Amal-Kiran - Poet and Critic

A Glimpse of the Pure Ray

A FEW glimpses of Shri Amal, Amalda, Amalbhai or Amalji ?

Well, considering his imposing personality, I should call Shri Amaldabhaiji! But then, being what he is, he wouldn't like any of these appendages - so Amal, ‘pure’ and simple!

Though I feel that it is a privilege to write on Amal, when asked to do so I hesitated because there are so many big people writing about his colossal knowledge, his generosity in literary help, his wonderful sense of humour, his capacity to laugh at himself, his cheerfulness and last but not the least, his formidable memory.

I was just wondering what to write - not having even whispered it to anyone at home - when suddenly my mother pulled out a letter from the hidden recesses of a drawer. Anybody well-versed in today's Jurassic craze would exclaim: "Ah, a Dinosaur egg has been excavated." And he wouldn't be very wrong, for indeed it is a letter concerning the Dinosaur, written by Amal to my father, 11 years ago. Here it is.:

My dear Doctor,

I don't think you ever wrote a prescription so much appreciated by a patient as the cheque of Rs 501 for Mother India to help set right its recent deficiency in that very important member of the Vitamin B group - namely Vitamin BB (Bank Balance).

    We thank you for your thoughtfulness. I look forward to seeing your kind, intelligent, happy face at my flat in the company of Nirod, Sudha, Tulsa and, for some time now, Dr Saryabrata Sen.

I am enclosing the receipt from the Trustees. Please excuse the delay in posting it to you. It has been lying for nearly a week in my drawer. I didn't have your address in

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my address-book. I wanted to get it either from my office or from one of your two daughters.  But it was a mistake on my part to keep the receipt safely in my drawer. Not seeing it under my nose I forgot about it.  I have developed what I was explaining to our Class ten minutes back: The Dinosaur-memory. The gigantic Dinosaur of prehistoric times would furiously chase an animal. But, if that animal suddenly hid itself behind a tree, the chaser would just look blankly on and not know why it was running. It would turn back as if its prey did not exist at all. My drawer served as a tree to the receipt.

Yours affectionately,

Amal

As you see, it illustrates Amal's wonderful sense of humour and his capacity to laugh at himself.  But then it disproves his "formidable memory"!  Well, I think, if Amal compares his memory to that of a Dinosaur's, then we'd better change our age-old idea of its memory which would then be just terrific — Amalian!

SUDHA UMACHIGI

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