Tau Hoshiyar Singh

 

Tau Hoshiyar Singh is in his nineties now and is almost deaf and nearly blind. ‘Tau, can you recognize me?’ I ask him. ‘Yes,’ he says, trying to sound confident, his mind already working on the problem. ‘Then tell, who am I?’ I put up the teaser. ‘Pappu,’ he says. ‘See, you cannot see at all,’ I try to make him confess that he cannot see. ‘Yea, I meant to say Suppi’s brother,’ he hasn’t lost the confidence in the least. Does he mean to say I’m my own brother or he has recognized me as my brother? ‘But you said Pappu,’ I try to make him flinch from his firm perch. ‘Yea, It’s the same,’ he says coolly.