Muslim Chacha

The title might sound a politically correct one chosen for secular sermoning, but its nothing of the sort. Muslim Chacha, himself is a character who defies the traditional pen picture of a so called holy muslim....he has hardly worn a salwar (the traditional dress worn by muslim males in the middle east) nor has he stuck to the religious rigidity of not touching alcohol(if it literally meant so, and a touch is a touch no matter whether its your finger or your lips)...in fact his life has revolved around the pints and quarts for more than seven decades.....and he continues to mind his Ps and Qs in his own style, minimal, subtle, orderly and very sophisticated. An orderlies etiquette that's truly reminiscent of the days of the British Raj in the country.

The first time I met him, was sometime in the summer of 1989, at the Old Cachar Club ( I use the word Old because the Cachar Club back then use to be in the Old building that has been demolished to make way for the new elegant building that stands tall over Club Road, today), though I fail to recollect the minute details of our first meeting, I still very much remember that even on that day he looked as old as he looks today. A face concocted by in-numerous creases crisscrossing it all over,an arched back that formed the half of a shady bower, nimble fingers that bore signs of decay over years of use and reuse and his graceful movements , as he covered long streches over the lawn where the party way going on, there was an unusual silence and grace in his movements and he is still an embodiment of these qualities to the day.

It was the other evening last week when we had gone to the club for dinner, when maa called upon him as Mushlim(with an extra H as in her bengali vocab), one of my uncles who had come from Delhi looked a bit surprised....but maa was quick to dispel his doubts when she told him that this was his name and there was nothing unusual about it. Maa went to add on a few words about him as she always does, whenever she speaks of Muslim Chacha....and of his 75 years of service at the Cachar Club...well that's right .....its 7 and 5...seventy five.....born in a village near Silchar sometime in the first quarter of the last century, Muslim Islam as he was named by his parents, came to work in the club in 1934 as a 14 year old boy, who would attend to the english gentleman, mostly tea planters and their ladies, and was the pick of the orderlies for his etiquette and efficiency. Even today he speaks of those days with as much clarity as if it were only yesterday. After the last days of the Raj, the Cachar Club was annexed by the Govt of Assam, like every other company solely held by the Englishmen, and was later owned by the influential Dev family of Silchar.

Muslim Chacha continued as he was retained along with few other employees of the Cachar Club Co. when the Dev's took over th reins of the Club after Independence. But as the years rolled by most of his colleagues retired or faded into the obscurity of old age or death. But Muslim Chacha went on, serving the club and professing his never ending loyalty.

Maa says that she had, long years ago as a child (when she went to the club with my grandfather) saw Mushlim as a young man, in his thirties or forties. But that was long ago. Muslim Islam has always been the best of the best when it came to his job, a skilled ace who excelled extraordinarily in the ordinary things he did. Muslim Chacha, once said and was later confirmed by sources that during the early 1950s when Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru had come to Silchar accompanied by his young daughter Indira, for a political rally he stayed at the Cachar Club for a couple of days and he was so pleased with Muslim that he insisted on taking the boy with him for his two day trip to Aizawl, so that Muslim could attend to Panditji.... This was the only time this man(Muslim Islam) had the experience of a chopper ride, and accompanied Pandit Nehru as his attendant to Aizawl.(Folk lore says that It was his perfection in the art of Mixology, and that it was a perfect peg the first evening, that was his boarding pass for the Aizawl trip). But even today whenever there's a big occasion in the club, its Muslim Chacha Behind the BARs.... And the skills are still sharp....(I would expect all of you to understand; given the fact that I have had a first hand experience of his art)....It was from Muslim Chacha I had first learnt how to hold a soft drink glass wrapped with a tissue paper , or the correct way of sipping through a drink, using a stirrer to mix a *ocktail.....and many such etiquettes, that one perfects at a finishing school today ......The art of handling dinner forks , using the napkin, how to place the spoon gesturing that one wants a second serve(I always wanted a second serve at the club, in fact more than a second serve), and many such fine etiquettes that added finesse and completeness to my being. As a child, I was one of the naughtiest who went to the club with his parents , but he would take moments off his duty to politely change my fork grip or take out the fork from the left hand and place it in my right or hold the soft drink glass for me with 3 fingers by the rim and the little finger beneath.....in a way Muslim Chacha has been a teacher for a lifetime.

A man who barely had an incomplete and informal primary education taught you the finest of English etiquettes, in a way that was very gentle as well caring. The man truly deserves a mention , he is worthy of. Today as the club is being rebuilt, the new building has a Sepia photograph of Muslim Chacha reclining on one of the pillars of the old club, the photos were clicked by Shrayya Dubey .....a fifth generation heir of the deb family...SM Deb's granddaughter, and has been placed in the entrance lobby. Rightly so, because today he is the oldest surviving yet functional unit of the Cachar Club, the old building too has gone down under the hammer but this defiant man fails to fade into obscurity. It reminds me of a remark, which was once said of famous music composer Friedrich Chopin, that Chopin is more Polish than Poland.....to portray the fact that he was the epitome of everything Polish, so can be said about Muslim Chacha.......the man who stand tall with his arched spine, a souvenir specimen of yesteryears. Hope that he continues in his same simple minimalistic style as always, for his sheer presence makes one Feel at Home in the club, for people who have gone there for too long. Muslim Chacha truly stand apart in a league of his own, a man who truly smells of the essence and spirit of the club........Hat Off Muslim Chacha