A little push

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.Possibly some  of these rejected candidates may take up some other profession and shine, we know many of these are forced to do engineering by their ambitious parents whereas their calling may lie somewhere else.