It was late in the evening, when he came home along with nanaji.

Nanaji would often get visitors to our home and naniji would serve endless trays of snacks and tea. The house was an open house. We had students,activists, local politicians, villagers, policewalah and other important sort of people walking in and out of the ancestral haveli. The haveli itself was built by Nanaji’s grandfather, who moved to the city to practice law. As our parents were busy with their respective travelling jobs, my brother and I were entrusted to our nana – nani for our welfare. We would be usually playing in the large spaces of the haveli and often found hiding behind the curtains for our games.

We would continue with our hide-n-seek irrespective of the people in the house, but what struck me that day was this new visitor was that he was a big man. He was tall with broad shoulders and had an air of strength around him, yet he appeared respectful and mellow. I could hear snatches of conversation – chambal,property,arguments, dacoits, wife, villagers etc. but couldn’t really put things in place

My nani entered the room with the servant girl holding the customary tray of tea and snacks. The tall visitor stood up and bowed to my nani. My nani adressed him as Sunhari and smiled as she would to a long lost aquaintaince. Much after the visitor had left and the noise of us children in the haveli died down, nani was on my bed telling me a story. It was then that she mentioned that Sunhari and his wife would now be with us, full time to take care of my brother and I and that he was a dacoit in his former life.

The word dacoit brought a spark in my eyes and my respect for him grew many folds right then. We were always hearing about dacoits, their escapades and here we would have a real dacoit among us as a playmate. I looked forward to the next day to meet a dacoit in real. The next day at dawn, Sunhari and his wife were at our house with a small bundle of belongings to start their new innings with us.

Life with Sunhari was fun. While his wife cooked meals at the house, Sunhari was child like, playful and his joyful best with my brother and I. There were days, when we would have to be screamed at to be inside the house at dusk. My brother would punch him many a times and Sunhari would roll over the ground in jest as he was really hurt. Those wrestling bouts would instill a sense of pride in my brother. And Sunhari would treat me like a princess. He would get me flowers, imaginary gifts and had many a story to tell. He would tell us stories about his life as a dacoit and sometimes tell us stories from his former life. How he had a spat with his cousins for a piece of land and how after beating one of his cousins black and blue he escaped to the notorious chambal. It was there that he joined another fellow villager who was tortured because he couldnt pay his dues to the local money lender. There were others and this motley group of “dacoits” would help villagers in distress in exchange of a sack of grains or clothes etc. He made it seem fun and we were the happiest around him.

He had known nanaji when he was a simple villager and when he became a dacoit, it was nanaji who helped him give up his dacoity and surrender to the local police station. nanaji had taken his surety and that is how Sunhari became a part of our lives. He would often carry both of us on his shoulders and take us for long walks by the river or to pluck some fruits from the orchards or to the village haat, regaling us with funny stories on the way.

As the summers came to an end, my parents and nana – nani started wondering about our education. It was then, that it was decided that we would move to the city to go to school. As we collected our goods, packed our bags and prepared for our city life, I could spy an upset Sunhari running around the haveli, doing odd jobs.

It was late one evening when we drove to the city leaving behind Sunhari and the sunhari moments trapped in the last rays of the sun melting into the pot of orange.

What happened to him, I don’t know, but someday I will go back and look for Sunhari and share my stories with him from a city life.