Amiya Babu's Punctuality

By Anirban Bhattacharya

I had never met a person more strict about punctuality than Amiya Babu. He was a retired civil servant who resided in Santragachi. Every morning exactly at 5 am you would see him on his walk along the stadium road. At 8, you would spot him at Guru Das's tea stall and when the clock struck 12 you would find him at Renu Masima's (aunt's) eating house and so on and so forth. Each and every hour was calculated with each and every second accounted for.

But it was not a normal and healthy way of living a disciplined life. It had become an unhealthy obsession about being on time and holding everyone else accountable if they messed up his routine. He strongly believed that Bengalis are losing their place in the world and it’s all because no one is being responsible with their time and are lazily passing each day. He would use every opportunity he would get to ridicule and scorn people for being late and not managing their time.

His hard-stuck attitude towards being punctual had given rise to a multitude of stories. When he was in school he would be the first one to be there even before Ramdas, the school guard, who would often get scorned by the then-adolescent Amiya babu for being late.

People in his office had plenty of stories about him. Amiya Babu would often get angry at his colleagues, underlings and even his seniors for being late during meetings even if they had genuine reasons for it.

People would often think twice before inviting him to any ceremonies. Last week, Paritosh Sarkar, in spite of his relatives' and neighbours’ advice against it, had invited Amiya Babu to the wedding reception of his son. As was customary to most such ceremonies people arrived a bit late and the food wasn’t ready exactly on time as mentioned on the invitation card. But Amiya Babu would have none of it. He got on the stage and started lecturing everyone present about the importance of time and ridiculed and humiliated Paritosh for wasting his time. Paritosh had a hard time, saving face, in front of other guests and relatives.

Another popular story, though it may have started as a rumour to mock Amiya Babu, was that he was ready to walk off from his own marriage ceremony because the bride was late.

So it was quite surprising when he didn’t show up at the club at 7 in the evening. Amiya Babu played poker with a few other club members. Though most people tried not to cross his path they would still play cards with him. The simple reason being Amiya Babu was not good at playing cards. His face was like an open book. Every time he was dealt a bad hand he would have an expression of disgust on his face and a good hand would result in a wry smile. If you timed your bets you would win.

The clock showed 7:15 and we looked at each other with puzzled expressions. Will he finally be late today for the first time? Has he succumbed to the various obstacles of life? Is he finally going to be unpunctual?

It was raining heavily outside. Raindrops were pattering on the window panes. Even though most of us were not known for our punctuality we always reached the club on time in the hopes of winning some money. Amiya babu would not play cards with people who came in late.

The knob turned and we collectively looked at the door. Our eyes were glued in that direction. Would we finally get to scorn him? Would we finally get to lecture him about the sad state of the Bengalis? But to our disappointment, it was Taradas Basu, another club member who played cards with us.

He was drenched. The umbrella hadn't helped him at all. He kept it at the corner and even before turning to us started with his excuse -

"My daughter had caught the flu and I had to take her to the doc-"

He turned and looked at us and realized the obvious lack of the person the excuse was meant for. His brows narrowed but only for a few moments as he came to the most obvious conclusion.

"Oh! It's time for Amiya Babu's bathroom break", he said rhetorically.

We always had our excuses prepared beforehand if we were late. Amiya Babu would never play with anyone who was late but that didn't keep us from trying.

Taradas took off his kurta and hung it on one of the nails protruding from the wall. He then pulled a chair next to us and sat down.

"I guess I will just have to be an observer today", he said dejectedly.

His actions were so routine and matter-of-fact that we didn't think to give him the news. He continued lamenting -

"I think there is some connection between God Indra and the municipal corporation. Each time they dig up the roads and drains it rains like this. Everything becomes muddy and the holes get filled up. Took me a long time to come here just from Ponchu's paan (betel leaf) stall. The huge drain they dug there has completely filled up".

"Yeah, that's why I left early", said Shankar Laha, "They had been saying in the news that it would rain today. I didn't want to take any chances. Wife wants me to buy hilsa fish tomorrow and Amiya Babu's contribution would have definitely helped".

"Where is he? Doesn't he take exactly a 5-minute break", said Taradas.

We finally had our chance to explain the situation to him. His face cycled through a few expressions starting from bewilderment and finally settling on a wry smile.

"Finally, we will get our payback. He has scolded me so many times. Just this morning, he lectured me in the middle of the market for taking too much time to buy vegetables because I was bargaining", he said with his face still bearing the smile.

A couple of other members commented on it. They explained in great detail what they would say to Amiya Babu. Everyone already had each and every word planned out. It seemed as if they had rehearsed this scenario multiple times. They all had a bone to pick with him.

Once the excitement died down a bit, I suggested we go looking for him. Not necessarily to get back at him, though it was a big part of it, but because it was an extraordinary scenario and it might just be that he has fallen ill or had an accident of sorts. No one was opposed to that idea and a general consensus was reached that once the rain subsided we will check up on him at his house.

The rain stopped at around 8 and we made our way to Amiya Babu's house. Chandan Kaka(uncle), Amiya Babu's housekeeper, was sitting on the deck. He was half asleep resting his head on a pillar when we got there. Since Chandan Kaka was hard of hearing one of us had to get close to his ear and announce our arrival. He was startled but only for a brief moment.

"Where is Amiya Babu?", asked Taradas.

"Babu has gone to the club", replied Chandan Kaka.

"But he never came to the club. When did he leave?"

"That's strange. Babu left at 6", Chandan Kaka said.

We looked at each other with puzzlement. A few ideas were thrown around as to what might have happened or where he might be.

"Do you guys want to have some tea?", asked Chandan Kaka.

"Well, we are here after all. Let's have a round of tea and then go looking for Amiya Babu. What do you guys say?", said Shankar Laha.

We were in agreement even before he had asked us and so we went in. Chandan Kaka made good tea. The biscuits that were served were delicious. I ate a couple more than I should've. I guess we all did.

Before leaving, Taradas asked Chandan Kaka if Amiya Babu told him anything else about where he was going. Amiya Babu often had a couple of things planned up in his route. He didn't want to waste any time.

"Babu said he would be having tea at Guru Das's tea stall. So, I didn't make any for him in the evening", replied Chandan Kaka.

This gave us our next destination. We thanked him for the tea and left for Guru Das's tea stall.

Guru Das's tea stall was some 15 minutes from the club. Guru Das had initially started his business with just a stool, a portable mud and aluminium oven and a kettle. But that was 25 years ago. Now, he had built himself a small albeit comfortable and nice stall. There were a couple of wooden benches where customers would sit and discuss the political scenario and the decline of Bengali culture.

Guru Das saw us approaching and motioned Raju, his assistant, for 5 cups of tea. None of us protested. Though not as good as Chandan Kaka's, it was still good tea.

"Have you seen Amiya Babu in the evening?", asked Taradas.

"Yeah, he was here today. Shouted at us for not getting him his tea on time. But what could we do? The kerosene stove just wouldn't start.", Guru Das said.

"When did he leave?", asked Taradas.

"Well, by the time we served him his tea it had already started raining. The umbrella was no match for the strong winds and the heavy rain. So, he had to wait it out. But he kept looking at his watch. We told him that he should wait for the rain to stop. It's dangerous to leave now since the roads and drains were overflowing with water and you can't tell if there's a puddle or a hole anywhere", said Guru Das.

Another customer walked in looking for a smoke and Guru Das asked Raju to give the man a cigarette. He continued -

"But he wouldn't have any of it. He cursed us for making him late. And took his umbrella and left. I had suggested he take Raju with him but he said that the boy would only slow him down"

"Did he go straight down the club path?", I asked.

Guru Das nodded and said that Amiya Babu probably took the path that curves around Ponchu's paan stall on the other end. We had our next destination. We thanked Guru Das, paid for the tea and left.

When we reached Ponchu's stall he was busy taking off the plastic sheets from the front of his shop. We asked him the same question as we had asked the other two before him. Ponchu didn't have much to say.

"When it started raining I covered my shop with these sheets. I couldn't see anything outside so I wouldn't know if he walked by", said Ponchu.

The club wasn't far from here. You just had to walk for five minutes down the road and then take the first right and you would reach the club. We thought about going back there to check if Amiya Babu was there. We had guessed that Amiya Babu must have taken shelter somewhere and waited out the rain and then made his way to the club though given his character it didn't sound probable.

Taradas bought a pack of cigarettes and passed it among the group. We smoked in silence. Each of us was trying to rack our brains.

I suggested we check out the club and if he was not there we should inform the police. Most of us were in agreement. Shankar Laha added that one of us should go and check back at Amiya Babu's house before informing the police which made sense.

But Amiya Babu was not at the club and neither at the house. That meant we had to go to the police station. The sub-inspector listened to us intently. Since everyone knew Amiya Babu and his antics he understood our concern and did a General Diary. He said he will see if he can get a couple of Hawaldars to ask around and asked us to let him know if we learnt anything new. There was nothing else we could do so we went home.

………………………………………………………

They found Amiya Babu's body the next day in the drain behind Ponchu's paan stall. There was an investigation albeit a small one. His death was ruled an accident. The rain had overflowed the drain and he probably misjudged where the road was and fell in the drain and hit his head.

He had two sons and a daughter. They were informed. One of them lived in Calcutta and he came quickly. Amiya Babu's body was released from the morgue a couple of days later. When we took him to the cremation ground, they told us that he will be cremated at 1 in the afternoon.

The time was agreeable since his daughter would be arriving at 9 that morning. She lived abroad. But her flight was delayed by a few hours and it wasn't until 7 in the evening that Amiya Babu was cremated.

It rained heavily that night and we walked back, extra careful where we stepped. Death is always on time.

By Anirban Bhattacharya