The Feather In The Crown

Anjali was quiet and peaceful when she returned from the office nowadays, something had clicked in Ludhiana and that in itself was a lot to say, going to a strange place was never easy, but I think she had handled it well. Top that with having made a new friend in Shweta, I wasn't surprised at her wanting to do more trips like this, journeys had always set me thinking and more often than not the philosophical thought process would rub on to my fellow travellers.  I had already fixed a deadline for the next trip, a small town to the South of Punjab, Nabha, and the following weekend we took the train to head to the princely town of Maharaja Hira Singh. There was history to the town and and though it was small, with a population of 50,000 odd residents, the town is a thriving with activity.

When we reached Nabha, it was cold afternoon though the Sun was out and it was dusty, in general the state of the roads was a little on the broken side and it had been a bumpy ride to reach Nabha from Ambala.  The SaravPriya Hotel, Nabha is one of the budget hotels, Paramjit Singh, my friend and guide met us at the hotel, he had already booked two rooms for us.  

The biggish Punjabi Sardar gave me a large hug and patted me heartily on my back, "How have you been veerey."

"Lords mercy is on us."

"Wahe guru is always with us," he said jovially as he said a quick hello to Anjali, who had suddenly turned pensive, strange places initially always got her into that mood.

"Its pretty," she said staring at the lawn which centred rooms around it, there a few tables and chairs with umbrellas basking lonely in the sunlight. "I figure all the guests would be busy with their sightseeing, I don't see many around."

"You will in the morning," replied back with his usual large smile.

I had met Paramjit during my college days travelling on the bike to Patiala, he was a large hearted guy, and loved to drink and would worked hard at his motorcycle workshop near Patiala Gate.  He guided us to the rooms where our welcome drink awaited us, Anjali took to the flowers really well, they were a nice bunch of Orchids purple in color.

"These are so pretty."

"I had them ordered especially for you both," said Paramjit, "normally they put roses, but I was told that you liked Orchids."

Instinctly Anjali gave him a peck on the cheek, "Thank You."

Paramjit blushed, he was not used to public affection from woman, this was a small town and after all he was a mechanic, so what if a highly skilled and special one.

Most mechanics don't know what they are getting into when they open up a machine, they tinker over with the spanner, get the electronics in, open up the machine and then decide what to do and normally what they do is totally contrary to what the customer would want..  Machines are like relationships, not totally and the angle is not immediately evident, but what forms a machine is multitude of inter related parts and what is that if not relationships.  If people fit well into each others lives then what we get is a perfectly functioning machine that has a purpose.

Parmajit was a very intuitive mechanic, and when I met him during a college tour I had seen his workshop totally scattered with tools and machines.  To casual observer it might have looked like there was chaos all around, but Paramjit could find his way through the chaos, he would sit next to an open vehicle and without seeing what was happening pick up the right tool for the job.  He had during those days achieved the job of fixing the looseness in the cylinder-piston fit in 2 hours without even me knowing that the job was being done.

"How is the garage doing ?"

"The government has given me permission to acquire more land."

"Paramjit, my Dad once told me that he trusted mechanics more than Doctors," Anjali said.

"He He He, I don't know."

"Paramjit's wife cooks very well, how is she veerey ?" I asked, I had met Shiromani once, she was a strong willed woman who would never let Paramjit rest on his laurels.

"She is doing well, she cooked some Biryani and send it for you, I have it in my car."

"Will make piece meal out of it during dinner." All three of us laughed, the conversation was moving.

Paramjit lounged himself onto to large couch in the room and poured himself a drink of water, he had an Ipod attached to his waist and Anjali opened up her suitcase and took out some Bluetooth speakers.  She paired the Ipod with the Bluetooth speakers, and the sound of some blissful Jagjit Singh Gazals filtered the room.

I looked around, overlooking the balcony was a market place, and the main road, called the Circular Road on which the hotel was located led to a Gurudwara that I could see in the distance.

"That's the Samadha Wala Gurudwara, its located in the Beed Forest, and is a great place to visit, we will visit it tomorrow."

"Sounds like an interesting place to go to." Anjali smiled.

"Do they have animals in that forest."

"I think they do," said Paramjit.

"Not lions though, just some deers, buffulos, some Neel gaen and the likes.

"Where else can we go tomorrow ?" Anjali asked curiously.

"Well there is the Glaxo factory we can visit, I have visit planned, its popularly known as the "Horlicks" factory."
"I would love that, as also to meet your wife Param," Anjali replied back.

"Yes, then tomorrow we go to my house for dinner, Shiromani is a good cook," Paramjit replied back, I could see on his face that he had liked the idea of Anjali wanting to meet his wife.

I wondered at Params upbringing, a God fearing man, he was the perfect example of a morally upright person, religion played a huge part in his life, whether it be work or personal relations.  I had no right to ask him but I did ask a question that had been troubling me for a while, 

"Do you see Wahe Guru in your work ?"

"I often do and that as the case may be are two different Gods, the one that handles my work for me is so meticulous, there is wonder in almost every part of the machine that I fix, there is a method and logic to every part in which He resides, like he takes care of my machines for me, forewarns me when Mother Nature is out to seek revenge from the metal parts and provides me with logic to solve even the most difficult problems that SHE throws at me.

I stared at Param, my heart skipping a beat and my eyes wide open, this was the most profound logic I had heard in years, and the journey of my last two years seemed to be reaching a more forward looking thought. Nabha was going to be a fantastic outing, I could sense and that made me happy.

"All Fears and Phobias are So Revealed So That We Can Move Through"