The Batha 's Daughter...

She was tall and well built, infact one of the most beautiful women I have seen...

That day, my brother was on a cleaning spree and he came across some old diaries that I had once used. He said that he was going to take one under his custody but minutes later he handed it back to me.

I had written a brief encounter I had with Ms Ruby Sakti. That torn piece of paper started to turn pages of my memory. I recalled even if I acknowledge the fact that I am inclined towards the occult and the paranormal and I aspire to be a clairvoyant while I am experimenting and researching with the TAROT cards, I always despise the idea of so called holy men en cashing their Gods and Goddesses in the form of divine powers that they claimed to have acquired. 

One such person that I would like to mention is Dr. G. T. Sakti or Baba as his believers would call him. It may be noted that of all the Tantrics¹ that I have met, he was the most powerful one.

The exact translation of the word Baba would mean "God Father" but he was not an underworld lord but I must admit that he did have connections in the nether world.

To prove my point I must state that I was having a bit of a problem at my work place with a fat woman. She had been accusing me of stealing. A phone call to the Dr. G. T. Sakti and a little meditation for me by him, made magic.

From the next day onwards that fat lady's behaviour dramatically changed to the extent that she became a good friend of mine.

There are a lot of details involving this fat lady's episode but the same are beyond the scope of this account. To summarize, Dr. G.T. Sakti or Baba was a tantric who could help out people under bad astrological worldly influences. The impact of his healing powers depended on how deep one's pocket was and that is why, I named him "Batha" (Baba + Tantric).

Well, my father is a very religious man. It was this impaired vision that made my father over look "Batha's" , pocket digging talent and he fell at his (Batha's) feet for some solutions to certain problems were really bothering him.²

The solutions did arrive but with a hefty price and numerous visits. It was one such visit that I accompanied my father and brother and but he was busy with another client. We were allowed to wait at his home, while he dealt with the other client at his chamber. ³ There I saw Ruby for the first time.

She was tall and well built, infact one of the most beautiful women I have seen. She was around twenty one years old.

When we came in to wait for the Baba, she was offering her prayers in front of a big picture of Goddess Kali. ⁴ The very first sight of her evoked my admiration and yes respect.

I kept watching her but I was careful enough not to offend her or make her conscious. Well, my watching had to come to an abrupt end as we were called to see Batha.  It was our turn now.

I accompanied my father to be 'graced by' batha's presence, my thoughts remained on Ruby. My father spoke to  Batha in detail.

Batha's neighbor another so called agent of God or simply a Tantric was not comfortable with the idea that well dressed and most probably rich people like us were consulting Batha instead of him. His little kids started to beat drums and clang bells in the pretext of an Aarti ⁵the Dark Goddess Kali. Well actually Batha's neighbor was trying to disturb him as well as us.

No wonder that I lost my temper as my father was getting distracted while trying to describe my problem to Batha and at the same time trying to study his next move of asking my father's hard earned money and I felt my eyes burning with rage. After what ever cold be done to complete the consultation, we were asked to wait in Batha's private quarters; the same room where I saw Ruby. Batha had asked us to have lunch with him and then go.

Of course, holy men tend to feed their bakras ⁶ (goats to be sacrificed in the name of faith) well. I was finding it difficult to control my temper and shut my desire to shout it out, when Ruby entered to the room perhaps to get some thing.

The cork with which I had shut the vent of my anger flew off at the very sight of her.

I said to her in Bengali, "Excuse me, what do these people think they (neighbors) were doing? We came from far off to see your father and that too for a few minutes and... we are unable to talk properly for their disturbances. Why don't you people say something to these disturbing elements ..." I carried on and on and on, till my father calmed me down.

But I did not realize at that moment that she had taken good note of me and the fact that she knew I was looking directly into her eyes and not at her well proportioned body which could have made her uncomfortable or even angry.

This impression; perhaps led to a brief conversation with Ruby; when my father rang Batha from Panipat, months after we had returned. My father had dialled their number, it was Ruby who picked the phone.

It was she who said," Is Sudip there?,". My father as if talking to his own daughter said," Do you want to talk to him?". The answer was definitely yes as my father called me to the phone.

I got into a brief but significant conversation with her while dodging my father's constant reminders in between the conversation to hand the phone over to him after I had finished, this led to the fact that I had to talk to her in fast forward mode.

She did not like it! But during the course of the conversation, I managed to eagerly tell her my birthday, time of birth and birth place. I realized that she was genuinely concerned about me and wanted to help me out. In spite of the fact that her family earned a living doing astrology and she wanted to do a reading for me on the house.

A few days later, a land mail from her arrived with astrological recommendations of gem stones. ⁷ I eagerly wanted to reply the same with another land mail, I kind of like the old fashioned way of correspondence but in this case this was a necessity as she did not have any email.

however my eagerness to reply her with a land mail was thwarted by the social considerations and apprehensions. ⁸ Indians are still a I thought of creating an email id for her.

I eagerly created an email account for her and waited for her phone call but that never came. ⁹ I tried to call her up but her younger sister with a voice of an elderly lady picked up the phone and I slammed it down thinking it was her mother who might not approve of my speaking to her daughter on the phone.

Then, I recall the coincidence (from the torn page) that Yahoo astrology had predicted the beginning of a significant friendship. I thought about Ruby...

This was actually possible but there had been no progress, I needed to speak to her.

I rarely have the chance to thank any God or supreme being but I did get such an unexpected occasion. It was around 23:15 hours in the night of July 16th, 2001. Long after I had received Ruby's letter, that the phone rang.

We were at war with our relative and always at this is the time that they would ring, so I picked up the phone with all my shields up and cannons ¹⁰ ready.

"Hello", I said in a solemn voice,

"Is this Sudip?", it was Ruby!! Yippee!!
I was pleasantly surprised as well as a bit concerned," Ruby? You called at this hour?".

Oops! It was a bit rude but she took it well and seemed to be a bit embarrassed. "Well, I was wondering if I had told you about the rings and fingers on which they are to be worn."

"Umm, yes you did..", and the conversation went on for five minutes when I said, "Hold on and let me call you back", and that I did.

I talked to her for another twenty five minutes but the content of all the talking was strictly formal but flirty!

Finally, I had to put the receiver down, which I hated to but the phone bill was climbing for that long distance call and I was a bit conscious that I might say some thing embarrassing or dangerous while trying to hide my desire for a long term friendship with her.

Then I went to my father's room which my younger brother also shared in those days. We had rented a two room apartment in Panipat

I told them it was Ruby who had called. My brother teased me saying, "Lottery lag gayi..". (You won a lottery...!!)

Well I did win a lottery that Ruby did call me up at the dead of night; which was late as per the "gentleman" standards and I appreciated her call and her concern but I never was able to en cash the lottery in the form of an esteemed and respectable friend ship.

There were regular exchange of letters through land mail between me and Ruby after that. It is sad that Ruby found the emails to be little too complicated to handle.

Our relationship with Batha had deteriorated as his services were proving to be too heavy on the pocket. We started to avoid him and in turn I had to ignore Ruby as well. I never had a chance to see or talk to Ruby again. The email id that I had created for her was unused and was terminated for lack of use. Well, that is all about me and Ruby, the beautiful "could be" friend of mine.

All I can do now is cherish those moments of brief conversations and think about it.

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