Cars

It was late night, Stuttgart, and the preparation to wind up Bimal’s stay in Germany. It had been a very fruitful trip, the first for his career. Enduring pan chewing “Scientists” in a government lab has finally come to pass. ‘I am in the same league of S.N.Bose’, wondered Bimal ‘I can now call myself a Scientist’. It all seemed worthwhile now. How he had to take his only son to the hospital with a 104 fever dead in the night with an advance Mathematics exam to clear the next day. How harassed he felt when jealous, lazy lab technicians, his erstwhile colleagues, would not provide him the specimen during his PhD. His wife’s struggle with depression and all the condescension of U.S returned faculties on his stature. ‘I will now be respected’ asserted Bimal.

With things to pack and with diligence everything lined up neatly. Perfume for his wife; make up kits and other accessories, tableware- all part of the list that she had for him. His son had only one request -skating shoes. ‘When and where is he going to skate’ complained Bimal but pick up he did along with the other lot. But Dr. Bimal had something more for his son. Those small pull back and release scaled down versions of popular cars no where to be found in India then. His sons simply loved them a fact not lost on Bimal. Every time they used to frequent Dr. Sen’s home his son would run straight to the stash of cars. The stash belonged to Dr Sen’s two teenaged sons who had lost all interest in those cars collected during his frequent trips abroad. ‘When Bimal’s son saw them for the first time he was simply smitten ‘Baba look these have doors that open and close and also they have small steering wheels’.

Apparently one day in one of the visits the cars were not to be seen anywhere. It was a party. Then plain Mr. Bimal’s son looked all over and even asked Mrs. Sen about the stash. But he was simply brushed aside something that was noticed by Mrs Bimal. The party went about and the kid managed to investigate the cause of disappearance of 5 sports vehicles, 2 trucks and 3 luxury sedans. The items were duly retrieved by our lead investigator from the cache- under the flight of stairs amidst cobweb ridden articles of mystery and presented it to Mrs Sen to the embarrassment of the owner. Had those vehicles been insured the owners would likely be tried in a miniature court of law for fraudulent claim. Mrs Bimal had it enough and quietly took her son, approached Mr. Bimal, took him aside and head for the exit. That was the last of the social visits to Dr Sen’s residence. Aloof though Bimal’s son was Mr. and Mrs. Bimal were hurt and they went over there life, one of the ritual when the hearts were heavy, to make some sense. That was 2 years back and conditions at Dr. Bimal’s household improved considerably. He had enough of air mails once a month through a year and was longing to see his family of a wife and son. ‘How would he be? He must have grown?’ Yes a 9 year old now.

It was early one morning in December during the winter break. Bimal returns to his family and spreading the gifts for them on the bed. Wife elated and son over the moon with the skating shoe. ‘Mithun, I have a surprise for you’, opening a zipper to reveal a garage. ‘Wow Baba, a Lamborghini with doors opening upwards, a Polizei car, BMW, Porche …’ and off he went with those enacting James Bond car chases. That was the implicit thanks a 9 year old gave with Dr and Mrs. Bimal looking at each other smiling, satisfied.