A serendipitious encounter with a tiger

[Zeeshan]

A serendipitous encounter with a Tiger



In the earlier months of this current year on a rainy day a curious event took place which no one could have foretold.


It began on a rainy day. Imagine the din and hustle in a noisy gridlocked traffic at Dhaka in Bangladesh. We were stuck toggling AC on and off and suddenly the driver Musa received a phone call from his boss ergo my uncle to provide transportation to my mother in Dhanmondi. It would have been really a long commute so the driver immediately wanted to take off leaving us stranded us in the street. So after he left we got out and it started drizzling mildly.


My cousin Ananta is a strange fellow and he is recurring partner in crime in many of our adventures of Bangladesh cricket. It's just a matter of tragedy that recently he suffered stroke but in spite of the fact that he got shocked, his giant bear like cuddly frame (as the ladies call him) was barely stirred. He could climb Everest at will even now with his confidence. But pragmatism before pride and even at babysteps we know it'd be a far walk. So we decided to take the rickshaw and reached the Grameen office for him to purchase tickets for the upcoming Sri Lanka game.


Right after we reached at the ground floor parking lot of the building my cousin's mobile died. He panicked, because he had the code for ticket in it. Unfortunately no one had the charger, but hey it's Bangladesh where anything is possible. So we decided to take a detour and at the same time lunch somewhere.


Again we had to take a rickshaw and his healthy figure (read obese) would hardly offer me any comfort or any hope in the rickshaw but I patiently endured the lack of leg or body space muttering expletives at him under my breath. We got off and gave the rickshawala a few tuppence and decided to walk. We found a mobile seller who incidentally carried the charger and decided not to charge us.


As I pushed the door only to find out that you have to pull it (or vice versa?) I smeared their floor with mud and I wanted to slap myself for not only making a mess of it but also because they were doing the charging for gratis which could've easily gone against us because of the fumble.


We wanted to kill the time with lunch so Ananta remarked: "We will feast on the first place we see." Apparently it was Pizza Hut and after fifteen minutes or so we feasted on the scrumptious thin crust meal.


It was time to go back, so we picked up the phone, thanked the gentleman with some tip and headed for Grameen office. It was a short queue and then Ananta found out that the code doesn't work and he may have to get a different end - North or South - I forget. So he made the call and got the code and got a different end.

And then suddenly Ananta cried out: Apni Tiger na? (Aren't you the Tiger?)


I turned around to see what was Ananta possibly on. Turned out it was a middle-aged gentleman in black t-shirt with short receding hair and goatee. Ananta ribbed me with his elbow: It's the Tiger, don't you get it?


"Oh you must be Tiger Liton from Mirpur!" I couldn't contain my delight being in front of a celebrity star struck as ever.


"Tiger Milon," he corrected me.


"Yes yes Tiger Milon. Milon bhai."


After we exchanged pleasantries I told him how I blog sometimes for Cricinfo and would love to do a write up on him. I wanted to give him space and respect privacy but asked him few questions. He did mention whether it took 40 minutes or 2 hours to paint himself up as a Tiger in yellow costume. Honestly I don't remember.


What I do remember was the fact that he was an incredibly down-to-earth humble man. In spite of the fact getting recognized he offered to take photos with fans (as he did with us) and was incredibly polite. He explained how he was a rare disorder which prompted Bangladesh Cricket Board to give him free tickets and expedited entrance. At this, I was immediately aghast with shame inside my body because once I wanted to write in a Fan Following how there is no creativity as he was being a copycat of the original Tiger, Shoiab. I was also immediately moved by the compassion shown by BCB. So much goes on behind the scenes, yet it is so easy to sit behind the computer screen thousands of miles away and make judgements with few keystrokes.


Turned out Milon bhai wanted a different end of the stand and that's exactly what my cousin had. Serendipitously it worked out as they exchanged the tickets with Milon bhai repeatedly saying in a polite tone "Are you sure you don't want this?" He couldn't believe his eyes that he would got the right end of the stands.

Neither could we. On our way back, we were talking about this strange coincidence and Ananta mused: "What are the odds that this would happen?"
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As Brad Pitt's character pointed out in Benjamin Button: " Sometimes we're on a collision course, and we just don't know it. Whether it's by accident or by design, there's not a thing we can do about it."


The driver had to receive the call from my uncle (Mama) at certain point to make the decision for an U-Turn. At that instance, the rain would have to start drizzling for us to stop walking and consider a rickshaw. Only by a stroke of luck, the cell phone or mobile had to die at the basement of Grameen office for us to reconsider matters. As we did so, we had to find that certain mobile store where I would smear the floor with mud. It'd follow shortly after a pizza meal in a nearest Pizza Hut store after my cousin would remark "Let's stop at the nearest food place" when we could've easily eaten biryani or something else. And it would only have to be certain time to make that pizza ready before we would go back to the mobile store to pick up the charged phone. After we did so, only by matter of luck that the mobile would reveal he did not get the right code for ticket and my cousin had to call the number. But he would get a different end, and then coincidentally after the chance encounter with Tiger Milon everything would work out.

You cannot possibly arrange such things.