Md. Kamal Uddin It was a different morning in the old courthouse in Chittagong today. The crowd of people in the corridor, the curious whispers of the lawyers, the suppressed laughter of the clerks—all together, there was a strange festive atmosphere. A clerk whispered to the person next to him, — “Brother, this case file has come to the court even before my employment! Today I think the trial will finally take place!” After a while, the judge sat in the courtroom. He took off his glasses and wiped them with a handkerchief, blew the dust off the thick file in front of him and fixed his eyes on the first page. Then he looked at the dock and remained silent for a while. An old man is standing in the dock. Most of his hair has been lost in the pages of memory, a white shawl on his shoulders, and an old wooden stick in his hand. He is over eighty years old. It is difficult to stand, but there is such a simple smile on his face—as if he is still that young man in love in college. The judge said in a serious voice, “You tease girls even at this age? Aren’t you ashamed? Your crime is unforgivable!” The old man bowed his head politely. “Sir… I want permission to say something.” “No! Not at all. You are no longer a twenty-two-year-old young man!” The old man replied with a smile, “You are right, sir. But when the case happened… I was really a twenty-two-year-old young man crazy in love.” A wave of suppressed laughter swept through the courtroom. The judge frowned and said, “So what did you do?” The old man felt a little embarrassed and said, “Sir, love back then was very polite. Meeting from a distance, standing and waiting in front of the library, and daring to recite a poem or two.” “What poem?” The old man cleared his throat and began to recite— “The light of passion in your eyes, all the darkness disappears when you see it. If you smile once, my life will be a full moon.” Now the whole courtroom burst into laughter. The judge could not hold back his laughter either. “Is this poem the reason for the case?” “Yes, sir. He turned red with shame then. I thought he had fallen in love. Later, I heard that a case had been filed against me!” The laughter rolled again. The judge asked, “Well, why did the case come up after so long?”
The old man sighed and said, “Sir, date after date… date after date… waiting like this, my youth has gone, my hair has gone, and half of my teeth have gone.”
He paused and said again, “The person who filed the case against me is in court today. Now we live in the same neighborhood. We pray in the same mosque. I learned to walk by riding his grandson’s bicycle.” Everyone looked at Badini now. An old woman with a gentle face slowly stood up. There was compassion in her eyes, a calm smile on her face. She looked at the judge and said,
“Sir, I was young then. I filed the case out of anger and pride. Today I understand that it was not rudeness; it was a piece of innocent love. Today I want to withdraw the case.”
The court fell silent for a moment. The judge stared at the two for a moment. Then he said in a low voice, “This court does not judge love, it judges justice. But if a feeling that has lived for sixty years is still respected in the eyes of two people today, then that love should be honored, not punished.” He banged the gavel. “The case is dismissed.”
He paused and added with a smile, “But there is one condition.” Everyone was curious. “Today, the two of you will go to the old tea shop in front of the court and sit together and have a cup of tea. The court will not pay the bill, you will pay it yourself!” The entire court burst into laughter. The old man smiled and said, “Sir, I am now a diabetic. I will not eat sugar in my tea. But if I get the opportunity to sit next to him and have a cup of tea today… then it will feel like the sixty years of waiting were not in vain.” The old woman also smiled and said, “Can you recite a poem today?” The old man replied with a wink, “The poem is still memorized. Only the strength of his voice is not as strong as before.” Another storm of laughter erupted throughout the court. The two of them walked slowly side by side out of the courtroom. The sound of the sticks mixed with the ringing of the college bells of many years ago, the shy glances of old days, and the echoes of thousands of unspoken words. When the two of them took the steaming cups in their hands at the tea shop, their grandchildren jokingly said, “Grandpa, this time there is no more litigation!” The old man smiled and replied, “No, just tea now… and a little old love story.” The moral of the story: Beauty changes with time, hair grows, and faces get wrinkles; but if respect, sincerity, and pure love truly live in the heart, then its judgment is not in the courtroom—it is in the heart of the person. And sometimes, even in the longest case of life, the most beautiful verdict is a cup of tea and a sincere smile.