Identity Card

Identity Card

As the wheels of the train screeched to a halt on the concrete bedded rails, Pyare Lal looked out of the window to confirm his destination. After confirming it he threw his bedding and bag on the red soiled platform of the village.  Then he got down from the general coach of the train quickly as train stopped only for two minutes at this non- descript station that happened to be ancestral village of his wife. Holding the ticket between his lips and bag and bedding in both the hands Pyare Lal came out of the station only after handing over the ticket to the railway official standing at the exit of the station. Nobody had come to receive him because he had made this programme suddenly and the intimation of his arrival was perhaps, as usual, behind the schedule. After coming out of the station Pyare Lal started walking on a pavement dimly remembering the way to his wife’s parents house as he had visited this place only once just after his wedding, and that too in the darkness of the night. As it was only morning there was hardly anybody in the street giving it a deserted look. To make the matters worse Pyare Lal had completely forgotten name of his wife’s grandfather by whose name everybody knew about them in the village, as was the practice prevalent in the most of the villages of India, that a household is known by the name of the eldest male member of the family.

By the time Pyare Lal had walked about half a mile, the Sun had already come up in the sky and Pyare Lal was experiencing sweltering heat of the month of September. After walking for another quarter of a mile, Pyare Lal reached the central part of the village, which used to be a hot centre of exchange of information and gossip through the day.  From this central part of the village two lanes diverged in opposite directions and now Pyare Lal was totally confused as to which street to take, so he put his bags on the ground and began to recollect his breath and memory as to which street to take so as to reach his wife’s house.

Meanwhile in the central part of the village, popularly known as Chaupal, a few elderly villagers were sitting lazily with a page of a local daily newspaper before them. Meanwhile Lakhan, a young educated man of the village came there to get his daily dose of news. Lakhan took one page of the newspaper from Satbir, his friend and fellow being, and started perusing it. The first news that he came across in the paper was the escape of a dangerous criminal from the nighbouring town , while he was being taken from to the court. After reading it he looked up from his paper to take another page of the newspaper but his gaze was arrested by the figure of Pyare Lal, who was sweating profusely and looking confused. After watching him and his expressions closely it appeared to Pyare Lal that the description of the criminal given in the paper matched this person to some extent. So Lakhan nudging Satbir pointed quietly towards the news with one hand and towards Pyare Lal with another. Satbir after a few minutes looking repeatedly at paper and Pyare Lal beckoning Lakhan to bring his ear near him Satbir whispered ‘ I’m sure he is a run away criminal  and may cause some untoward incident in the village.’ And he further added,’ you keep an eye on him and his movements and try to engage him in conversation while I will go and inform the police.’  With that Satbir disappeared from that place at once while Lakhan moved towards Pyare Lal and asked ‘ Have you lost something, sir ?’

Yep, I have lost my way .’ replied Pyare Lal

Lakhan asked another question so as to engage Pyare Lal in conversation, ‘ Do you belong to the village ?’

      To it Pyare Lal replied, ‘ No, I came to the village only today morning’

Getting confirmed that his stranger has come from outside and is not well conversant with the  paths and lanes of the village Lakhan’s suspicion increased. While Lakhan was thinking about another question to put to Pyare Lal, he saw Satbir with police constable at the end of the street to his immense relief. Satbir and Police Constable reached at the Chapula and Constable asked Pyare lal bluntly, ‘ Follow me obediently like a good boy, Inspector wants to see you.’ Now Pyare Lal was totally bewildered as to why he was being taken to the Inspector and he even protested weakly by saying, ‘ Why are you taking me to Inspector ?’ To Pyare Lal’s query Constable gave a routine reply by saying,’ That I don’t know, you will know after meeting Inspector.’  As Satbir, Lakhan , and Constable were taking Pyare Lal a number of children and other villagers joined them in curiosity as a result of which they had become quite a procession till they reached the end of the man street. Inspector, seeing his constable leading this procession of the villagers with this stranger, decided to deal with the matter there and then. So he asked villagers to stop and ordered constable to bring a chair from a neighbouring house and put it under a shady mango tree. Reposing comfortably in the chair Inspector asked Pyare Lal, ‘ So what is your name ?’ Pyare Lal who was unable to know why things have taken this turn, shook suddenly at the question of the Inspector as if awakened from a dream and he replied humbly ‘  Huzoor, my name is Pyare Lal’. Before Pyare Lal could complete his reply when Inspector fired another question, ‘ Why have you come to this village ?’

‘ Huzoor I ‘ve come to take my wife who lives in this village ‘? Getting certain that this stranger could be escaped criminal, Inspector said firmly, ‘ Don’t befool me, Can you prove your identity’ ?

       Perhaps Pyare Lal was prepared for such a situation so he said quickly, No , sir I’m not befooling you, I have enough evidence to prove that I ‘m Pyare Lal of 25, Lane no. 2,Ranjeet Nagar, Gurdaspur .’ With that he took his valet from the hip pocket of his pant and took out his voter card, employer card, driving license and PAN card and handed it over to the Inspector. After examining the cards as crowd was watching in complete silence Inspector was certain that this stranger was an educated man but to reconfirm his views he asked Pyare Lal another query,’ O.K, What is name of your wife ?’ 

‘Sir my wife’s name is Meena.’ said Pyare Lal.

Raising his eye brow Inspector again said ,’ Meena what, you will find Meena in each street of the village. Do you know the name of her father, grandfather or ancestors.’

Now Pyare Lal again felt cornered and said in a weakly audible voice, ‘ sir, actually I’ve forgotten name of her grandfather.’

This reply again made Pyare Lal object of suspicion as Inspector said in a harsh scolding voice ,’ You have forgotten the name of your relative’.

Now Pyare Lal was totally helpless but suddenly he saw the familiar face of his wife at the other end of the street. It appeared to Pyare Lal that if any divine person could take human shape to salvage him from this ordeal, it was his wife’s face. So Pyare Lal shouted at the top of his voice startling the crowd and Inspector ,’ Meena, I’m her , save me.’ This lady getting a familiar voice in her ears looked up to find her spouse surrounded by villagers. She came towards him with a coy smile on her face, which was enough evidence to prove the identity of Pyare Lal as crowd uttered with relief,’  Oh!, he is Shyam Prasad’s son-in-law.’ Handing over the documents to Pyare Lal Inspector commented jovially, ‘ Now Mr Pyare Lal of 25, Lane No. 2, Ranjeet Nagar, Gurdaspur, move with her in the village’, pointing towards Meena and further added,’ as she is a surer identity card here than these plastic junks’, pointing towards the cards. Inspectors comment was greeted with a loud laughter of the crowd. And the whole crowd moved to escort Pyare Lal to his in-law’s house with respect as after all Pyare Lal was son-in-law of the entire village.