The Flower Thief

'Pass me the casserole please', I said. We were having our lunch. I wanted some of the 'lau bhaji' (shallow fried bottle guard). 

We were having a great talk with each other, and a lot of topics came up. But then came the interesting part of the talk, which I can't wait to tell you all. 

  

In my grandparent's house, there's a big pond. My grandfather used to breed a variety of fish there when my mother and my aunts were little school-going girls. My mother says that whenever a guest would arrive he would just go out to fish in there. There wasn't any need of going to the market to buy them in those days of her childhood. 

Whenever she talks about her childhood, we always have a number of questions to ask her. And it always ends up with an interesting story of my mother's childhood. Today what she told us, was a humorous one and the one I could never forget. 

 My grandparent's house was located on a narrow road. It was a little busy too, as it was connected to the main road of the town. 

 It was built long ago by my great-grandpa. The house was very enticing to look at, built in a British style. But its ornaments were the ones to make it look more attractive. These ornaments were planted by my grandfather. He was a very loving man. Though he had a high position in his job, he led a very simple life. Once, he was even confused to be a gardener when my father and his friends had visited there to meet my mother in her college days. His simplicity was something that always inspires everyone till date. 

  

So, it was a lovely sunny day when it all had started. Actually, it was Saraswati Pooja. It is a beautiful festival when we pray 'Goddess Saraswati'. You'll see all the girls dressing up beautifully to go for praying and get blessed by the Goddess. And whenever there is a religious festival, the flowers are the most needy ones. 

And on this occasion, even the girls don't forget to decorate their hair with those nature's beauties. 

But there was this thing that made everyone go mad in this auspicious festival-"The Flower Thieves." They appear most of the time during a festival but in Saraswati Pooja, they just rain out of nowhere. 

There were a numerous number of them in the lane where my grandparent's lived. And most of them belonged to our surrounding itself. I know, it's a little weird as there are no such thieves in the current days. But there lived such people in those old days. 

 Now, one of the thieves was really an unlucky one. When the thief came to a stop at our house, he was mesmerized by the beauty of the flowers planted by grandpa and went to pluck them. That's when he was caught. 

Well, after that what happened, I am pretty sure he would have never tried to step in that lane again. 

When he was caught, it didn't take time to reach the news to every people living there. They all gathered outside, one of them dragged him out of the gate and there he was, surrounded by angry people staring at him. Some were big muscled men whereas some were women carrying their utensils, the ones who could easily break someone's bone too. They all were ready to get their revenge for their loss.

My mother and her sisters hearing the news couldn't wait to see what was going outside. They really got excited when they saw that huge gathering of people. Well, they were children, weren't they? So once they had stopped there, there wasn't going until everything cleared out. 

Now, this thief looked like he wasn't going to make it out. Out of nervousness, looking at the big chaos, the words that came out were only his stammers- i-i-i-am-am-i-i-um-um-i-i, and it was going on like this until someone shut him up and taking a pan hit him on his legs. And just after that, not a second took for the other two men to slap him right on the face. Then the other hit, then another and it continued until he begged forgiveness. Oh! One should have seen his face! There were all sorts of color patches not only in his face, but his whole body was covered with those. My mother and my aunts were a little devasted, and sorry for that poor fellow, but he deserved it though. When the people checked his big sack, they couldn't stop their eyes gazing at it. It was filled with the most splendid flowers one could ever imagine. It was a great loss to the ones who lost them. 

The people got distracted from these mesmerizing beauties and the thief took his best chance to run. But then was caught red-handed by a lady. Poor he. 

"He thought he could make it, though he can barely walk, he is so badly hit", said one. "He has no shame at all", said another. And so they tied him up to a tree but was released soon after. But people never saw him again. 

He had just left a flower, with Goddess Saraswati's portrait in the bark hole of the tree that he was tied to, with a small note – " Prithibir asol rong khini sur kori aru besi, aji rongin hoi, moi eta jibon xikhha pai, mur jibon rongin hoi porile. ( Stealing and then selling the real color of the world, I got colored and got a lesson which colored my life too)."