& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

The Unintended Gift

by A S M Nurunnabi
IlTT T HERE can I have \A/ a shower?" asked Y V a foreign youth, apparently a hippy, with a sense of urgency reflected in his voice, as I stood in front of my cabin when the passenger steamer was about to leave the terminal in the evening.
As the youth stood perplexed before me. 1 could not resist the temptation to Joke with him. So I said to him, "Why worry when you have all the river before you?"
He was in no mood for humour; so he gave me a hard took and quickly moved away.
Night fell. After some time when J came on the deck. I found that .youth dozing on a deck chair. His countenance appeared unkempt and mood sombre. Evidently he could not get his desired bath. He became an object of Interest to me. When I sat nearby, he threw a vexed look In my dt-• rectlon.
Suddenly he sprang from his chair and moved hastily towards the deck railings. In his hand was a small piece of red cloth which was perhaps his handkerchief. With great care, he fastened it to the railings with a piece of string.
The red handkerchief was obviously wet; so he wanted to dry It quickly. He observed the thing for a few moments as ft fluttered tn the strong winds. Soon afterwards he came back to .his chair but he seemed to be restless; every now and then he would rise from his scat and rush to the railings to check the progress of drying.
Early next morning I came on the deck again. To my amusement 1 found the youth still sitting In the same deck chair, this time with a bottle of coke in his hand. From time to time he took a ship from his bottle and looked vacantly at the river scene.
The steamer continued Its Journey and in a few hours It reached an Intermediary stop. Amid noise and commotion some passengers began to dis embark. When the steamer resumed Its loumsy, I looked for the youth but found no trace of him. I assumed that he must have got down at the last stop.
But I was taken by surprise when I found a cabin attendant barely ten to twelve years old, strutting on the deck with a similar piece of red cloth.
Obviously that was the same red handkerchief put on the railings to dry by the hippy youth the previous night. 1 could not make out why the youth suddenly made his departure without retrieving his handkerchief. Perhaps he did not carry the proper ticket so a sudden appearance of the checking staff might have precipitated his departure.
1 could not, however, suppress my curiosity. So I said to the cabin boy, “Where did you get it?"
His reply was cryptic: "I found It on the front deck". His Joy was obvious as he mopped up his face with it every now and then with a majestic flour ish.
The whole thing filled me with mixed feelings — a felling of sadness over the compulsive circumstances under which the youtlt had to leave behind his fond object; on the other hand a mild feeling of elation on observing the pronounced satisfaction suffusing the face of the cabin boy to whom the unintended gift seemingly meant a great deal