Memories: Ajanubahu

 

I was returning from my village after a trip, and my vehicle took a different route than usual, passing through a neighbouring village instead of directly approaching the ‘main road’. I have gone through this route a number of times in the recent past and I have always been a bit more curious, since this is a different village and hence houses and places are different. There is a big banyan tree at a turning, covering entire road under its arms. There is a school, painted as usual in pink, which government of Bihar has chosen as its favourite color for children. The road undergoes several steep curves, and I have wondered how everyone is always safe despite those steep turns. And there are two honeybee farms in that village, especially during the time of litchi and mangoes, and I have always feared for safety while passing nearby those.

This time, while midway through the route, as my vehicle passed through, I noticed an unusual old man walking on the road. He was going towards the ‘main road’. His arms were very-very long and appeared to be almost reaching his knees! This immediately transported me to childhood when mother told stories of some gods from Hindu mythology being “ajanubahu” (one whose length of arms reach his knees). Was this old man some god? He definitely looked like a sadhu or a spiritual person! When I reprocessed the flicker of glimpse in my mind, I noticed that this old man’s both arms hanged from his shoulders like trunks of a thin tree. I don’t think there was any deformity, but it seemed that since the man had become too old, his body had become weary carrying the weight of his mighty arms and hence those looked dropping from his shoulders. I also reprocessed his image in my mind to recollect if I could get his face, but I realized that he had put a towel (gamchha) over his head, as if to protect his head from the sun, and his face was totally invisible in the ensuing shade.

With no face visible and two long arms dropping to the knees, the old man definitely appeared as a ghostly figure.

Nothing miraculous happened in the following days, if you are curious, and I tried to tell myself that the old man was just an ordinary man and not really a god or a ghost. But this was the first time I had seen an “ajanubahu” and hence it has become etched in my memory.

Afterwards, I tried to search on the internet and got to know that Bhagwan Ram is known to be ajanubahu; many Hindu gods, saints and kings have been so too, and even Gandhi ji was one such person. Being ajanubahu is certainly considered auspicious. For this reason, I felt happy of having seen someone of such a virtue.

- Rahul Tiwary