A little push
……………………
“Sir,
someone wants to meet you.”
I was in my
chamber in Chatterjee International when my PA Late S N Bose came in.
“Who?” I asked.
Bose ushered
in a middle aged gentleman dressed nattily.
“Sir, I am
Arjun.” That gentleman said and then he became emotional, with tears in his
eyes touched my feet. He broke down and said, “I have been looking for you for
a long time.”
I could not
believe my eyes, Arjun whom I knew was a strapling young man.
I still
remember vividly the first day when I met Arjun in the canteen of Barauni
Refinery.
Me,Bhatia
and Verma like every day were there in the canteen for our morning tea when I noticed
a young man hardly of 17/18 yrs or so of age in shorts was busy serving the
clients. He was very actively running between the tables. I asked Nazareth, the
manager of the canteen about that young man. He informed me that he had come
recently from Bengal with an oil tanker driver.
Next day I called
that young man to find more about him. After talking to him I came to know his name and how he
had chanced upon a Sardarji oil tanker driver at Haldia and came away looking
for a job opportunity. Thus Arjun landed in the canteen of Barauni Refinery.
This was
sometimes in late 1975 when construction of Indian Oil’s Haldia refinery was in
full swing. My father in law was Chief Engineer in Haldia Refinery then and my
son was just born. I used to visit Haldia frequently those days as my wife was
with her parents there.
I was
surprised that inspite of a massive construction work going on next door Arjun
had to leave the state as he could not land a job there. I took a pity on him and
told him, “Next time when I go to Haldia I will take you with me and try to
fix a job for you.”
He readily agreed.
I paid him
for his train fare from Barauni to Calcutta plus bus fare up to Haldia and gave
him my father in laws' address.
As planned I
reached Haldia and Arjun came and met me. His village was hardly 20kms away.
Munshida who was Deputy Manager Civil in Haldia Refinery was very close to me.
I requested him to fix up Arjun with some labor contractor and he did so. Arjun
started working as a laborer in the civil construction, would often visit my
father in law’s bungalow to meet me. He used to bring wooden village toys for
my son.Ín front of the bungalow he planted a palm tree which he brought from
his village. The time passed on I resigned from IOC in 1978 and lost touch with
Arjun.
That day in
1996 that was after 21 years he was standing in front of me narrating his
progress in life.
From a daily
labor he became a labor supplier. From there he became a civil contractor. He
got married and seen to it that his younger brothers got good education. His
one younger brother joined refinery as operator. He constructed a double
storied house in place of that thatched roof hut which I visited during my stay in Haldia, he was owning a car and a motor bike. Later on my attendant Subhash who
stays near Arjun’s village told me that he was politically strong too.
I was impressed
by his progress in life, his hard work and entrepreneurship took him to a different
level. I was just an enabler; rest was his hard work and determination.
I had a chance
to visit Haldia Refinery in connection with BHEL work in 1998, the bungalow
where my father in law was staying is very close to the IOC,Guest House. In the
evening I walked down to the bungalow and found that the palm tree planted by
Arjun has grown tall symbolizing Arjun’s progress. All the memories connected
with that bungalow started flooding in my mind, in the moonlight I could see the
Haldi River behind the bungalow flowing quietly towards the sea reminding the flow of time.
Many young
men in India like Arjun are waiting for just a break and then there is no looking
back for them. Also there are those who are born in privileged family and got
all right breaks but could not achieve much. Recently in the company with which
I am associated now there were interviews for the recruitment of fresh
engineers. All the candidates were from private engineering colleges and must
be from fairly well to do families. Some of them had come with their mothers.
The senior officers who took their interview informed me that they could not
find a single one up to the mark so did not select any.
