Story telling is the art of being able to play an incident in minds of the audience, keep it alive for a significant period of time and most importantly make them believe in what you narrate, no matter if it is merely a product of your ornamented imagination. Munnaf was just one of the best story tellers who walked the alleys of Old Delhi. He worked at the Rafiq’s Chai ki Dukan and lived in a single room two lanes down the same street. Ustad, as he is popularly known had not had much of education, he was married once but his wife died in her sleep years ago and left no children.
The transition of Munnaf becoming Ustad started with an experiment to pull crowd to the Tea stall; on instructions of Rafiq’s dead father, Munnaf would read the daily news paper for every customer if they wanted. Initially the idea was not very successful, so he started decorating lines with his own words while he read the newspaper. In two years time Rafiq’s was a famous hangout for both old and young. He would no longer read news from the paper rather narrate it in a story and sometimes just a story of his own.
After so many years its only his stories that people come to hear, no news reading anymore, Munnaf was now Ustad, the famous story teller of Old Delhi. He was an expert; he had polished his act of lying into the art of storytelling. But he could never grow more than what he started with, serving tea.
Dilip, was one of the regulars at Rafiq’s, he was a student of Geography at Delhi University. He was one ambitious young man; it was not long before Dilip stared making notes of Ustad’s stories. When he had enough Dilip went ahead to publish a book of his own, which was an instant hit. The book claimed a world wide response and Dilip became an acclaimed writer, rubbing shoulders with other giants of literature.
It was not very late that some of the listeners were able to see it through what Dilip has pulled out. News reached Ustad too. He never bothered about what happened, but people were constantly insisting that he should do something. When people insist, it’s so insisting that you start feeling the pressure. Owing to this pressure Ustad suddenly felt betrayed, betrayal is something that if you keep thinking about it you will end up making a list of all betrayers which may include everyone you have ever met, God or even your own self. One day the Ustad declared, “there would be revenge. Dilip will have to earn his fame.”
Since the first Sunday of his declaration rumors stared to spread, “Ustad will create the world’s greatest story; he has locked himself in his room for a week.” By Tuesday even the TV news channels started to cover his plight. And people did not wait till Saturday, by Thursday afternoon when after repeated knocks and calls no respond came from Ustad, the police stepped in and forced into the room. To utter surprise of em’ all there was no one in the room, no Ustad and none of his belonging. Only a note that said, “Thank you for reading what Dilip wrote of what I created”
