Will Power.
This is the story of those days, when I used to work on a busy road of London called Fulham Broadway. I used to work in a shop. You can’t say it was shop, in fact it was a store or you can say mini store where they had everything. I mean food stuff; even they had a section of cosmetics as well. The shop owner was from Rawalpindi, where I belong. When I started working for him, I felt very strange because I never did manual work in my whole life. So in the beginning it was very difficult for me to manage. But I started working honestly there. When they came to know that I am educated person than they started treating me nicely. To be very honest with you the person for whom I was working, Javed sahib was very kind person. His nephews became my friend as well. I don’t know what so special they saw in my personality, they never treated me badly even though they were very ill mannered and rude. We used to go to discotheque together quite often.
My daily job was to bring things from the basement of shop and to fill the empty shelves, like drinks and stuff like that. Other than this if anything in any section, if the shelves were empty I had to bring to fill up the shelves. Above all cleaning the shop was our duty as well. There was another guy who was working with me. Javed sahib and his wife’s nephew they were permanent worker of this shop.
I used to take train from Neasden railway station used to get off at Earls Courts to change the train. From Earl’s courts I used to take train for Fulham Broadway. In six months time I got acquainted with two people than they became my friend. The one was Nadeem Fazil Khan, who was from Birmingham. He was working next to my shop (I mean where I was working), in a some Patel’s pharmacy as a pharmacist. The other person was Rajniti Singh. He was living in London from last forty five years. He forgot a lot of Hindi. He used to buy two things regularly, Weetabix and The Guardian news paper. Raj sahib used to say that, Guardian is like my breakfast. If he doesn’t read Guardian news paper, his day doesn’t start. He was reading this news paper from last forty five years. In the evening he used to give me that news paper after reading it. I used to read that second hand newspaper. Politics I never liked it so I used to throw rest of the paper accept the cultural, art and literature stuff. I used to keep it with me. as I was and I am fond of literature and fine art so if I have ever seen something related with art, culture, literature and fine art I read it. Apart from these things I used to take interest in fashion page as well. My salary wasn’t very good but you can’t complain. I used to save some money and used to send it to Pakistan and I used to save little money as well. That money I used to use for some important task. I was that much happy working in Fulham Broadway that I used to feel that I am living in this area since ages. I used to have one day off. On that day I used to go to my brother’s home. I used to stay at my brother’s place and then on next day I used to come to Fulham Broadway direct from his home.
I have great passion of reading and buying books. When I was in Pakistan, I used to buy old and new books. I bought whatever I found interesting. I didn’t stop this hobby even here. Where I was working there was a place called Jar din place. There was a shop where they used to sale second hand things. They used to keep books as well. I used to buy books only. In the beginning I used to buy books like novel, poetry, history and religions of the world. When I got acquainted with Rajniti Singh, I started reading books on popular science. On top of the list was genetics. Now in my room which was very small the books about science started increasing slowly. Other than these books, I started buying New Scientist regularly. I was that much addicted of genetics; people started calling me D.N.A. Nadeem got surprised of my hobby. He got more shocked when he came to know that, I know French language as well. The most astonishing thing for him was, when I told him I am illegal in this country. Although it wasn’t very strange thing because in London most of the foreigners are illegal.
Other than books, my other passion was music. 95.8 Capital F.M. was the part of life. The best segment of this F.M. Radio was the segment of Steve Pank. Doctor Fox was good as well. When I used to enter in the shop at 1 “O” clock, I used to start listening 95.8 Capital F.M. radio. Until 11 “O” clock in the evening I used to listen. We used to close the shop at eleven so we used to switch off the radio at eleven. It wasn’t like that that it was the end of music. When I used to arrive at home, I used to switch on the radio. At night at home I used to listen, Melody FM, Kiss 100 FM or Jazz FM. I had very good collection of ghazals as well. I used to enjoy with these ghazals as well. When I started working, in the beginning I used to have day off on Thursday. I used to finish my work on Wednesday and from their I used to go to some discotheque. Then they changed my day off and they started giving me day off on Saturday. Now I started going to discotheque on Friday night. I think that I haven’t missed any discotheque of London. I had a complete list of all discotheques of London which had their addresses, dress codes, timings and entry fee. I was fond of music and dance so I used to enjoy for four or five hours dancing and listening music there. There were lots of people who were interested to go to discotheque with me. The only reason was that that I used to dance continuously and I was good dancer. I learnt a lot dance in discotheques by watching other people.
............................
Now let’s start the real story. Javed sahib sacked his wife’s nephew dew to some personal reasons. It’s not very important to tell the reason as I knew but when he left the shop, Javed sahib gave me the keys of the shop and said now you are the responsible of this shop, so from now on you will be the one who will close the shop. Now I was responsible for everything like if anything is short, or anything to buy, the stock in the basement, cleaning the shop, I was responsible for all these things. So it was my job to close to shop and check the cash as well. As I had the keys of the shop so it was great responsibility. I was cashier cum manager. I used to leave till cash when I used to go for dinner or when I had to go to wash room. So like this the customers used to see my face from 1 “O” clock till 11 “O” clocks in the evening. When I used to find some time; I used to put wines and beers in the shelves. In this mini store, used to come many people every day. Every person had history but one old lady impressed me a lot.
I call her old lady because she was above seventy but in England even in all European countries seventy isn’t old age or you can’t call them old. Any way I was talking about that old lady. She wasn’t taller than five feet but she used to wear high heel shoes and because of them she used to seem taller than her actual height. Her hairs were short up to her shoulders but she used to comb them always very nicely. Her hair were neither black nor white, they were grey. When she used to walk on the road under sunlight they used to glitter and shine in very particular way. Her face was full of wrinkles but her wrinkles were very graceful. Her features were good. If you keep her features in your mind and just dream about that lady how she should have been in her youth. She must have been femme fatal. She used to wear skirt usually. So I used to see her calves, on them it was easy to see the signs of her old age. She used to wear expansive shoes and she used to wear skin colour socks. Her English speaking accent wasn’t like English; she must have been from Scotland or Ireland. As I was living in London for some years so for me it was very easy to judge the accent of the people. The Irish and Scottish accent was different, Liverpool’ accent was different as well. It was quite clear to judge where do they belong. The people of South Africa, Australia and New Zealand they all have different accent. About American accent, everyone know, there is no need to tell.
When I used to fill shelves instead of working as cashier, in those this lady used to come regularly but I never spoke with her. My job was whenever she used to come in the shop I used to take eight cans of Guinness draughts from the shelve, put them in a bag and give them to that lady. She used to pay for eight cans and she used to leave the shop in a blink of eye. I used to have little chat with her but I was afraid that if I will continue my conversation with her, Javed sahib will be annoyed because I wasn’t working for him legally and I didn’t have document as well, I mean I didn’t have permit of staying in England. So I always tried my level best not to do something weird or strange.
It wasn’t only me, two other people who were working in this shop were curious that this lady is very decent but she drinks eight cans of beer. Until yet I didn’t know anything about the different brands and varieties of alcohols. I didn’t know even this there were many brands of beers. I used to think any think which contain alcohol is called wine.
One thing I forgot to tell you about that old lady, when she used to speak, her teeth used to move. In the beginning I thought that she has some problem in her gums but I came to know later on that she had false teeth. I didn’t know a lot about that lady but I was inquisitive and curious about her, even Javed sahib and his nephews used to feel strange about her as well. As in Europe alcohol selling and drinking isn’t odd so nobody bothered about this. As she was very old so everyone was curious that she drinks eight cans of beer every day. By the way in England eighty and ninety year’s old people drink one bottle of whisky and brandy every day. One example was Jefferson. He worked for royal navy. He lived in India before partition I mean before 1947. He was great fan of India. He was eighty five years old but it was impossible to free one’s wrist from his grip. He used to hold wrist very strongly. He used to drink one bottle of Bells whisky everyday and one packet of twenty cigarettes. He used to say that, the secret of his good health are these two things. The doctors they talk rubbish.
Like this I started knowing about alcohol. What is the difference between Whisky, Brandy and Cognac? What is the difference between Jin, Rum and Tequila? Others were Old Baileys, Period, and Ricard. Beer has its own varieties. Draught, Pilsner and Bitter these all were different. Guinness Draught is very powerful beer. It contains a lot of iron in it. In the beginning they used to use it as a medicine for the patients to provide them iron. I don’t call it ferrous because people don’t understand this word because it’s Latin word so I prefer to call it iron. If I say to someone that he is lacking ferrous in his body he will be shocked but if I will say that he is lacking iron in his corpse than there will be no problem. One thing I knew that this lady has shortage of ferrous I mean iron so she drinks eight cans of Guinness Draught everyday just to provide her body the right quantity of iron.
During my job I used to keep myself happy and gay used to move my body like I am dancing, so like this I used to keep myself busy in my job. My style was very strange for customers. They all were shocked and amazed that what special felicity has this person that he is always happy and he always keeps smile on his face. When I used to ask some customer that how are you, he used to respond me “surviving”. This means I am just alive. He used to say surviving in such a way that he will die the very next minute. I used to tell them if you have shelter, clothes and food than it doesn’t mean surviving. It means very good. I still believe on this philosophy.
I still had curiosity to know about this lady. I found this opportunity to know more about this lady when Javed sahib asked to serve the customers as a cashier on till cash. The other boy who was working as a cashier, Javed sahib sacked him. Now I used to see her coming on the road I used to say loudly to Atif that bring me eight cans of Guinness draught. We used to have 33 litre can of Guinness Draught and most of the time we used to have large can of Guinness Draught at same price on special offer. It happened quite often that I didn’t find that can so because of she used to get annoyed of this but she never refused to buy Guinness Draught from us. Whenever she used to come to our shop, I used to say something to her. Sometime I used to say something about her hair style, sometime about her skirt, some about her rings which she had in her fingers. She knew that I just have a laugh. She never knitted her brows albeit she used to enjoy my conversation. Once just to make her happy I proposed her to marry with me. She started laughing loudly and said, “I got married thrice and the speciality of these marriages is that----- I divorced thrice of them. I mean I left them. These three rings remind me that what I have done it wasn’t and it isn’t wrong”.
Like this we used to talk and she used to tell me something new about her life. I never had that much courage to ask her why you buy eight cans of beer. It was against manners and ethics. Anyway drinking beer and alcohol in European countries isn’t a shameful thing.
I used to go to my shop where I was on working on Friday, a little earlier because Javed sahib had to go to mosque for Juma (Friday) prayer. I came to know later on that the main reason of Friday prayer is to see other business men and after prayer they used to discus about business that where they find cheap beer and alcohol. So like this one Friday as I was at the shop a little earlier, I saw that old lady she was running towards my shop. It seemed like that that she is in rush. She entered in the shop and said, “Can you do me a favour”.
I said, “Tell me if I can. I would love to do this favour for you, if it’s possible”.
So she said, “This is my address. I am going out of the city for three days. If you deliver eight cans of Guinness Draught at my address for three days”.
I said, “It’s not a problem”.
I said curiously, “you are going out of city, than why these cans of Draught, for whom”?
So she said, “These are for my son. He doesn’t have his both legs. I don’t know how long he will live but one thing I know definitely he is still alive because of these eight cans of Guinness Draught”.
I was in a condition like someone has squeezed every drop of blood from my body. I got stunned and I was standing in front of her like statue.
She said, “What happened, you can’t do this for me”.
I said, “Why not”.
She said, “I am in hurry. You can take money for twenty four cans. Where I am going, if I will be late than you will have to deliver cans on that day as well. I will clear your debts when I will come back”.
I gave her money back and said, “When you will come back than I will clear everything”.
She gave me such a look that she is saying thanks. She left the shop after this. I kept her address in a safe place. I asked Atif to come at till cash; I took eight cans of Guinness Draught and went to the address which she gave me. I found her home with a lot of difficulty. The address she gave me, at that place all residents were physical handicap. I rang the flat’s bell. Once, twice, thrice. When I thought I should leave I heard a voice, “Come in please”. I answered him when I was standing outside than I pushed the door slightly and entered in his house. As I entered inside, I had a quick glance. In this room there was everything which was suitable for handicap person. Other than what he had in his room that gentleman had a long stick in his hand which was according to me a very useful thing for him. It was a luxurious flat. This gentleman had same features like her mother. Physically he was alright but he didn’t have his both legs up to knees. I was very curious how this gentleman would be using his wash room. How he must be washing himself and using toilette. Due to some reason I had to go to his wash room. There I saw it was made in such a way that it was helpful and made appropriate for a handicap person. I took permission from this gentle to leave. He said, “I am very sorry that I can’t offer you something to eat. Take these five pounds and eat something”.
I refused to take money, said good bye to this gentleman and took my way towards shop. I did this for three days and on forth day that lady came by herself. She cleared all the debts and thanked me a lot as one could. I told her if you have problem like this next time; you can call me on shop’s phone number. I wrote down the shop’s phone number on a piece of paper and gave it to her. She kept that piece of paper in her purse.
........................................
Now I was enough acquainted with this lady. I respected her a lot and I appreciated her courage that this old lady has strong will power that she was looking after her handicap son like a little kid. Now my condition was like that if I don’t see her I used to feel strange that something lacking in my life. I used to see her; she used to tell me that I came this morning and took eight cans of Guinness Draught. Now in our shop everyone knew that this old lady buy eight cans of Guinness Draught for his handicap son. Like Javed sahib, Atif and Javed sahib’s nephews as well they used to come once in a week.
Time was passing that lady used to come like this to buy cans of beer but then suddenly she disappeared. We thought that she is no more, I mean deceased. I thought many times that I should go to her flat and ask her why she doesn’t come but it was a little bit awkward. So I stopped myself doing this. It has been long time but one day I saw her, she was walking across the road. I called her but she didn’t hear me. I asked Atif to come on till cash and ran towards her on the road. When she saw me she felt gladness. I asked her about her son, I saw dampness in her eyes. She told me that he is no more in this world. I felt very grumpy and sad. I asked her where you were, I didn’t see you since ages. She said, I don’t live here anymore. I just came to London for some personal affairs. I asked her why you didn’t come to our shop. She said, my son’s memories were related with Guinness Draught. As you know about this. If I would have seen you, I would have been thinking of my son. So it would have been difficult for me to control myself. I was purposely walking across the road but I should appreciate your deed of kindness you saw me and came out from the shop and stopped me. Honestly speaking in this materialistic world especially we Europeans, we don’t care what’s going on with other people. Okay I must go now. These were the last words she said and took her way but I felt that the bells are ringing in my brain.
No comments:
Post a Comment