OLd sOlDiEr NeVeR dIE uNtiL hE dIeS

We used to have a neighbor whom we affectionately called Dharmendra. He was named after a popular Indian action movie actor from the past. The reason we called him that was because he had a tendency to be violent whenever he fought with his wife. He would go on a rampage, destroying everything in his wife's shop, burning her clothes, and making a mess of the house. If anyone tried to intervene, he would become even more aggressive and turn on them. He was known throughout the neighborhood as the man who never backed down during a fight; people were scared of him.

Despite his violent tendencies, Dharmendra had a soft spot for children. Since he had no kids of his own, he treated us kids as his own and would often gather us together when he was in a good mood. He would ask us to remove gray hairs from his head, and for each hair we plucked, he would give us one Naira each. We would try to cash in on this opportunity since Naira coins had value back then.

Dharmendra would sometimes buy us snacks from Mr. Biggs and Gala (when Gala was still gala), and he would make us feel like we were his own children. But when he was in a bad mood, you did not want to be around him. He would tell us stories of how he and his fellow soldiers used to mix gunpowder with marijuana to get high back in his military days. We would cheer him up by saying, "old Soldier never dies."

He would also make jokes about his in-law, especially when he tried to intervene in his fights with his wife. He would say that his in-law used to be a fisherman in Warri, Delta state before he brought him to Kaduna to train him, and now he was trying to bite the hand that fed him.

Dharmendra hated dogs; he even poisoned our dog (Peggy) for always pooping in front of his house at night, although I don't really blame him because he had complained severally. I remember a time he came to collect a machete from my friend's uncle (Jonathan) during a fight with his wife. Although he didn't use the machete on her, he used it to destroy his in-law's car. His wife never forgave Jonathan until today for that reason.

Dharmendra's business was thriving, and he had a few cars. Whenever it was dinner time, he ate like a king. He would sit in front of his house with plenty of food, and people would look at him in jealousy. Although he was not on good terms with my parents, he did introduce my brother to his aluminum business since our parents couldn't afford to send us to school.

However, things started to fall apart when his business began to crumble. He could no longer afford to fix his cars, and he wasn't living the way he used to. Then his health started to decline, and he became really sick. He couldn't walk or do anything on his own.

Sadly, Dharmendra passed away in the comfort of his bed, and that same day, his wife left him and went about her business knowing fully well about his deteriorating health, When she got back, he was gone. It was heart-wrenching to see how things turned out for him in the end. Perhaps if he had treated his wife with kindness and respect, she would have taken him to the hospital during his illness. Only God knows the emotional trauma he might have gone through during his illness in the hands of his wife.

The moral lesson from Dharmendra's story is to always be kind to your spouse because you never know when your end will come. Perhaps if he was kind to her, she would have sought medical assistance. RIP Mr. Sunday, aka Dram