Bashir Sahib’s house was in mourning when Pappu Mian announced that he was now leaving the world and taking the path of spirituality. There was no particular reason, just that Pappu Mian had failed in three consecutive job interviews and he thought that the world was not worthy of understanding him.
Pappu Mian grew his hair overnight, put four or five colorful pearl threads around his neck and sat down wearing an old silk shawl of his father’s. He changed his name to Pir Pappu Shah Sarkar.
The news spread in the neighborhood that Bashir Sahib’s son had become a saint. First, the neighborhood aunt came to Barkate, whose son was weak in studies. Pappu Mian closed his eyes, took a deep breath and said:
Mother! Your son is affected by the black quadratic formula! Tell him to soak the math book in curd every day and drink its water, his intellect will return.
Aunty was surprised to know how Pappu Mian knew that her son had failed in mathematics. Gradually Pappu Mian’s astana, which was actually Bashir Sahib’s drawing room, started filling up with devotees. If someone said that the buffalo was not giving milk, Pappu Mian would advise him to sing English songs so that the buffalo would be in a good mood.
Bashir Sahib was worried. Whenever he would step into the drawing room, Pappu Mian would angrily say: O mortal man! Take off your shoes and come out, spiritual waves are flowing here. Bashir Sahib would go out gritting his teeth because Pappu Mian’s disciples would start abusing him.
One day, the biggest bully of the neighborhood, Galu Pehlwan, came there. His arm was broken and he thought that Pappu Mian would perform some miracle. Pappu Mian closed his eyes as usual and suddenly hit Galu Pehlwan’s broken arm hard and said:
Go, child! Your pain has become mine from today!
The loud scream that Galu Pehlwan gave sent the pigeons of the neighborhood flying away. Far from the pain going away, Galu Pehlwan saw stars. He raised his other hand right there and took off Pappu Mian’s spiritual challah in a single second. Then the shower of shoes was worth seeing.
At that moment, the police car also arrived. Someone had complained that a fake Peer was robbing people here. The policeman took off Pappu Mian’s green dupatta and seeing his real face said: Oh Pappu! So you are sitting here and extracting people’s jinn? Let’s go to the police station, we will extract your big jinn there.
When the policeman grabbed Pappu Mian by the collar, Pappu Mian played his last card. He waved his hand towards the devotees and shouted: O my disciples! Look, the forces of falsehood are taking away your Peer, rain down blows on them!
The poor disciples, who were already scared, obeyed Pappu Mian’s order and together they started blowing on the policeman in such a way that the whole room was filled with the stench of onions, garlic and cigarettes. The policeman started to suffocate and shouted: Hey! Is this a pir or a gas cylinder? Take him away from here or the whole police station will faint!
Bashir Sahib seized the opportunity and grabbed Pappu Mian by the arm and dragged him into the inner room. The policeman ran outside to escape the stench, and Bashir Sahib’s washing service started from behind.
Hearing Pappu Mian’s screams, the disciples standing outside thought that the pir had gone into ecstasy. One disciple said: Subhan Allah! Look at the kind of sounds that the pir is making, sometimes he says “Hey, father”, sometimes he says “Stop it, father”. This seems to be some kind of special prayer!
Ending:
The next day, Pappu Mian was walking through the neighborhood street when Aunt Barkate stopped him and asked: Shahji! What light did you see yesterday that you were moaning and crying about?
Pappu Mian replied with a limp: Auntie! It wasn’t light, it was my father’s light of vision, that is, his old leather shoe, which was being telecast live on my waist.
Since then, Pappu Mian has repented of his old poverty. Now he is sitting outside his house with a board on which it is written:
All kinds of jinn are cast out here… Conditional treatment through Bashir Sahib’s shoe!
