Thus Spake Aziz Phater

Coming back to Aziz, there is yet another incident attributed to him. This one was narrated to me by my grand father for I was not born back then. Aziz was young but still a lunatic.

It was the time of warring "Sher" and "Bakra" groups in Kashmir. But Aziz's memory was stuck in time. He believed that Maharaja still ruled Kashmir. One day Aziz was asked by local elder about what would become of the warring groups.

Aziz replied "Yeman banney khen ti, Wany taarey Maharaj Saeb Bombye paeth gaues truck te mathan wale ti asan toorekey"

(Nothing is going to become of these, Now Maharaj Sahib will get a truck load of filth from Bombay and even the people who will rub it onto them will be brought from Bombay )

Even Aziz, who was otherwise free from worldly rules, expressed his incompetence at solving the problem and left things for Maharaj Sahib to take care. And add to this Maharaj Sahib would have had to import filth from Bombay for local filth was not good enough for the task at hand.

Aziz Phater

There used to be a local lunatic named Aziz in my village. Men would generally call him "Aziz Phater" ( Aziz the madman ). Older folk would call him "Aziz Darwesh" ( Aziz the seer ), for many believed that he had the gift of clairvoyance.

Aziz would spend hours and sometimes even days standing in "Raembh Aara" ( Local river ), his gaze fixed on horizon as if looking into distant future. After finishing with his gazing, he would begin an exercise of rolling large stones on the riverbed as if they had been somehow misplaced and he was putting them back in order.

Aziz was almost abandoned by his family. He survived on charity of local people.

Aziz would visit my home and ask my grandfather for urdu newspaper. He'd tear the newspaper in bits and then give them back to my grandfather saying "Roppye... Roppye" ( Money .. Money ). My grandfather would offer him food in return. Sometimes Aziz would refuse rice and in turn ask for "noon Chai", sometimes he would leave without accepting anything, and yet sometimes he'd eat equivalent of three meals in a single go after reciting "Roppye .. Roppye".

Looking back now at things I feel that even our lunatics and seers knew how to benefit from promises of prosperity. In this case it being bits of torn newspaper.