Dilip sat with a remote in hand. The television was showing some western movie Dilip had no interest in. There were no OTT platforms at this point and one had to choice their viewing among what the broadcasters had scheduled to show that day and sometimes people just grew tired of changing the channels.
This might be the longest Dilip had sat at one place in many years. The cast on his right leg had made sure he wasn’t going anywhere out of the house.
“I told his father not to let him ride the bike. One of my neighbours, Mrs Patel said she saw Dilip following a girl who was on scooter,” said Dilip’s aunt to me when I visited Dilip that day in evening
“What?…. no. Mrs Patel must have misunderstood,” said Dilip
“I have seen him following a girl once,” I said to Dilip’s aunt who widened her eyes at Dilip as he widened his eyes at me, clearly no one had got the joke
Why Dilip was being related to a girl on scooter is because, his accident occured when he disbalanced his bike after a girl on a scooter suddenly turned left on his lane without any indication and he had to apply the brakes strongly. The bike disbalanced and it crashed straight into the girl and her scooter.
Thanks to the camera present, the accident was recorded, otherwise the first thing the girl did after screaming in pain was blame Dilip for driving rashly while Dilip was lying on the road, afraid to move and find out how badly he was injured.
The girl had received some minor injuries but had demanded for Dilip’s family to cover her medical expenditure as well as repair cost for her scooter. Meanwhile, the girl’s brother was furious with “if anything had happened to my sister you would have known what I can do”
I was present there at the hospital when this conversation took place and this was before the police informed every one of the camera footage.
“The girl and her family clearly knew that the girl was at fault after seeing the footage,” said Dilip’s father, “but they were still adamant with it being Dilip’s fault and not hers. Her brother wouldn’t stop with his threatening tone and blaming and he didn’t stop till the police took him to the police station and they said they talked to him but I know he received the end of a swinging police stick”
While these things were gradually dealt with. There was the matter of Dilip’s aunt, who for some reason didn’t like the drama to end. So she came up with “maybe Dilip has a habit of following girls while riding bike” and she was going around asking people about it.
“It will end one day, when my mother is at the end of her patience and then there will be a long heated verbal argument,” said Dilip while we were watching the 1993 Jurassic Park movie.
Written by Anuran Chatterji
Early Morning Memories 