allowed such people in the vicinity in private life. However, he cleverly disguised it during his very limited public appearances! His public life was limited to the visits to those very few stores predominantly run by his old time mates and dependents.

unhappy1I had seen him transforming a lot through years. In his peak days, his superiority complex made him mock at everyone he met, at the back of them! I had always wondered why a man thinks so negatively about people of various walks of life, who really lead good lives?! He was always surrounded by a cautery of people who kept nodding at every nonsense statements he uttered! He enjoyed this company and bought a drink or two to keep them always by his side! But then, he transformed a lot over years and became much sober and calm, of course without changing the basic characteristics. He had his own company of individuals who shared traits of inherent superiority (or rather inferiority). Of late, I had seen him becoming depressed about his life and keeping himself always in high ‘spirits’! Despite all such negative characteristics, he has been healthy till last few years. Even now, he’s not that bad in health except for his knees. But, one noticeable change I had witnessed in him is his frustration about life. I had always wondered about such characters who come across in life quite often, who are left Scot free and lives with every possible pleasures in life! But, now I realize that anybody who talks ill about everybody else and run after money will never get the satisfaction and happiness. Hence, the long they live, the more they live unhappy! I think that’s the pain they’re awarded to go through in their prolonged life! So let’s praise the Lord for everything he does quite logically with unparalleled foresightedness.