Uncle Gherkin (Pickle)

By Sukumar Ruj

“Hello! Hello Uncle Gherkin! Oh, hi, Uncle Gherkin! After a long lapse..!

The bloke carrying a basket of gherkin turns his face.

“Oh! Sorry! I thought you’re Uncle Gherkin. ... The same look!”

“Ahh, now got it!” “That’s my papa”.

“Actually I’ve been enjoying uncle’s various pickles since my girlhood.”

“Excuse me...but how come are you here?” “I see you for the first time!”

“Yeah!” “First time here.”

Overcoming the initial hesitation Tiasa asks the young man, “By the way, how’s

uncle?”

Observing her face with a tinge of blush; her touch of vermilion along the cleft

of her hair and the red dot on the forehead the man stares at her eyes and says, “’He’s

no more.”

His words stun her. She dips into a momentary silence and then frowns with a

query. A silent mesmeric murmur echoes all round her inner ear, “Here comes the

spicy gherkin!” Smilingly he used to ask, “What’s for today, my child – a taste of

mango grove or tamarind?”

Smiling back she would reply, “No, today it’s the pickle of gourd with lots of black

salt sprinkled over it.”

His voice would echo no more. She comes back to her sense, “Was he ill?”

“Yeah, a heart disease. One and half months ago he was found dead on an open

land, beside a paddy field while returning home after peddling his gherkin in a mid

April afternoon.”

She recalls uncle’s attendance at her wedding. Being formally clad in grey fathua

and fine bordered dhoti he attended the ceremony and presented with a jar of gherkin

and showered lots of blessings. His eyes filled with tears when he removed his hand.

And soon after, he perhaps ... Tiasa’s silent murmur appears apparent ... “Since then

you’ve been looking after his business.”

“Yeah, I’ve been graduated in History Honours since three years but still

unemployed. I’ve got to run my family for mere survival of my widow mummy and

two sisters. A marriage was proposed for the elder one. But it dropped so after papa

died.”

2

Tiasa’s face is filled with overwhelming compassion.

A pale smile struggles across his lips. “Unless I happen to see you here, I couldn’t

have known that a mere gherkin pedlar had earned so much of respect and had

become one’s uncle.”

With head down Tiasa says, “By chance I’ve come to my father’s house and met

you and by the way, come to know about Uncle Gherkin.”

The young man turns emotional, “That’s right. I wouldn’t have been aware that I

had had a sister here.” “Why don’t you try my gherkin?”

Her eyes are filled with tears, and voice heavy with emotion, “Be quite free and

frank to your sis, my dear brother!”

By Sukumar Ruj