A fly-in encounter

 The other day I was buying lunch from a drive through window at a local restaurant when a fly from nowhere suddenly entered into my car. I frantically tried to shoo it away, but the fly refused to fly away. I kept the windows of my car open for a while to let the barging air suck the fly out. But the tiny insect managed to swing inside the car, toing and froing from one corner to another like a pendulum, mocking at my predicament.

The fly reminded me of that drunken uncle in a house party who comes uninvited and refuses to leave. I have some interesting anecdotes from my childhood days to share. The father of my friend happened to be a reputed Contractor in Odisha who got some lucrative government contracts. During the marriage ceremony of my friend's sister, I noticed a middle aged man in an inebriated state passing lewd, uncomfortable sounding double entendres at girls old enough to be his daughter. The guests maintained a safe distance from this obnoxious person for his mouth smelled a unique blend of smoking tobacco, Pyorrhea and Whisky. 

Couple of years later I bumped into the same man again, this time during the marriage reception ceremony of the same friend's brother. Our drunken guy from the previous marriage reception was in a bachhanalian mood was giving lascivious looks at young girls, ogling them with his shrunken red eyes and passing disparaging remarks, his countenance reeking of lecherous intent. The history was just repeating itself.

Feeling irritated and now a bit curious I asked my friend - "Who is the person ? Why Mausa (Uncle) keeps on inviting such folks to your family gatherings ?" My friend got a bit defensive and replied hesitantly - "After all he is a family friend and very close to my dad." Later on I discovered that this abominable person was an Engineer who passed the bills submitted by contractors and hence was deemed tolerable and given a free pass.

The fly was still humming inside my car when I remembered this incident. During my childhood days this man from our village used to visit our home quite often. My parents were gracious hosts. His peculiarity was that he would always arrive close to lunch or dinner time. One day just out of curiosity I asked my father - "Why this gentleman turns up exactly close to the time when we eat our meal ?" My father replied back - "Once upon a time this man not only used to be rich, he was a well known spendthrift. Back in those days he would never blink an eye or think twice while lavishly entertaining me out of utmost regard for educated folks. We shouldn't forget his generosity during his torrid time. Never underestimate the power of a hungry man's blessings".

Both incidents could be construed as two similar incidents separated by a common sentiment in different times. In both cases two different men were considered as fly on the ointment in my eyes in two separate situations, the licentious Engineer who had a choice and the poor man from village who didn't have much of a choice. What I remembered on a fly flooded my memory while I drove back and it ebbed as I reached home. 

Suddenly the fly in mymy car swung by and sat on my lap. My reflex action tried to swat it off while I opened my car door. The fly flew away towards the bright and blue sunny sky hovering on the misty grass on my front yard and soon melted away to its freedom. My fly-in encounter left me alone, still slave of the memories from the past.