The Mind Creative
“Somebody get this idiot off the middle of the road or I’ll beat the
shit out of him!”
The enraged and rather effeminate voice emerged from inside a
blue Ambassador car that was travelling at a snail’s pace on the
narrow road just below our balcony. It was Mr. Madan, who was
on his way home for lunch from the bank where he worked as
chief of security. He was a short man; so short that the car seemed
to be self-propelled when he drove without his official cap.
The anger was directed at a person walking a couple of feet in
front of the car; the madman of Barahdwari, fondly abbreviated
to “Mofbee”, by a group of kids of which I was a member. The
name wasn’t as exciting as the character Boo Radley from my
favourite book, but then Mofbee wasn’t like Boo at all. I would
have dearly loved Mofbee to have been a mysterious character
like Boo Radley. However, Mofbee was neither ghostly in looks nor
invisible. In fact, he was a very tall man standing over 6 feet tall.
He was thin and angular with long arms, the fingers dangling to
his knees and a face that was gaunt and bony. Strangely enough,
his cheekbones jutted out like upturned collars. However, what
made us most uncomfortable, were his eyes. They were large, the
pupils dark and staring straight ahead but never seemed to be
seeing anything. We knew he was not blind because we often saw
him pick up a stone, a piece of glass or other such object which
took his fancy, from the road.
Mofbee’s real name was lost with the passage of time. He was one
of two siblings, both boys. Nobody knew why his mind had started
malfunctioning when he was about twenty. Of course, as is often
the case, there were numerous opinions aired by neighbours,
family and friends. Mofbee’s father, old Mr. Yadav (who also
happened to be our landlord), was a successful businessman and
he firmly believed that an erstwhile friend, who was jealous of
him, had cast an evil eye and put a hex on his younger son. On
the other hand, the vegetarians, around the neighbourhood were
prone to believe that Mofbee’s state of mind was the result of a
severe shock after he had seen a goat being killed at his aunt’s
home in his ancestral village.
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