Dinanath Bagh was a quiet, peace-loving, tolerant man, free of confrontation or protest. He owned a small house on the eastern side of Nakashipara. You could say that in his hassle-free household, he hardly ever had a complaint.
Neighbors around them probably never heard any shouting, quarrels, or raised voices from their home. Even if his wife or son occasionally raised their voices, Bibidinanath's was never among them.
But sometimes, he paid the price for being so conflict-averse. One winter morning, he bought fifteen fresh jaggery rasgullas from Nitai Modak’s sweet shop and paid the full amount. But when he got home, he found only thirteen in the box. When his wife started yelling about it, he simply said, “Let it be. The two are heavy ones, maybe I miscounted. I’ve always trusted people and got cheated. What can one do?” Being a man of the soil, he couldn’t bring himself to argue or raise his voice.
Once, he bought ten pabda fish at the market, but two turned out to be rotten. He hadn’t even noticed when the fish-seller slyly swapped out good ones for bad. When he got home and his wife started shouting, he still couldn’t protest. He was sure he’d picked good fish. Later, when he finally confronted the seller, the man boldly said, “You chose the fish yourself. How can I be blamed? People like you make mistakes and blame us ruining our reputation.” Dinanath wasn’t the kind of person to shout or fight, so he had to accept both loss and insult quietly.
A few months earlier, even a bus conductor had cheated him. He was on his way to Kolkata; the fare was ₹40. He handed a ₹100 note to the conductor, who gave him the ticket and said, “I’ll give you the change in a bit.” When they reached the destination, Dinanath reminded him. The conductor gave him a ten-rupee note. When Dinanath said, “I gave you ₹100, I should get ₹60 back,” the conductor snapped, “No, you gave ₹50, not ₹100.” And with the bus stopping, he had to get off with just ₹10 returned.
Many times, he asked himself: is his honesty, his conflict-averse, tolerant nature useless in this age? Is he a fool? Or is he right, and the world has just changed for the worse? The future would answer that and one day, it did.
After that day, news of his nature spread through the neighborhood. And it was because of his gentle nature that his family was saved from a robbery.
It was the second week of the month of Magh (January–February). An upcoming family wedding meant that some gold jewelry and cash had been brought home from the bank for the occasion. The Bagh family usually finished all household chores and went to bed by 11 or 11:30 p.m. Since Dinanath did a little writing, he often stayed up till around 12:30 a.m. That night, the cold was more intense, so he finished his writing early and was preparing to go to bed when he suddenly saw, as if by some magic, two burly men completely clad in black descending from the roof towards his room.
At first, he was stunned. Then he saw that one of the men was carrying a large curved knife that glinted in the dim porch light, and the other held what looked like a revolver or pistol.
In a hoarse voice, the one with the knife growled, “Hey! Where have you kept the money and gold? Bring it out, or I’ll slit your throat right now!”
Inside, Dinanath was a little worried perhaps even scared but he didn’t respond immediately. Though he was conflict-averse and mild-mannered, his mind was sharp. He simply lacked the ability to protest at the right moment in a loud voice.
In a soft tone, he started speaking to them, “Look, you’re already here. Why resort to violence? I’ll show you where I’ve kept the money and jewelry. My wife is sleeping under medication; it’s best not to wake her. She’ll raise a storm if her sleep is disturbed. Please wait. I’ll bring everything to you.”
The man with the gun shouted, “Cut the drama! Tell us right now, or I’ll blow your brains out!”
Clever Dinanath decided to lead them toward the kitchen.
The knifeman asked suspiciously, “Why are you going that way? Why not to the bedroom?”
“I don’t keep such things in the cupboard anymore. Last time, our cupboard was broken into. Now, I hide everything in a secret compartment in the kitchen cabinet. Come with me. You can take it yourselves. Just don’t hurt me. Only I know where it is, if you harm me, you’ll find nothing.”
Saying this, he led the two robbers to the kitchen in the semi-darkness. One kept the knife at his back. Dinanath lit a small bulb and pointed to a cabinet.
“It’s hidden inside a box there. Please take the trouble to climb and get it out yourself. I’m too old.”
One robber said to the other, “Ghona, take the stool and check if this old guy is telling the truth. I’ll keep an eye on him.”
As Ghona hurried over with the stool and climbed up, he slipped. The other turned briefly and asked, “What happened?”
Taking advantage of their distraction, Dinanath silently backed away, slipped out of the kitchen, and quickly shut both doors and bolted them from outside. The whole move took just a few seconds and left him panting in adrenaline.
He quickly woke his son and told him everything, saying, “I’ve already called 100. The police should be here any moment.”
His son was about to shout in excitement, but Dinanath, calm as ever, said, “Son, it’s late. No need to shout now. They’re already locked in. If you yell, the neighbors will wake up, and we’ll have to answer a hundred questions unnecessarily. Those two are trapped. Instead, go call your friend Neelu from next door. Until the police arrive, we’ll stand guard.”
His son asked, “But what about the gold and money? Won’t they take everything?”
“Fool! There’s nothing in the kitchen. Everything is safely in the bedroom cupboard.”
“Really, Baba! People always say you’re too quiet, you never protest. But I never knew you had such sharp wits. That was incredibly brave of you!”
Even the robbers failed to understand the true nature of this mild man and they paid the price. It was Dinanath’s tolerance and peace-loving nature that saved his family from a robbery that night.