Old Man’s Paradise

A Short Story By G.S.Vasukumar




The Prologue


“Whose letter is it?” Brinda asked her husband, Ashok.


“Dad’s. He likes giving surprises!” Ashok replied “They haven’t gone to Kasi*”


“Then where did they go?” She asked.


“Old Man’s Paradise!”


“Old Man’s Paradise? What place is that?”


“We shall find out soon,” He said “as he has invited us over there.”


***


The train was going through a place which had greenery on either side. Ashok peeped through the window of the train compartment.


“Do you see him?” Brinda asked.


“Yes, I see him!” Ashok replied, he had seen his father’s friend Dayanand holding a sign board with “Welcome to Old Man’s Paradise!” written on it.


He tried to pull the chain down with all his might.


“What the hell do you think you are doing?” asked a man, who was with them in that compartment.


“ We are going to get down the train!” He said turning back “I think it is stuck…come on, guys, help me!” He added looking at his family members.


His wife Brinda and his two daughters Priya and Preethi held his waist and pulled him back. The chain came down as well as the train came to a screeching halt.


“Who pulled the chain?” The T.C. asked, rushing towards their compartment.


“I did!” Ashok said, taking down the luggage.


“Oh, you should be that old man’s son” The T.C. said rather annoyed “You’ll have to pay a fine of…”


“Rupees five hundred...here it is!” Ashok said giving it to him.


“It’s nice to see you guys” Dayanand said with a warm smile “It is about fifteen minutes walk from here. Please follow me!”


“Dayanand Uncle, isn’t there a railway station nearby?” Ashok asked.


“Yes, there is one in the town.”


“And how far is this town from here?”


“Thirty kilometers!”


Soon, they reached the compound wall of the Old Man’s Paradise. As they entered, they saw Gulmohar trees and Yellow flame trees on either side of the path. It gave the feel to the name “Old Man’s Paradise”. 


There was a pond with lotus flowers and a wooden bridge in the middle to cross it. On the other side, there was one huge banyan tree with a circular platform below. As they walked ahead, they found a big building with a beautiful spring fountain before it. The spring fountain was surrounded by colourful flower plants.


“Welcome to old man’s paradise!” Ashok’s father Kishore said, welcoming them inside.


“Hi!”Ashok’s mother Rukmini said coming.


“Why are your hands muddy, gandma?” Preethi asked.


“Well, I was plucking the vegetables for the lunch” She said.


“Plucking vegetables?” Brinda asked surprised.


“Yes, we grow our own vegetables in the vegi- garden behind the house.” Rukmini replied.


Later, they all had lunch together on the dinning table.


“Well, hope you like the food.” Rukmini said.


“Yeah, we like it!” Ashok said smiling at his mother.


“Dad, how did you guys come to this place?” Ashok asked.


“Well, son, it’s a long story..It was long time back…” Kishore said.


“Grandpa, start it with ‘Once upon a time long, long ago..’” Preethi interrupted


“Once upon a time long, long ago...when we friends weren’t even married…we all set out for a trip in our car. We had lost our way and reached this wonderful village…As it had turned dark, so we had decided to stay back in this village for that night. We were pleasantly surprised by the wonderful hospitality of these innocent villagers. The best thing about them was that they all lived like one big family…" Kishore started the story.


"Though they had their problems. They had power supply only for a couple of hours or so in a day. We, friends used to think that we should do something good and nice to others…which would give us joy and satisfaction in return..”


“So we came back again to this village and talked to them about solving their power problem with solar energy. They co-operated with us and we solved their energy crisis.” 


“Then the next big problem was that they used to waste their hard earned money by drinking, smoking and gambling. We tried to get rid of these three bad habits of these villagers and succeeded in the same, though this one took longer time to achieve.” 


“The impact was so much that the person who was selling vine in vine shop was forced to close it and open a provision store in its place.” Dilip added.


“Wow! That’s amazing!” Ashok said 


“Then we realized that these villagers weren’t educated and they were many times cheated in the town. So, we decided to come here some weekends and teach them to read and write.” Dayanand said.


“You guys did all this before you all got married?” Ashok asked.


“Yes, It was then your dad got this wonderful idea of buying some land over here and settling after our retirement.” Pradeep said.


“When we told this to the villagers, they were more than happy and gave us thirty acres of land in the outskirts of this village for a reasonable price. They even helped us to bring this dream place together and took care of the same in our absence.” Dayanand said.


“ But, why thirty acres?” Ashok asked.


“Well, I and Vishnu wanted to grow grapes!” Dilip said.


“I wanted to grow mangoes!” Pradeep said.


“It was my dream to grow strawberries someday..” Raghu said.


“I wanted tomatoes..” Dayanand said.


“Well, I wanted to grow sunflowers..so we needed more land.” Kishore said.


“That’s very nice!” Ashok said smiling at them. “You guys have achieved your dream!”


“Son, If you believe in your dreams, then go after them and never rest in peace until you achieve them.” Kishore said.


“You’re right, dad!” Ashok said.


“As a matter of fact, they didn’t tell us too. We all were under impression that we were going to Kasi.” Narmada, Vishnu’s wife said.


They all rested for a while after a delicious meal. Later, they played “UNO” game together. In a way, the game had become like a tradition amongst them. Then they took bicycles and went peddling around the green path. They passed by the sun flowers field, the mangroves, grapes yard, strawberry and tomatoes fields.


When they were returning back, it started raining.


“It is very nice to peddle a bicycle in rain, you know.” Vishnu cried.


“Yeah!” They all cried back in chorus.


When they reached back, hot snacks and tea was waiting for them.


“It’s a wonderful place!” Ashok said very pleased.


“Yes, you won’t regret growing old.” Raghu said smiling at him.


“How about watching a movie in the home theatre?” Dilip suggested.


Krishore led them to the large hall which had a big library of books, music cds and movie dvds at one end, and a home theatre in the other end. 


Kishore picked up the movie “Big Fish”. They all watched this movie directed by Tim Burton and enjoyed it.


“I have seen this movie many times” Kishore said “and I have enjoyed it every time!” 


Later, Kshore gave a book to his grand daughter Priya. It was a collection of short stories. She was surprised to see her grand father’s name on the cover page of the book.


“Grandpa, I never knew that you write?” She said.


“You wrote it, dad?” Ashok asked, taking it from her and going through it.


“Well, I used to write when I was young. Later, I became busy and couldn’t continue it. Now, I had time so thought of doing it.” Kishore said smiling. “Here is my first collection of short stories!”


“I’m proud of you, dad!” Ashok said.


“Thank you, son.”


The Epilogue


“I hope you enjoyed your stay over here.” Kishore said.


“Yes, dad, we sure did” Ashok said “It was like a dream come true!”


“All this will be yours along with children of my dear friends when you guys grow old.” Kishore said.


“Thanks, dad” Ashok said.


The End