Thread by @Raja_Sw

Interesting experience on day 1 of 2020.

Gas stove needed to be repaired.
Found a small repair shop in the neighbourhood.
Two elderly Muslims.
Said it would take 15-20 min, so I waited. 1/n

Normally, I NEVER start a conversation.
Am too much of an introvert for that.
But somehow I just blurted out “Hum Town Hall pe the”.
(Town Hall is where most anti-CAA protests have happened.)
I immediately thought, maybe I should’ve shut up. What was I trying to say anyway? 2/n

Immediately the older of the two said “Hum bhi gaye the”.
That broke the ice.
Then he said “Hamari umar bayaasi hai. Hamare waalid aur humne angrezon ke khilaaf patthar phenke the. Hamara khoon hai is mitti mein”.

All I said was “bilkul”.

He then left. 3/n

The other Muslim, working on the job, said “Ek gaana hua karta tha. Tu Hindu banega na Musalmaan banega, insaan ki aulaad hai, insaan banega”.
Me: “Sahir Ludhianvi saab, Dhool Ka Phool, 1959”.
He looked surprised.
Me: “Bahut sahi gaana hai. Mujhe puraane gaane pasand hain”. 4/n

He then started singing “hum dhoondhte hain unko…”.
I joined him, and we sang on till the first line “toote hue khwabon ne”.
Me: “Madhumati, Rafisaab, Salil Chaudhary, 1958”.
He: “Un dinon ke gaanon mein kuchh tha zaroor”.
I nodded. 5/n

Then he started “mere toote hue dil se…”
I joined, we sang the “maangi mohabbat, paayi judaai” stanza together.
Itne mein he finished the work he had to do.
So the singing session ended there.
I'd have liked to stay longer and sing/chat with him, but I had other work. 6/n

As I was leaving, I asked him if it'd be ok to take a selfie w/ him.
He was fine with it.
I then realized I'd left my phone at home. :(

I promised him I’d return and take that pic w/ him.

THIS is the India I want to live in.
Let's fight to retain it.

Awaaz Do
Hum Ek Hain.
7/7

Am back at the gas stove repair shop. If he's ok with a pic, I'll click one. He's busy with a couple of customers, so I don't want to disturb him. :-)

As soon as he saw me, he said "baithiye, aap ke liye behtareen chai leke aata hoon". And went to a nearby shop to bring me tea.
The other elderly person (the 82-year old) also dropped by. I took a selfie with them, telling them I might share it w/ others. They were fine w/ it.

The 82-yr old then left.
The two of us then continued to chat. We shared some details of our lives, we started another song session. :-)
He started off with "raat kat-ti nahin din guzarta nahin, zakhm aisa diya hai ki bharta nahin" (Talat saab's zindagi dene waale sun). I joined.

All along, I was extremely conscious that I was taking his time. I'm always very conscious about this - for anyone.
But he insisted that it was just fine - "kaam to saath saath chalta rahega".
We sang so many more songs - "mohabbat zinda rehti hai", "husne jaana idhar aa" etc.

I even recorded a couple of videos of him singing - ofc, w/ his permission. He seemed very happy to just sing and chat with me.
He sang "aap ki nazron ne samjha, pyaar ke qaabil mujhe" to me.
After a while, I had to leave.
I have the clips - wondering whether I should post here.

I did tell him that I might share the pic and clips with others, but he didn't seem to mind at all.
It is just my own concern for privacy that makes me think twice. What with face recognition tech nowadays, you never know if a pic will be misused. Hence hesitating.