Tapa was my father’s Man Friday for 10 years till 2011.
He called today (in Feb 2022, from India using WA) to tell me his mom passed away.
I could hear him weeping as he told me stories that I did not know.
Once my father threw Tapa out of our Jodhpur Park house and he returned to Orissa.
He came back to Howrah to a manufacturing entity (that made tube well parts).
Tapa’s mom (I have to ask him his parent’s names) called my father from an STD booth in her village.
She did not know Bengali. She conveyed something in the Oriya language, and my father asked her to send Tapa back to our house. It seems I was visiting but I was not told any of this.
He mentioned how she had played pivotal roles in his life.
I said to Tapa that I had always wanted to visit his parents in Orissa, but now it is too late.
I saw his family once 15 years ago when Skype was in vogue. His mother and I have never spoken.
He replied that after Covid started his mother would enquire about me often.
At that point my I had to hang up the connection abruptly.
Tapa is doing well in general. After Covid started and he was laid off from Vedic Village he established an Ayurvedic Dispensary in his hometown and his clientele is growing.