Bade Bhaiya

Bade Bhaiya- I love to be called so. When my colleague Shams was helping me create this blog and asked for title, I blurted out –Bade Bhaiya.

I am the eldest of us three brothers in the family. But that is not the reason for me becoming ‘Bade Bhaiya’. The sobriquet has a funny history. I came to Bhopal in 1987 but even 22 years after I left Jabalpur my heart still beats for the City of my birth. I am very fond of narrating anecdotes about Jabalpur. Of myriad anecdotes, one is about how typical Jabalpurians get sentimental when drunk.
It is like this.

Two Jabalpurians are savouring country liquor in a ‘Kalari’ (My fondest memories are about Kalari visits are of the one that was situated near Damoh Naka in Jabalpur). One is in twenties and the other in late thirties. They enter in the Kalari, buy booze and seek out a secluded place. Can’t get place of their choice and settle for a corner that is a little less crowded.

Both are cheerful but almost silent. Their eyes are glinting in anticipation of the mirth they will have soon. Bottle kept on the floor, they call for Soda and some Namkeen from the kiosk adjacent to the Kalari. Two minutes later their order is delivered and drinking session begins.

The older one pours liquor in two glasses put before them and looks condescendingly at the younger one. Both dip third finger of their right hand into their respective filled glasses and then drop some drops from the glass on the floor. “ Jai Bhawani”.

They invoke the goddesses with eyes closed and gulp down the entire glass.
Third peg turns garrulous. Fourth peg under the belt, both are sentimental. Workplace, family, girl friends(theirs and others’), shrewdness of colleagues, spirituality and personal philosophy crop up in animated and largely incoherent talks which is no longer a dialogue.

“ Bade Bhaiya , Bus Aapaki Izzat karate Hain , Baaki koi Ho XYS..” the younger says, getting up gingerly. The elder one has a smug slime on the face. I have seen this scene being enacted in the Kalari and in slight variations in other places so often that the way ‘Bade Bhaiya’ is uttered is itched in my memory.

I have regaled friends with this anecdote hundreds of times. This is my small way to pay tribute to the city I love most. Rejoicing the anecdote, some of my friends started calling me “Bade Bhaiya”. Earlier I used to associate the address with the mimicry of the Kalari but , gradually, I started feeling a sense of intimacy, if not respect in it. So, thank you Shams for helping me open the blog for bade Bhaiya.
Next blog soon