Alone, yet in a Crowd
Author:
Dr. K. S. Kang
Today Kirpal has passed away. Though he was alone in
this world yet he was with a crowd of well wishers ad sympathizers. Kirpal lost
his grandparents during partition riots even before he came into this world.
His grandparents sacrificed their life in order to save the life of their only
beloved son Racchpal, who came to India
safely and settled in Delhi Punjab in horrible condition. Due to the hard work and
kind efforts of Bhai Karam Singh and other staff of Gurudwara his physical
wounds had healed yet the deep impression left by these riots on his psyche
refused to go. Kirpal was totally disillusioned with this world so he decided
to spend his rest of life in Gurudwara serving the humanity. He took up the job
of keeping the shoes or pilgrims and in the adjoining room he used to spend the
nights of his life. His physical needs were not much. The clothes and food was
provided by Gurudwara along with a
meagre wage which was more than enough for him. The only strange thing in his
room was a number of note books piled up on the shelf in the corner of the
room. After he came to this place he had developed the habit of writing the
name of people in these note books. Now his whole day was spent in looking
after the shoes of the pilgrims who used to come to visit this historical
place. He used to greet every pilgrim with a smile and asked his name and the
place from where they had come. Then he used to take their shoes, sandals and
slippers and cleaned then with a rug and he even used to polish shoes and
footwear from the brush and polish bought out from the amount of his wages. He
used to clean and polish footwear of every pilgrim daily without any break and
without any discrimination. Some of the pilgrims visited this place frequently
and regularly so he started knowing them by their names and developed cordial
relations with them as if they were his friends and relatives. These regular
pilgrims also liked him due to his polite and humble behaviour with everyone
without any distinction. Taking their shoes in his hand he used to initiate the
conversation with every pilgrim by saying, “ Perhaps I know you, you had come
earlier also.” Pilgrim either used to answer his query in affirmative or
negative. If answered in affirmative he used to trace his name from the date of
his last visit and if answered in negative then he used to write his name, date
and the place from where he had come. This activity had become a sort of habit
of his life and it kept him connected with the world. Due to his nice nature hs
well wishers grew with time. He had made it object of his life to interact with as many people as possible.
Last
month he fell ill and was taken to hospital by the regular visitors of the
shrine and its staff. Pilgrims were shaken up to find another person in his
place in the Shoe House of the Gurudwara. Even people of nearby areas came to
this place so that they can know about the well being of Kirpal Singh besides
paying respects at the historical shrine. The news of his illness spread like a
wild fire and people started praying for Kirpal’s recovery with so much passion
that even Kirpal own relatives, if alive and existent, would not have prayed
with so much sincerity. Some pilgrims brought flowers and fruits for him to the
hospital. But his illness had gone beyond the reach of the modern science and
technology and Kirpal after a month’s struggle succumbed to his illness and
joined his parents and grandparents in the sky. People collected near Gurudwara
where Kirpal used to live. When his body was being taken out for cremation it
was followed by a long trail of his friends and well wishers who had come to
bid farewell to this man who had distributed nothing but smiles to everybody
without any discrimination as he cleaned everybody’s shoes without any
distinction.
