Babuji’s real name was Narendra Kumar Srivastava. He was a retired District Bank Manager of Allahabad Bank and was last assigned with the headquarters of the Bank in Gandhi Nagar on Geeta Press Rd. Gorakhpur. He got his nickname of Babuji when he was just a clerk starting his job with the Bank on Alphonso Rd. Although he had a B. Com First Class, he could not find a suitable job and had to settle for a teller’s job. He treated his customers, colleagues, and his seniors and bosses with respect and with smiles and was happy with the job. The customers started calling him Babuji because of his good nature and humor. Babuji liked their love and did not mind the nickname and eventually started to enjoy it because it had love and affection and blessings all together merged, somewhere. So, Narendra became Babuji. He was very ambitious and bright person and he wanted to rise in his carrier. So, while he was working, he took night classes and passed M. Com with First Class. Soon his family grew, and he was blessed with twin sons whom the family named Bhargav and Raghav. Bhargav was about 2 minutes senior to Raghav and the bond that the two had, was exceptional —Raghav always respected and referred to his brother as older brother. Eventually, they grew up, got well educated, got married and had their families with two children each, one boy and one girl and had to move away from the family. Bhargav was an accountant with Atomic Energy Commission in Chembur near Mumbai and Raghav was a resoBabuji’s real name was Narendra Kumar Srivastava. He was a retired District Bank Manager of Allahabad Bank and was last assigned with the headquarters of the Bank in Gandhi Nagar on Geeta Press Rd. Gorakhpur. He got his nickname of Babuji when he was just a clerk starting his job with the Bank on Alphonso Rd. Although he had a B. Com First Class, he could not find a suitable job and had to settle for a teller’s job. He treated his customers, colleagues, and his seniors and bosses with respect and with smiles and was happy with the job. The customers started calling him Babuji because of his good nature and humor. Babuji liked their love and did not mind the nickname and eventually started to enjoy it because it had love and affection and blessings all together merged, somewhere. So, Narendra became Babuji. He was very ambitious and bright person and he wanted to rise in his carrier. So, while he was working, he took night classes and passed M. Com with First Class. Soon his family grew, and he was blessed with twin sons whom the family named Bhargav and Raghav. Bhargav was about 2 minutes senior to Raghav and the bond that the two had, was exceptional —Raghav always respected and referred to his brother as older brother. Eventually, they grew up, got well educated, got married and had their families with two children each, one boy and one girl and had to move away from the family. Bhargav was an accountant with Atomic Energy Commission in Chembur near Mumbai and Raghav was a resort manager in Kerala, having earned a degree in Hotel Management.rt manager in Kerala, having earned a degree in Hotel Management.

When Babuji turned sixty, he had to retire, according to the government rules and regulations. He decided to retire in his ancestral home, because he had an innate desire to stay in the city where he was born, raised and where his parents lived all their life. The resident was in a middle-class area of Gorakhpur and it fit Babuji’s style. He found peace and comfort with the help of two servants, a cook and a driver and old neighbors and familiar friends and the crowd.

Throughout his life Babuji was very kind to all including his family and friends, neighbors and relatives and animals. One bright day Babuji was sitting on his seat in the porch and a small dog came close to him.  Babuji patted him and they formed an immediate bond. Babuji fed him roti and the dog finished it with lightning speed, since he seemed to be hungry Even though he was a stray dog, he virtually lived there. He would stay in Babuji’s porch most of the time during the day while Babuji was busy with his daily routine or while he was also on the porch.

The dog was a beautiful, brown dog with white patches and short hair that looked as if it was professionally shaved.The dog would appear every day when Babuji was on the porch doing what he liked. He did not bother Babuji but was very protective of him. He would bark at everyone who approached Babuji until he would signal that the visitor was friend not foe. Soon it became a routine, and the dog would appear in the morning on the porch and sit with Babuji until the evening and then leave as it turned dark and slept on the side of the house away from traffic. The servants and neighbors got used to him and considered him as Babuji’s dog.  Since Babuji and the servants would feed him in the morning and evening, he seemed to be happy and eventually grew up into a handsome dog who never bothered anyone and provided good company to Babuji and accompanied him when Babuji went out. He would  walk with him, with no leash, and was  friendly to all the people around recognized him and always admired the dog. He behaved as if he was with the family and protected them vehemently—barking at any potential enemy or someone who might harm them in any way. Babuji called his dog “RAKSH” short for Rakshak, meaning a prtotector, because once he saved Babuji’s life from a bunch of goondas who were trying to steal cash from him as he came out of the ATM booth with a large sum of money needed to buy furniture and other goods. The goondas were stalking him as he entered the ATM booth and as soon as he came out, they attacked him and felled him, beat him and ran with his money. Babuji’s nose, elbows, knees got bloody.  He had to get nineteen stitches in the hospital. The guard in the booth was snoring and woke up when he heard the noise. Anyway, he was not trained to quickly lock the booth and protect the customers. Babuji was in miserable pain and was inactive for an entire week. Raksh had protected Babuji by biting all three miscreants and they couldn’t even run away. They left the money to save themselves from the dog, but the dog relentlessly attacked them until the police saved the three goondas from the dog. They were subsequently arrested and jailed. They had to be treated with 14 injections each because of dog- bites. There are other stories about Raksh of saving other people including Babuji’s neighbors. After the incident the dog would answer to Raksh as Babuji would address him No one knows how that happened. It just happened. When Babuji would go shopping he would make sure that Raksh was with him. Raksh would stay outside the store and waited for Babuji until he appeared and accompany him home until Babauji went inside safe and sound.

Once, Babuji noticed that his handkerchief was missing, after he got up from the porch seat. He looked a little for it, couldn’t find it and he thought he left it somewhere and did not pay much attention after that. Another time he lost one of the socks from his shoe. Again, thinking it as insignificant thing he forgot about it. A thought did occur to him that perhaps he is starting to forget things—he is getting old, after all, he was pushing 65 years of age. 

Life was going on normally and peacefully. Babuji missed his spouse, but he consoled himself that no one can fight the nature, no matter how hard they tried thought that’s how life goes. His children used to visit him occasionally and he used to enjoy the company of his grandchildren if possible. He was offered, by his two sons, to come live with them— divide time between the two of them. He gave the proposal serious and deep thoughts for a long time but decided that he was better off living in the at his ancestral house with his servants besides, Babuji was his own man and did not want to interfere in their lives and he thought he was happy where he was. It was sufficiently comforting to him that his son’s offer was serious and had the peace of mind that he did have the option, in the event that he was unable to live on his own. He had friends, facilities, freedom, desirable company, and activities and best of all no obligations. He had enabled himself to be without his spouse’ company even though she was in his thoughts all the time. He thought that sometimes the memories to cherish fill the gap. Babuji also felt that the company of Raksh and the silent and devoted love that he gave him with little expectation was sufficient for his low-demand life. Rarely, but surely Babuji would vent his frustrations about politics and religion and other matters, and Raksh would agree one hundred percent. 

As nature continued to play its role, Babuji got old and started to have natural processes take their course. He would eat right, exercise and think positive, but no one can defeat nature.  After his annual medical examination, the doctor advised him to slow down and prescribed medications to ease the pain of what was to come due to his fourth-stage, non-alcohol related cirrhosis of the liver— a deadly and rapidly growing cancer. The cancer is untreatable and takes a toll on the patient’s digestive system as well as mental stability. Babuji was surprised because he never indulged in risky activities ever. He had been a life-long vegetarian, never indulged in alcohol, never smoked, he exercised regularly and had a safe office job all his life.

The same afternoon, Babuji was sitting on the porch with Raksh enjoying the morning, when the dhobi (launderer) showed up at the door asking for his soiled clothes so he could take them, wash and return them— a routine act between the two. Babuji left the laundry outside the door and went in to get the money to pay the launderer. The dhobi also left to collect laundry from the next house to save time. When he came back Babuji gave him the payment for the last job and asked him to count the clothes. Babuji had collected 20 items to give dhobi, and as usual, but dhobi counted only 19 items. Babuji made him count again and again in front of him and there were only 19 items. Babuji went inside to make sure nothing had been accidently dropped but nothing was found. He got concerned, not of a missing the item, but about his mental capacity. BUT he ignored it the dhobi left. As he sat back on the seat, Raksh just came running and sat down next to him. He was huffing and puffing. 

After Babuji settled down and rested a little he had a mental turmoil and debated a lot about whether he should inform his sons of his conditions or whether he should do so now or later or do so by a letter or email or by calls. He decided that it was best to call them. After Babuji called the two of them they were shocked to hear the bad news. They had never experienced such trauma and couldn’t stop crying in grief.

Both Raghav and Bhargav came to see Babuji, stayed with him. They visited the doctor and asked his advice on how to ease Babuji’s pain, both physical and mental. The doctor was very helpful and advised them to let him do his things as he liked and create the atmosphere of the least stress for him and not talk much about the disease in front of him.

After a couple of weeks, they sons left to go to resume their duties and promised to call him every day and begged him to be frank with them and call them as soon as he could, if he needed them.

On a crisp morning of the month of September, Babuji felt short of breath and could not get up. He called his servant who immediately called ambulance and rushed him to the hospital, but Babuji passed away in the ambulance despite the efforts of the ambulance staff to revive him. He had had a massive heart attack and they could not revive him by resuscitation or defibrillation.

The sons came back and prepared for Babuji cremation after all the proper religious rites. Babuji had expressed the desire of being taken to the cremation ground by pall bearers, just like his spouse was. The cremation grounds were about three miles from his house. While the pall bearers were walking, Bhargav noticed that Raksh was also following them with his tongue hanging out and puffing. Bhargav called him and pointed to him to go back, but Raksh ignored it. He continued to follow the arthi and when they all reached the cremation grounds and prepared for the rites, he sat—very close to, but sufficiently away with sad face and teary eyes facing Babuji’s remains. During the entire rites, Bhargav noticed that Raksh stayed there with tears flowing down his eyes just like everyone else in the crowd. 

While everyone else returned to the house in cars, Raksh ran the three miles and reached Babuji’s house. Everyone was tired and sad and after their simple meals all went to rest for the night. Raksh was also tired of all the running and of course was in grief

All fell asleep very quickly. Bhargav could not sleep and came out to get some fresh air and noticed that Raksh was still on the porch, sleeping peacefully —an unusual event because Raksh would normally go back to the street to sleep. One thing he thought was strange that while sleeping, Raksh was clutching a white cloth. When he looked closely, he noticed that it looked like it was Bibuji’s white undershirt. Raksh was clutching it tightly. This brought tears to Bhargav’s eyes, and a fleeting thought crossed his mind—-was Raksh clutching the undershirt or was Babuji’s spirit clutching Raksh?

Later that day, Bhargav and Raghav went to the side of the house and in a corner, they found a cubby-hole where Raksh had stashed Babuji’s handkerchief, his sock, and other items with Babuji’s scent which Raksh had been cherishing all along. They were jealous that Raksh had something they couldn’t have, but they were satisfied that they did have his memories to cherish.

Image Credit
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