Blue Gold

Blue gold

……………

It was late in the evening when we approached  the last rice mill for rice husk survey. The mill owner Mr.Mandal enthusiastically showed us around the rice mill where boiled rice is produced. He invited us for tea in his house adjacent to the mill. I noticed a ruin of two storied brick shed with wild growth around.

“What is that shed?” I inquired.

“That’s Neel Kuthi, our ancestors were Indigo planters.”

“Oh I see, that is the warehouse where the Indigo cakes were stored.” I said.

After finishing tea we came out and got into our car for returning to Bolepur. I was curious to know more about Indigo farming but realized Mr.Mandal being the zamindar whose ancestors would have been ruthlessly exploited the poor farmers so would not give the real picture. Our car had hardly moved a few 100 meters when a young man in shabby cloth waved at us for stopping the car. The driver stopped the car, the young man came at the rear and requested for a lift to the next village. It was dark so I took pity; the driver invited him to sit in the front. After a few kilometers he asked us to stop, the village was very near to Ajay River.

In the meanwhile he told us his name was Joy Biswas and he was returning home from the rice mill, he was an operator there. I got interested in him and asked, “Do you belong to a farming family?”

“Yes, my father is a farmer, we grow rice.” After travelling for about 20 minutes Joy signaled, “ Please stop here my house has come. Why don’t you come in and meet my father.” He politely invited us.

It was a typical thatched roof house with a clean courtyard in the front. We could see cow shed with a few cows and a chicken coop. The house was having electrical connection. His father came out hearing the sound of our car stopping; with folded palm he led us to the front room. It had two cane chairs and a wooden cot. We took the cane chairs, Joy went inside to arrange tea. His father who was more or less of my age sat on the cot and inquired the reason of our visit. I explained him how we were surveying the availability of rice husk in Burdwan and our subsequent visit to Mandal’s rice mill, where we met his son.

My curiosity was about Indigo farming so I eagerly asked senior Biswas, “Other than rice what other crops your forefathers grew, let us say a century back.”

“I heard from my father that my great grandfather was growing Indigo plants, it will be around 1840 or so. The Mandal family was the zamindar and he was representing an East Indian Company to collect the produce from here.”

“Yes I have seen the Neel Kuthi of Mandal’s. From the books I understand the farmers were not very eager to plant Indigo as that would mean not planting paddy.” I said.

“Yes we were forced to plant Indigo in major part of our land. As you know our lands are very fertile, being very near to the river , found to be suitable for Indigo farming by British. Those white men with their Indian accomplish like Mandal would force all the farmers to plant that wretched herb. They would give us dadan( sort of advance against a contract) and we will purchase seed with that money.”

“Yes I read in Nil Darpan, the play by Dinabandhu Mitra, how the families were tortured to grow Indigo. The process of fermenting the leaves in vats, straining after fermentation and finally the sludge will be dried to form cakes as end product. The process of fermenting has to be completed before sun rise. It was a back breaking labour but farmers got hardly 2.5 % value of the market price.” I shared my bookish knowledge.

“Yes babu it was shear torture and so our ancestors revolted.”

“Yes I know, the Indigo revolt in1858 to 1860 against the British. By the way are you any chance related with Bishnucharan Biswas of Nadia who was one of the leaders of the revolution?”

“No babu but my great great grandfather gave shelter to a revolutionary who finally killed the Mandal, zamindar of that time, of the same family whom you visited.” He informed.

In the meanwhile his son had brought tea and some biscuits. We enjoyed their hospitality but my curiosity was not quenched, I wanted to see a plant.

“ Is there any Indigo plant around?”

“Yes, as a reminder we have a few of those in the corner of our field, but in the darkness of night I can’t take you there. Why don’t you come tomorrow morning?”

“Ok,we will come tomorrow.”

Taking leave from them we got into our car and drove off to Bolpur.

After finishing breakfast in Camelia hotel in Prantik we proceeded to our destination for project Indigo.

Senior Biswas was waiting for us,his son had left for his work in rice mill. We walked for about a kilometer deep in the village. We entered a paddy field, some palm trees were there by the side of a pond and a shrub. He took us near the shrub. The trees were two to four feet in height, green leafs, small pea like fruits. Biswas plucked a fruit and peeled it show small pods inside. He explained inside the pods are the seeds of the plant. They pluck the fruits for seeding of future plant and leafs are fermented to produce Indigo.

He explained,” The stench of the work vats, where the Indigoplants were putrefied, was so offensive that the processing area was kept more than a mile away from habitats. The odor from the rotting weeds drew flies and other insects.”

While he was explaining I was trying to imagine the toiling poor villagers in the field during those turbulent times. India was the major exporter of Indigo to Europe. East India Company had a monopoly on Indigo trade to the world. More than 80% produce was exported. In 1897 the export from Calcutta port peaked  over 9.5 million pounds.

We went back to his house. Then Biswas brought a letter which had yellowed by age was pasted on a parchment paper. It was a letter informing that one Subinoy was happy by the treatment he got from Biswas family so he was leaving behind a handi full of some precious substance known as Blue Gold which was costlier than gold. He has buried it in the courtyard. After reading the letter I looked up at him and asked, “Could you find it?”

“No, I could not.”

I smiled at him and said, “Keep trying to find out. The vessel may fetch money but the content will be of no use to you now.”

“Why, he wrote it is costlier than gold.”

“Yes it was costlier than gold when he wrote this letter. The vessel contains Indigo which was costlier than gold in 1850s or so. That is the reason it was called Blue gold then.” I informed him with a twinkle in my eyes.

I could see he was upset by my observation.

We thanked Biswas and drove back. On the way back I was thinking though British government had banned Indigo cultivation by 1860 because of the peasant revolution and the graphic presentation of the plight of farmers in the play Nil Darpan which was translated in English and was presented to British parliament but still there were farming in Champaran,Bihar.As a matter of fact Mahatma Gandhi started his first Satyagrah from Champaran, Bihar and Kheda, Gujarat in 1917 against Indigo farming.

Somehow I like visiting places connected with history but never imagined an obscure village of Bengal would ignite my interest so much.

   

Cows don't vote but Dalits do

Cows don't vote but Dalits do
....................................................
Sometimes one wonders whether BJP does not know this truth about vote bank but then one starts pondering whether there is some other game plan hatched by intelligentia. Let us firs admit Congress and Left has more intellectuals who can create khurafati in their stable than NDA and then look through the prism of dalit.
NDA came to power riding on the vote share of Dalit and other backward classes and certainly not the upper caste. The upper castes consider themselves as intellectual and secular so their vote share is fragmented. Looking at this some backroom boys of so called secular parties hatched this plan.
This Dalit thing started with Rohit Vermulla suicide and as the UP election is fast approaching so it is getting drummed up by ever obliging liberal press and channels. There is most urgent issue of floods in Assam,Bihar and Odisha but there is hardly any ground zero report. For the last 2 days i was surfing channels to get some real time feed on floods . All the channels were busy analysing either the issue of stone pelting in Srinagar and the ban imposed by small boys on the girls riding scooter in Kashmir or some cow related mob justice. Today i read in the paper that the new kid in the block Kanahiya is planning to launch all India movement on Rohit Vermulla so once again TV camera, discussion Azadi protest in Hyderabad,JNU,Jadavpur highlighting Dalit suppression etc will start.The well planned script is already written and if BJP is smart then they have to control the loose cannons in UP mainly as it does not matter much in rest of the state as of now. Hope Prashan Kishore is not scripting it, the other day Rahul found sitting wioth a grieved dalit woman in Gujrat but later on it came out that the woman was plant by the local congressmen and was not the real victims mother, so this game of inciting and advertising will go on till UP election.
Disclaimer; I am nether a cow rakhshakh or bhakhsakh.....i am just one of those who wears a different glass than what is offered by so called pseudo intellectuals. I am for free thinking , clean administration and livable neighbourhood.
This take is kind of take it or leave it.

Dancing with Bauls

Dancing with Bauls

The Bauls are in West Bengal…. in the extreme northeast of India for hundreds of years, perhaps a thousand. They wander the countryside, singing their religious songs. Their beliefs are a mixture of many influences and traditions, such as Hinduism, Sufism and Yoga. They break away from many common Indian beliefs, including the age-old caste system, and the separation of Hindu and Muslim communities.

Baul music is unlike other traditional Indian classical music. In fact, there is nothing quite like this music. There is no sitar or tabla - all of the instruments played are ancient in origin. The songs are simple, and sung with intense emotion. The music is approachable and very enjoyable to listen to. Unlike many forms of Indian classical music, no special knowledge or study is needed to fully understand.

When one goes to Shantiniketan from Kolkata by train one encounters Bauls.They make the journey pleasurable with their song and dance. They sing about contemporary events, modern trends in their own simple rural language.

Those days I was head of Eastern Region of BHEL and used to go by Shantiniketan Express to Bolepur for onward journey to the Bakreswar thermal project which was coming up under WBPDCL then. Once in two months there used to be a major review of the power project by the erstwhile Power minister Dr.Sankar Sen of West Bengal. All of those who were required for the meeting like us from BHEL, officials from WBPDCL, consulting engineers from DCL, Japanese engineers from Fuji, Japanese experts from the consortium leader ITOCHU and the representatives from the funding agency OECF used to travel together by Shantiniketan express AC chair car as that was the only AC compartment in that train. Practically the whole AC chair car compartment on that particular day used to be booked for the project review team.

During one such journey day, the representatives of various companies started trooping in Howrah station to board the Shantiniketan Express for the review meeting. I was there one hour before the departure of the train as that was my style of avoiding failure. We all boarded the train; Dr.Sen boarded the train five minutes before the departure. The train started on schedule, I had a corner seat. I started reading the daily news paper of the day. After about half an hour we were served hot samosa and fresh sweet by our friends from DCL.After about one and half hour or so the train reached Burdwan. Immediately the compartment was filled by various hawkers selling there wares, mostly food stuff. We were served coffee, courtesy DCL.The train started, Prabir of BHEL entered the compartment and searched me out.As usual the Baul singer Karthik Das boarded the train, he started strumming his one string country made guitar known as Ek Tara.

Dr.Sen was fond of Baul song, so every one made way for Karthik Das to go near Dr.Sen.He went near Dr.Sankar Sen.’s seat and started his Baul song. He started with a typical Baul song describing the land of Birbhum from where he hailed. We enjoyed the song. Then he started with a song which talked about Bakreswar power project, BHEL, WBPDCL, OECF and how once that project was made would bring prosperity to the region. The song practically covered all facets of Bakreswar. All were stunned by that song as that song was expressing the mission for which the whole corporate crowd was going to Bakreswar.Every one was nonplussed by that song. They wondered how a half literate country singer can gather such intimate detail information’s and package the same in his Baul song. He got an all round applause.

Dr.Sen called him and asked, “How did you frame this song? How could you get such a lot of details about Bakreswar project?”

Karthik Das ,Baul replied with folded palm,”Sir,we are poor illiterate people but we go round the markets and to various rural gatherings, collect details of the latest happenings and string those to a song. This song is result of such endeavor,” he continued, “sir, did you like the song?”

Dr.Sen replied with a satisfied smile,”Yes, I am very happy as our effort will be known to the common people through your song. I hope you will sing this every day.”

“Yes sir, I will sing this every day,” the Baul replied.

That was a lucky day for Karthik Das as all of us paid him generously.

Before leaving the compartment Karthik bowed at me and I acknowledged the same. He got down at Guskara, the station before Bolepur.The compartment was charged and every one was discussing about the song, they were happy that Bakreswar had become a part of the folk lore. It was an exulting feeling for all.

Prabir came silently to me and said,”Sir, I hope every thing happened to your satisfaction.”

“Yes, thanks for making the event happen. You were late in entering the compartment and my heart stopped beating for a moment but then you entered followed by the Baul and I was relieved.” I said.

Yes, the whole show was stage managed by me. I had advised Prabir to pen a song bringing out the important facts of Bakreswar in simple Bengali language and then put that in a proper Baul musical format. He did that, we caught hold of Karthik and motivated him to sing that song on that particular day for a tidy sum. A day before that Prabir left for Burdwan and got the song rehearsed by Karthik.

After that particular day Karthik knew that if he sang that song in front of us then he would collect more money, so he made it a point to sing that song whenever the corporate crowd for Bakreswar was visible.

All most all the business news papers of West Bengal went ga ga over that Baul song. It was hailed as a novel way of using the local folk singers to advertise the achievement. Some of the local MBA colleges picked up this phenomenon as case study for marketing strategy. Generally advertising agencies are engaged and media is used to highlight the products. Here the folk singers were already available and they were effectively utilized to carry the message to the masses. It is always a cost effective proposition if the existing infrastructure or human resource is gainfully utilized. The Bombay dabbawals move the tiffin carriers through local trains during non rush hours and thus they achieve their goal by utilizing the existing system.

Bakreswar team of BHEL got so much charged up by the success of the song in the train that they got another song written and sponsored Nemai Das Baul for that song. Eventually Nemai Das Baul was proved to be more loyal to BHEL and we adopted him as our very own Baul.Those days no BHEL official function was complete without a Baul song by Nemai Das.

Pacific Ocean,Gold Coast on 10th July 2016

https://goo.gl/photos/Zn2wn1ztgvUTpRHT8

Punctuality vs Service

Punctuality versus service
,...........
How many times have you miss a bus ,train or plane by a whisker. Whom did you blame or cursed ? Yourself or the service provider? Yes more the services become punctual we have more disgruntled people. Imagine an office goer with his briefcase boards the bus on time but the mother with 2 children can't reach it on time, even if she reaches on time the suburban trains with automatic door closing will close as per the set duration.
So we have a satisfied office goer but also we have a harassed mother with 2 children might be rushing for an appointment with doctor. Lucky that some modern offices have started flexi timing,in some countries there are buses every 5 minutes to tackle such issues.
The time for our daily chores is an approximation and not on the dot time like countdown of a rocket in NASA, it is not that sacrosanct. But the pressure to be punctual remains and which affects health.
I remember once me and my wife were returning in the night at about 10.20 or so after attending a function in Dhakuria,Calcutta. We were returning to our place of stay in Ballygaunj Station Road and local train from Dhakuria was the convenient mode of transport. The last train from Dhakuria station was at 10.30 pm,we reached the station and headed for ticket window,the train had arrived and it stops for 20 secs. By the time we headed to catch the train it blew horn and started. The guard's compartment,the last bogey passed us. The guard looked at us helplessly standing ,he gestured at us showing the direction of the train moving, I nodded "Yes". To our surprise the train stopped for us at a distance and a few compartments were still reachable on the platform. We rushed and boarded the train,while running I mouthed "a thank you" to him.
I am sure with a minute or two delay the train made up it's time leaving a satisfied customer like us.
I am not sure whether with all those automation and stress on punctuality I can have a repeat experience.

International Yoga day and my birthday

International Yoga day and my birthday😁
….....
My friends must be wandering what's my birthday has to do with Yoga day ! It is like this when we were discussing about Yoga you know with whom then I informed him I am on Yoga since 1985 when in BHEL I went through this general management course of one month in hotel Qutub where we were trained in Yoga by a Tibetan Yoga guru. Since then I am doing Yoga every morning. Then he looked around his sevaks  did not find anyone matching my Yoga experience. He asked when is my birthday." 21st June" I said. "OK,then on that day we will have International Yoga day. Will discuss with Barak about it."

 Thus the Yoga day started and I deleted my birthday from FB,but some of my friends still remember that day and a big thanks to them. Well baba Ramdev was yet to start his Yoga back then in 1985.
There is one disclaimer about Yoga,it does not control your tummy.....the natural sag because with old age all those muscles holding it up can't match the gravity pull so the bulge...I have battled with this bulge but lost..again thanks to Him for celebrating my B'day as International Yoga day...keep smiling..here I am doing Yoga under  the watch full eyes of Akira, she taught me stretching..😁😁😁

A page from Mahabharat

A page from Mahabharat

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Yudhishthir put Daupadi on stake next after losing wealth in the crooked dice game with Duryadhan. He lost that round too. Durayadhana jumped up in joy and yelled like a jackal at the discomfiture of Draupadi. He nudged his brother Dushashan to get into the act of possessing Draupadi.

“Whatever you say bro, my pleasure!” twirling his moustache and slapping his thigh Dushashan jumped on Draupadi. Poor Draupadi was helpless;. Bheem was raging in anger and Arjuna wanted to break the rule but Dharmraj Yudhishthir restrained them.

Poor Pandavas were a mute spectator, she prayed to Krishna to save her humiliation in the hands of Kauravas. There was a guy among those Kauravas who had attended Draupadi’s Swamvar but failed in the test of hitting the eye of the rotating fish on wooden wheel by looking at the reflection in plate full of water below. He was jumping and shouting lustily at that vulgar show. Draupadi’s ultimate shame was saved by Lord Krishna by supplying endless saree.

The above incident of Mahabharat was the beginning of end of Kauravas, Draupadi would take oath that until and unless Dushashan is killed she would not tie her free flowing hair.

But what about that leering guy, who was jumping lustily?

Cut to 12 years of exile in forest or vanvas of Pandavas after losing everything in that ill-fated game of dice.

That guy has been shadowing Pandavas in the forest and waiting for the oppertune moment when Draupadi will be alone, he wanted her for fulfilling his carnal desire.

One day all five Pandavas had gone out in the forest to look for food and Draupadi was left alone in the hut.

This lecher  parks his chariot at a distance , stealthily comes to the hut and gives a polite knock on the door.

Draupadi opens the door and is surprised to see this guy.

He hurriedly explains, “I have come in search your husbands.”

Draupadi being a polite and civilized lady invites this relative inside the hut and wait for the return of her husbands.

I know knowing that fellow belongs to the enemy campy why did she allow him inside; I guess that’s what always the weakness of a good person is. A good person always looks through the prism of goodness. Also she had five brave husbands so there was nothing to worry.

But lust which is among 7 deadly sins is such blinding that a person loses his common sense. This crook was no better. He enters the hut and says, “A beautiful woman like you can’t stay like this, come with me I will keep you like a queen.” She steps back and says, “Please leave me alone, I am happy here.”

This guy gets enraged by the rejection, he grabs for Draupadi , she puts up a fight but was no match to that brute. He carries fighting and yelling Draupadi to his chariot and binds her with the post.  He whipped the horses wildly so that he could put distance between the hut and him. Draupadi keeps shouting for help but unfortunately her husbands were beyond the earshot.

After sometimes the five Pandavas returned from their errand and shouted for Draupadi. No one came running out. They went inside the hut and found it to be empty; the utensils were haphazardly strewn around because of Draupadi’s resitance. They knew something bad has happened and Draupadi was in danger. Arjuna came out of the hut and with his hunter eyes started looking for telltale signs. He noticed the mark of chariot wheel on the ground and found out in which direction it had gone. He aimed his Gandiv and released a fire arrow or Agnivan in that direction.

This villain had no clue of the danger but then suddenly he finds fire falling from sky , embeds itself in the ground in front of the horses. The scared horses neigh wildly and stop suddenly on hind legs with front legs up.

Arjuna goes on shooting fire arrow in regular intervals in such a way that the arrows create a prison of fire around the charioit.

Our villain is now imprisoned and there was no way of his escape.

Panch Pandavas arrive and unties Draupadi and then drags the brute out by his hair. They were shocked to see the culprit. It was Jayadratha, the husband of Dushala, the only daughter of Dhritarashtra or sister of 100 Kaurav brothers.

Arjuna wanted to kill him but then Draupadi pleaded and asked him not to do that as then Dushala who was their cousin sister would become a widow.

But Pandavas wanted to punish him. They shaved off his hair in such a way that five parallel strands were running on his skull. This way Jayadratha was shamed and he had no face to show.

Pandavas went back leaving Jayadratha behind to his fate.

Jayadratha was enraged by the insult and stayed put by the side of river Saryu. Dushala got worried seeing her husband absent for a long time. Duryadhana found him by the side of river and requested his brother in law to return. Jayadratha said ,” I can’t go now. Let me meditate for sometimes.”

Here is the catch in this type of incidence, any bad or good person if does a tapsaya to Bholenath Shiva then he readily gives var or a wish full filling request.

He did penance for days, months directing the mental energy towards Shiva. Bholenath is happy and appears in front of him and asks Jayadratha what he wants.

“I want to take revenge on Pandavas.”

Shiva smiles and gives him var, “You can defeat all 4 pandavas but not Arjuna.”

Jayadratha is not happy he continues his tapasya of Shiva again.

Now the question is whether Shiva will grant him another var or not. What is the second var Jayadratha would ask……he can’t ask var to defeat Arjuna as in the first var itself Shiva has spelled that out. Let me read Mahabharat for further information on Jayadratha to know the next var…..

Seagull

Seagull

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The verdant sea beach of Pacific Ocean at Gold Coast

Seagulls on the beach at Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast,Australia

The sea was looking blue, the sun was about to set. The seagulls were circling over the sea at a distance from the beach. The surfers were returning, the air was salty; a fishy smell was hanging in the atmosphere. The entire ambiance and the smell of the sea beach at Gold Coast transported me back to Gangavaram sea beach in Vizag

.It was rightly said by Dian Ackerman that nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer besides a lake in the mountain: another moonlit beach. Smell detonates softly in our memory like poignant land mine hidden under weedy mass of years. Hit a tripwire of smell and memories explode all at once. A complex vision leaps out of undergrowth.

Me with Raja and Bonny at Gangavaram sea beach, the captive sea beach of Vizag steel plant

Yes that particular moment reminded me of a similar sunset time by the side of Bay of Bengal on Gangavaram beach, which is kind of captive sea beach of Vizag Steel plant. I was relaxing on the beach, looking at the endless waves hitting the shore line, my son with his friend Raja swimming in the sea, the ladies were busy at a distance. From the corner of my eyes I could see the temple perched on a hillock, the last scene of the film Ek Duje Ke Liye was shot there.

Bonny with Madhuri in Gangavarm Sea beach temple

 The whole atmosphere was serene and tranquil. From a distance it would appear as though I was talking with the sea. Yes, I was communicating with the sea, I wanted the time to freeze so that I could go on reminiscing about the past. The sea was communicating back to me that it was not possible as the time could not wait and reminded me that I had much work to do before I could think of freezing myself to no work mode. It said, " look at those seagulls, they are relentlessly hunting for fish, look at me I have no time for rest, I have to go on creating waves." Those words of sea jerked me back to the present, I quickly got up and gathered my clothes and shouted to others that it was time to go back home, the sun was about to set.

I started thinking about the project for which I was posted at Vizag.The nightmare of grappling with the pressing problem at the project started staring hard at me.

I was posted there in steel plant from BHEL to construct their power plant. The plant was ready but was not stable. Those recurring problem used to haunt me, those trips to Gangavaram or Ramakrishna beach was to escape from the reality and look at the sea for a mental peace. I still remember my first rendezvous with the sea. It happened in 1963 when I with few of my friends from IIT, Kharagpur straightaway paddled our cycles to the sea before checking in any hotel. We were staggered; the endless water produced a numbing effect. It was beyond our imagination, in our own way we always imagine things in a limited way. Before that day the only unlimited thing with which we were familiar was the sky, since the sky we are seeing from our very birth so it does not create that kind of effect of the unseen. We felt very small and vulnerable on that day.

Whenever I was having any mental trouble I would go to the beach, look at the sea. The vastness of the sea would make my problem look insignificant, my disturbed mind would calm down and I would start thinking rationally. My batteries would get recharged; I would be looking at the problem with a fresh mind.

The next day I would sit with my good friends like P Chakraborty, Jagannathan, Rana, Malhotra, TS etc and would run through the problems and work out a solution.

The Vizag posting of mine was a landmark posting as BHEL gave me bigger responsibility and I could see the South Indian culture from a close quarter. It was learning for my wife as well. She learnt the intricacies of South Indian cooking like Dosa, Idli, Sambar, Lemon rice etc.My son learnt scooter driving, car driving, swimming, playing tennis etc, the list is endless. That posting of mine transformed all of us to a different person and the sea played its role of mentor. We were like sea gulls circling round and round picking up bits and pieces here and there. It was Jagannathan who first introduced me to management books.Mr.Rath forced me to hone my badminton game.

Austin O'Malley said, "The memory is a crazy woman that hoards colored rags and throws away food." Similarly I don't want to remember those technical problems and their solutions but I want to store those beautiful moments spent by the side of sea watching our kids playing, ladies laughing and seagulls circling at a distance and that symbolizes Vizag for me.

Shuddy with us in Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast

Shuddy and Bonny

Poonam

Me biking on sea beach at Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast

Some stories convey a lot

Some stories convey a lot

……………………………………

Possessive

…....................

A mother and her daughter were walking by the sea on the verdant beach. The daughter was soon to be married. The mother was explaining the daughter about ups and downs of life, how she kept the family together by compromising and judiciously taking decisions. The daughter listened to her mother’s wise words.

The mother bent down and grabbed some sand. She said, “Look at my hand.” She held the sand in her open palm; the sand slowly blew away by the gust of wind. She said, “Relationship is like this sand, the moment it is taken for granted then like the sand it just flies off.”

Again she picked up some sand and tried holding the sand in a tight fist. All the sands started falling through the gap between the fingers. She said,” In a relationship more you try to possess more you lose like this sand slipping out of my fist as I make my fist tighter.”

The daughter said, “Yes mother I understand now. It has to balance between freedom and control, like this.” She bent down and picked up sand, she held the sand by making a loose fist to protect it from flying way and not too tight to force the sand slip out of hand.

Samaranandji was telling the story to his disciple as some of them told him how in the modern age relationships are falling apart. He is a modern Guru who conveys his sermons through parables like usually done by management gurus. He has stock of stories for all occasions.

Through the above story he explained how over possessiveness causes problem in work place too.

He said

In a work place you will come across people who don’t want to part with their knowledge which they acquired during their service period to new entrants. They seldom share but are quick to blame the subordinates and as a result of this the organization does not move further. The younger employees feel isolated and inadequate, they start looking for opportunity to get out of such suffocating work atmosphere.

The possessiveness of ideas is another big spoiler while trying to crack a problem as a team. There will be someone who would be fixed with his idea of solution and will keep on trying his possessed knowledge without heeding to the advice of others. If that individual happened to be a boss then you really had it. A transparent friendly colleague with a lesser knowledge gets a work executed smoothly without any hiccups.

The last deal

The last deal

…………………..

Khemka who is above 70 has many ailments. He is bedridden and thinks that all his vrat and pujas can’t save him from certain death. He is scared about night, the night signifies end to him.

It is late in the night, the sleep eludes him, he gets up from his bed with great difficulty and approaches the big ancestral almirah in the bedroom. He opens the lock by the bunch of keys which always dangles from his waist. He does not trust anyone with that bunch of keys. These keys are for all those safes containing his gold, silver and other costly things….his life’s earning, he loves the yellow metal and not the share market. He slowly opens the almirah and then with another key he opens the safe inside the almirah. There lies his ancestral lota. His father told him how he had come from Rajasthan with that lota and some money to Calcutta, started his business in Jute and built his empire. His father’s advice was whenever in trouble that lota will guide him.

He is in deep trouble, it is life and death question for him literately so clutching the lota with wobbly steps he goes back to the bed. He takes a closer look at that lota of kansa (bell metal) fondly. The lota reminds him of his childhood, his days in small chawal in Burra Bazar with his brothers and sisters. He is now trying to figure out how it can help him, it is only reminding him of their humble beginning.

He is lying on the bed with lota in hand. He absentmindedly puts his hand inside the  lota….whoosh a dark giant appears from the lota. He is thrilled that now he knows that it is no ordinary lota but a container like Alladin’s lamp and now a genie stands before him.

Are you that genie of lamp of Alladin?

No , I am Yamraj and have come to warn you that your days are numbered.

He is not able to talk for sometimes but then his business brain starts working.

Is there a way to delay my death?

Yamraj says, “Come with me to Yamalay I will show you the process of how I decide whom to take from the earth.”

Yamraj holds Khemka’s hand and both fly out of the open door to the sky, the sleeping servants could not see them vanishing.

They enter a dark fort somewhere in the sky. They land in courtyard from  where diagonally  like sunrays there are running corridor leading to millions of rooms. Yamraj takes him to a room where there are lamps. He explains each lamp is a person in earth, all the rooms have such lamps covering the population of whole wrorld.

Khemka is not interested in whole world, please take me to my lamp.

Yamraj leads him to a congested room where lamps are put on racks. Khemka sees the room real crowded and thinks to himself , yes it is Calcutta no doubt.

Khemka is led to a corner rack, on the third shelf from the bottom and the second one is the lamp representing his life. The glow from his lamp is dim as the oil level is nearly touching the bottom. His quick mind has grasped that more quantity of oil left means more life.

He hears a click in his mind; the business gears started working furiously in his mind. He plans to make a deal with the devil.

Is there a way to get more oil in my life lamp? He speaks in his usual conspiratorial tone.

Oh, yes why not but you got to pay price , I know you are a business man so as an exception I appeared to warn you. As such the cost of maintaining Yamalay is increasing day by day so I don’t mind doing a deal. I do that often with Americans, Chinese and Indians.

Khemka is happy. What is the price?

For each year increase of your life you have to pay ten  gold coins of 10gms each.

What 10 gold coins for one year increase of his life!. His wealth of gold is result of his thrifty habits. He cannot think of giving his hard earned gold.

Is there any other deal?

Yamraj is furious by the question of Khemka so thinks of punishing him.

Yes, you give your right arm and I will see that you live another 100 years.

Khemka does a quick calculation and says, I want 30 years so that I can live up to 100 years so you take one third of my right arm from the wrist, Khemka knows in Jaipur he can get artificial hand for less than 1 lakh and thus he saved money by not giving gold coin.

Yamraj is flummoxed by the suggestion of the wily businessman. He thinks to himself I must inflict a real pain to this wretched human.

Suddenly Yamraj grows in size holds Khemka on the ground putting his knee on his chest and pulls Khemka's hand  to tear it from the wrist.

“ aye, o, mother, it is paining” Khemka starts yelling in pain,his body convulses  , his ears wring.
He writhes with pain and looks up at Yamraj but to his surprise he finds Ramu his servant in place of Yamraj. He is lying on the bed and Ramu his servant is trying to pull  his hand out of the lota.

He is relieved to find himself on the bed but the nightmare was so real.

He heard his wife shouting from the next room.. ….stop banging that lota on the bed, that horrible sound woke me up from my sleep.

I am still learning

I am still learning

……………………………

I read somewhere if an operating manual for human being is to be made then how many volumes would it be. We operate without any operating manual; we just pick up some wisdom on the go and tend to use those. Like they say if one is habituated in hammer then he sees every problem as nail jutting out and hammers it down, kind of same solution for all problems.

That is too simplistic, one solution for all problems !

While growing up we watch our parents operating and from there learning starts. I have watched my mother silently helping people without expecting any return…following the principle of “Karmanye vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana,”( You have the right to work only but never to its fruits)..tried to emulate her principles in life but I don’t know how far I could do that.

My father would often say in Hindi “ Na bahni na bhayeeya,subse bada rupayeeya ( most important is money and not brothers and sisters)….I used this operating principle as a caution against the bad influence of money or tried to make money as secondary goal, I always believed knowledge is power.

When we were passing out from IIT, Kharagpur we were cautioned by our professor of controls Mr.Gopalratnam about our approach to job. He said,” Now you all will be looking for job and many of you will not get the job what you want. Remember it is something like you may not marry the girl you love but you got to love the girl you marry. So whatever job you get you must do your best to do that job. Best of luck.”

That little bit of gyan helped me in adapting to all kind of situations and I am sure most of you out there must be doing the same.

While allotting work to my subordinates the word of our GM Mr.R N Bhatnagar in IOC,Barauni always rings in my ear. He said ,”If you find a man not suitable for his job then it is your duty to find a job for which he is suitable.”

That was the most important advice I ever got on job. Often we blame a worker not able to carry out a given task but have we ever tried to find out his strength area. This way we have forced many people to become useless.

My very first management book which i read was The Peters Principle.The Peter Principle is based on the notion that employees will get promoted as long as they are competent, but at some point will fail to get promoted beyond a certain job because it has become too challenging for them. Employees rise to their level of incompetence and stay there. Over time, every position in the hierarchy will be filled by someone who is not competent enough to carry out his or her new duties.  . The classic example is that when an expert is promoted as overall in charge then he may fail in taking work from a team, whereas individually he was excellent in his work. This book and One Minute manger series by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson have been very useful in understanding the inter-layer of people management. I must admit I was introduced to The One Minute Management series by my colleague Jagannathan in Vizag.

The next book which influenced me most was “The seven habits of highly effective people” by Stephen Covey. This book grabs you by ball from the preface itself. I had gone to Hubara site in Oman where BHEL was carrying out a project for PDO. One of the British consultants of the customer was having some personal problem with his girlfriend back home. He started discussing that in the bar of the guest house in the oasis. He was seeking my advice, I gave him the book “7 habits…” and said, “ I think you will find answer to your problem in this book.”

Next evening he came excitedly to me with the book and said,” Mr.Roy I found the answer in the first chapter itself.”

I left the book with him and advised him after finishing the book he can handover that to my site people. After a few years Shankaranaryan one of the engineers working there informed me practically all of them have read the book. I felt satisfied and realized the far reaching power of a book.

Slowly Samaranandji started taking shape , postulation by my alter ego started coming as management principle.

Samaranandji would often say employees operate on two principles namely WIIFM and SYA.

WIIIFM; expanded as ‘What is in it for me’ ….if boss is shrewd then he will see through the game and will use proper administrative medicine to take work out of such person. Here the employee sees there is gain for him then only he acts. Sadly that is the story with most of the people because we don’t try to establish systems with date lines.

SYA; expanded a “Save your ass”…..these employees will not act. They feel if by chance they commit any mistake then they would be hauled up. So they are busy in passing on the buck.They avoid taking decision.

A good manager has to observe and classify his subordinates’ and then work out strategy to take work out of them.

Samaranandji’s most important lesson has been “Yes also suits me No also suits me.” This principle is based on magnetic lines of forces. I become iron filing and my boss or subordinate becomes magnet. If he takes the position of “Broad side on” then as iron filing I align accordingly. If he takes “End on” position then I realign myself accordingly. It simply means I am ready with multi option and will use those as per your position of “Yes” or “No”. Here i give the first choice to my counterpart who can be anyone...
You don't have to paint a man black but instead paint the background white....this means do a better job than other person instead back biting...
I was influenced by the books of Peter Drucker, the original management Guru, Tom Peters who wrote in Search of Excellence, Zig Ziggler the motivational writer from whose book many contents have been lifted by Shiv Khera...
Everyday is a learning day.....even after my retirement i am learning....i liked what our MD ,P P Gupta( owner of Techno Electric Engg Co, MBA from IIM,Ahmedabad) often says about engineers and managers.."woh language level mein hi reh jatey"....means people seldom go to the depth but do surface scratching, something like reading out the headlines without understanding the full detail, i guess this is the general malady which makes us more subjective than objective...
While playing golf i realized the importance of own limits and then trying to maximise the gain within those limits...3 Cs of the game..Concentrate,Control and Confidence....i started playing Golf at the age of 62 so the age is no bar to start..... 
In my part i tried to capture my experience in management by writing 2 Hindi books...'Management ke saral nuskhe" and "Management ke sabak"...the title of my  English books "Take it or leave it" and "Wide Angle".....well this article is also take it or leave it type for the readers...
You may agree or disagree the choice is yours ...as i wrote earlier both suits me "Yes" or "No"...after all it is a binary world...

Night crawler

Night crawler

……………………

He got up from the bed it was about 11 o clock in the night in his village. He took the 5 cell torch opened the door and went out. It was dark outside; he lighted the torch and started walking through the kacha pakka road. The ruins of the old jamidar house was by the side of a pond. The light from the torch was tearing through the sheet of darkness of the village road; with his walk light was swinging to and fro. He had heard there was treasure buried in the ruins so stealthily he was going to explore. After reaching the old dilapidated mansion he started his search for the treasure. He climbed the broken staircase, went through the abandoned rooms with hanging ceilings, the light from the torch was snaking around impatiently. He abandoned the search and went back home.

Whenever Rajat went to his village he had this recurring dream of that Ruin and his searching for treasure. He thought probably he had heard so much about that haunted house with buried treasure that his subconscious mind always thought of looking for the treasure.The villagers were scared of that haunted ruin.

He had heard people discussing about mysterious movement in the night around that ruin.

Now of course after retirement Rajat has come to the village to visit his uncle.In place of the ruin a club has come up. He visited the library of the club. He enquired about the old ruin. He was informed that the panchayat took a decision to demolish that ruin and start the club. After performing puja the club was started and no more ghost story. They of course remember to have seen movement of some shadowy figure during those old days in the ruin. But dead in the night no one dares to come to the club, that lingering fear of haunted house was still there.

“What about the treasure?” Rajat enquired.

“Oh that! While digging for foundation we did go down to a few meters but nothing was noticed.”

Rajat went out and took a round of the club. A small ruin was still there by the side of pond.

The demography of the village has changed after the new road came up. Now many young men go to their work place from the village. So no longer it is village where working members would stay in some bachelor mess in town and come to village for weekends.New colleges have come, the undergrads can attend college by staying in the village otherwise they were compelled to stay in towns to attend college.

After visiting the club that dream of Rajat again came. This dream was about his going near the pond instead of the ruin with his torch and hunting the treasure.

He was discussing with his friend Parimal about his dream.

Parimal said,” I am scared to go near that club in the night because I grew up seeing that ruin.”

“I am subconsciously hooked to the treasure story so I get that dream repeatedly whenever I am here.” Rajat absentmindedly said.

But the younger generation was not buying the ghost story; incidentally the club was often used for boozing by those youngsters which was fawned upon by elders. It was late on that Thursday night. The club members left one by one  after watching the match in club TV, India lost to West Indies in World Cup T 20 semifinal. But a few of them had other plan. They stayed back for boozing. Their boozing session was warming up when one of them said, “ Looks like someone is coming.”

They were worried that the village elders would catch them boozing. They switched off the light and went out after locking the club door. They noticed a dancing ray of light from a powerful torch going towards the pond. They got curious and followed the light. They waited at a distance and watched the curious activity. The man with the light hardly spent a few minute by the side of pond and then started walking back the way he had come. They followed him and found him to enter Mukherjee house, heard the sound of the bolt drawn on the outer door.

Rajat was restless with his recurring dream.

That night it happened again, after a peg of whiskey he went to sleep. He dreamt that he got up, took the torch opened the door and started walking towards the club but then he was woken up by his uncle. He was standing outside in the dead of night with torch in hand and surrounded by young men of the village and his uncle.He was like in a trance with glassy eyes. He did not remember when he had sleep walked out. He was embarrassed by that situation in the night.

He knew that he was a somnambulist but that was during his childhood days. As per scientists up to 17 years of age due to delayed maturity some people get it . During his childhood he had got up from his bed and sleep walked to the neighbor’s house. There are reports of people doing cooking or cleaning the house or even driving in that somnambulist state. As such there is no particular cure; it is more due to sleep disorder. Navigational brain cells that help sense direction are as electrically active during deep sleep or sleepwalking as they are during wake time, scientists have discovered and that is why he always thought it was a dream when he was actually performing a task.

Rajat next day went back to his Calcutta flat as he knew that haunted ruin would pull him in the night and he would sleep walk again.

The news about Rajat's sleep walking spread in the village, Parimal was asked by all about Rajat's strange behavior . Parimal was not happy that the wayward youngsters were using the club for boozing and which might lead to other nefarious activities in the village.

He said seriously to the villagers, " Rajat used to get Nishi Dak ( in Bengali, it means call from ghost) every night. So he would get up in his sleep and walk towards the pond where we all know the ruin was there. Though we have built the club but the ghosts of the haunted house have not left that place. Ram Ram from today after finishing my card game in the evening i will leave the club as early as possible, i don't want to be lured by that ghost."

His concocted ghost story was bought hook and sinker by the village folks including those youngsters, after all who does not believe in ghosts. So the boozing in the club during night stopped.

Smoking

Is smoking a health hazard ?

.........................................
50 years back when smoking was not declared as health hazard I did not have a drag till my final year in IIT in 1965. Before passing out i smoked a Charminar which i did not purchase but scrounged from someone else.
Then i had my high and low of smoking when smoking was not hazardous, i touched 5 cigarettes a day in my hey days at BHEL sites.
We said good bye to Panipat Thermal in 1980 by smoking bidi in the control room, it was initiated by Late Gurdeep Singh, that was my first and last bidi.
In Bengali society smoking in front of elders or someone in power is supposed to be showing disrespect..But then the society went for an overhaul and younger people started taking to smoking in a death and authority defying act. Throwing cigarette smoke on someones face was considered to be act of bravery. I remember during my posting as Head of ER in BHEL during the meeting with trade union all the leaders from CITU will pull out cigarette to smoke before start of the meeting. Showing some kind of arrogance or don't care about management. That was their way till my coming. I had to put a ban in smoking cigarette in the office and the order was pasted throughout the office. Thus the nuisance of CITU leaders was checked, in this process i stopped smoking in the office.
But as "No smoking" zones are increasing and also due to health consciousness i find many of the regular smokers in my present office have stopped smoking. I find there is upward trend of girls picking up smoking in Bengal.
The other day some local people acting as moral police harassed a young woman of Presidency college for smoking cigarette openly in their pada.Her family is trying to justify the smoking by a girl. It appears the society is divided on this issue.
Now i smoke a cigarette or 2 in a week and that too in the privacy of my house. It has been eons since i smoked a fag on the streets of any city and don't plan to do so.

Keechak Vadh...retold

Keechak  Vadh...retold

………………..

Please don’t force me, I am already married to Gandarvas, they are five in number and mostly remain invisible. Pleaded Sairandhari to Keechak the Chief of Army of Virat Raj of Matsaya kingdom. Keechak was also brother in law of the king.

But the ruffian Keechak won’t leave Sairandhari who actually is Draupadi. During this time of Pandava’s exile the last year was Agyat Vas , they have to live in anonymity. Draupadi as Sairandhari was working as maid of the queen and Keechak was enthralled by her beauty and wanted to marry her.

Let us see how her five husbands were hiding their identity. Incidentally all six of them decided to spend the one year of anonymity in Matsaya kingdom which was very close to Hastinapur, the plan was audacious as Duryadhan had put spies to locate them, as per condition if Pandavas are spotted then their exile will start from the beginning which was 12 years of exile in forest and one year of Agyat Vas. All of them did not arrive together; Yudhishthir came as a Brahmin who was expert in playing dice. The king appointed him as a minister and would play dice often with him. Yudhishthir was addicted to playing dice and having lost kingdom in a crooked dice game with Duryadhan he was honing his skill in playing dice with the king of Virat. Another dice game with Duryadhan? I don’t think he would have played having lost everything. Of course there was no scope for that as Kurushetra battle was the deciding field or the killing field for Kauravas, Where Arjun’s Gandiv spoke, Bheem’s gada thundered and Krishna’s far sight steered them to brutal victory….धर्मक्षेत्रे कुरुक्षेत्रे समवेता युयुत्सवः।

मामकाः पाण्डवाश्चैव किमकुर्वत संजय॥१-१॥

Sanjay, gathered in Dharma-kshetra Kurukshetra (place of Dharma, Kurukshetra), what are my and Pandava’s sons doing?

That was blind Dhritrashtra asking Sanjay about the battle………..those are the opening sentences in Bhagwat Gita.

Well let me roll back to Virat where Keechak is making his advances to Draupadi. It is a tricky situation for Pandavas, if they interfere then they will stand exposed and Duryodhan’s spies will pick up the scent. Their incognito stay will be exposed. Yudhishthir as usual advises Panchali or Draupadi or Sairandhari to manage the situation. Arjuna had a curse to be a eunuch, he is disguised as Brihanalla and engaged to teach dance to the princess Uttara. So he is of no use to handle the explosive situation. Draupadi is smarting under the lewd remark thrown at her by Keechak. She wants Keechak’s blood. Nakul is Royal groom in horse stable and Shadev is a royal cowherd, but as we know both are not warriors to match Keechak who is a great fighter.

Let us come to the fateful day.

As usual Draupadi after finishing her chore was coming out of queen’s chamber when the willy Keechak who was lurking around jumped on her. She struggled tooth and nail, fell on the ground , got hurt, her head starting bleeding , seeing the blood Keechak left her for the time being promising to be back. Draupadi goes running to king’s court and pleads with the king. The king is helpless , Yudhishthir as Kanka who was present there in the court asked her to manage the crisis. Draupadi was in rage and wanted revenge and swore not to wipe her blood till Keechak is killed by the night.

Oh, I forgot to mention about Bheem. Bheem was fond of food so he disguised himself as cook named Ballav. Ballav had heard about humiliation of Sairandhir or Draupadi in the hand of Keechak so he rushes to court to help Draupadi. Kanka means Yudhishthir stops him saying that his rash action will expose them to Durayadhan and their terms of 12 years of Vanbas and 1 year of Agyatbas will start again as per conditions.

But Draupadi has already taken oath of revenge; she meets Bheem in kitchen and asks him to act. So the scene is like this..Yudhishthir will not act, Arjuna is eunuch as Brihanalla so can’t act, Nakul and Sahdev are no match so it was left to Bheem.

Draupadi and Bheem hatch a plan.

Keechak is very excited finally his wish of spending night with Sairandhari or Draupadi will be full filled tonight.He takes a few goblets of Madira to ginger himself up for the big occasion. He stealthily approaches the dance hall where Draupadi is waiting for him.

He reaches the dance hall , a very few lamps on the wall was lighted. The reflected light of outside moon on those glass works around created a mesmeric ambience. In that mystic atmosphere Keechak spotted Draupadi waiting for him in a corner. She was draped head to toe in a black cloth. The creep Keechak with his libido approaches her and touches her shoulder lovingly.

“Wham”  a big fist lands on his face, from the cover of black cloth Bheem reveals himself. We don’t have to dwell much on the fight as we all know Bheem is way above the inebriated Keechak. He just kills him within a few moments; hardly that Chief of army of Virat could put up a fight.

Somehow this Virat parba of Mahbharat always intrigued me. Arjuna famous with his Gandiv was helpless as he was cursed to be eunuch. Why was he eunuch?

Here is why?

When Arjuna, the hero of Mahabharata, visited Amaravati – the Palace of Indra to obtain the weapon from his father( by the way Indra was the biological father of Arjuna), a party was arranged for his reception where court dancers of celestial beauties and fame like Urvashi, Tilottama, Rambha and Menaka were invited to perform. During the programme, there was exchange of passionate glances between Arjuna and Urvashi and in the night when Urvashi stealthily came to Arjuna’s bedroom with an intention to present herself to him, Arjuna retracted addressing her as mother.
Dear Arjun it is not done, calling an apsara Amma, it is like Arjun Kapoor in the film Gundey calling the cabaret dancer Priyanka Chopra a mother.

Urvashi felt very much insulted and being extremely annoyed, she cursed Arjuna that he would become eunuch and live with women dancing and singing. Later, on the request of Indra, Urvashi reduced the curse from whole life to only one year period i.e. the thirteenth year of Pandavas’ exile.

So Arjun as Brihnalla is a eunuch in reality because of the curse of Urvashi. 

Yudhishthir as usual gave gyan like a consultant does in any company but of course he had the responsibility of keeping anonymity. He was right on his own way.

But then we have this hot headed Bheem, Draupadi had to finally use her charm on him to act and the act he did with real gusto. Imagine the plight of Keechak who lustily approaches the shadowy figure draped in black for a good time and gets the shock of his life. He was there for amorous purpose and not for wrestling duel. I would have loved to watch his expression. 

 Yes that is the climax which I liked, i tried telling that episode the way i looked at it. Kind of retold by me.

My bachelor pad

My bachelor pad

As a bachelor staying in a company hostel, food was not a problem but once I was allotted a quarter organizing daily food became my biggest challenge in Barauni Refinery of IOC. For the last four years of my bachelorhood I kept servant who would cook food and maintain the house for me.

My very first servant was Hafiz , son of Haroon who was the helper in my electrical maintenance department of the refinery. He was an excellent cook of Moghlai dishes and South Indian delicacies like Idli,Dosa,Vada etc. Me being bachelor and with an excellent cook attracted all my friends to my flat, thus my dwelling was the natural choice for a place for adda. My brothers and sisters whoever had visited me those days still remember cooking of Hafiz. Hafiz was my longest serving cook ,he was with me for about two years.

For a short while I was without a cook when Hafiz left for a greener pasture. I was toggling between the  refinery guest house and a nearby Rajasthani restaurant for lunch and dinner, I was not happy with that arrangement so was in the lookout for a suitable servant.

It was a Sunday morning; I was in my drawing room when I heard the calling bell. I got up and opened the door.

“Namaste!” A well built young man older than me in shabby clothes greeted.

“Yes, what do you want?”

“Sir, I understand you are looking for a cook?”

“Yes.” I looked suspiciously at him because I was looking for someone younger and also he did not look servant type.

“Sir, I can cook and will keep the house clean. I need the job badly so please give me a chance.”

“Ok, I will try you for a month. Move in by evening, in the meanwhile I will do marketing for dinner.”

That was the entry of my second servant Raghav Singh. His cooking was no match to Hafiz’s cooking but at least his coming made my life smooth; I did not have to scrounge around for food. My life fell in old rhythm of refinery ,club, bachelor party and so on.

I was in the first floor and my ground floor neighbor was Yadav who was my batch mate but was the oldest in our trainee group, was married with a kid when he joined. His brothers were staying with him, they were ruffians. From my balcony I used to watch them play football in the ground in front of my flat. Very often both the brothers would pick up fight with other players, fights were pretty violent. I noticed Raghav too started playing football with them when I was away for work. When I first found him playing he was embarrassed, but I encouraged him to play. I did not mind as long as he did his duty. It was winter time so on Sundays they would play in the afternoon. Raghav after serving me lunch would join them. I found that Yadav duo was not meddling with Raghav much during the game. Raghav was a bully in the field and would dash forward with the ball by using his brute force. I could see the Yadav brothers got a taste of their own medicine from Raghav. Surprisingly they did not have the guts to complain against Raghav, I too felt happy that now instead of a good cook I had a tough guy in my house as my servant.

Life was going on like that for a while but then one day after return from my work I found Raghav was waiting for me with his luggage packed.

I thought he must have got some urgent message so leaving for his village temporarily.

He bent down to touch my feet, I stepped back. Outwardly he was looking radiant.

“Sir, I am leaving you.” He said with a bright smile.

“Did you get a better job? If you want we can consider a rise for you.”

“No sir during my difficult time you gave shelter, I had no place to go.”

“Then why are you leaving?”

“I did not want to tell you but as you are insisting so I must tell you.” He said conspiringly.

“I was absconding from police; some people lodged a false police case against me for robbery.”

“You mean there was a warrant against you?” I was shocked but did not show that.

“Yes, it is alright now, I got information that everything is taken care, it is safe for me to return. I must thank you again for providing shelter.” He picked up his luggage and left .

I was shell-shocked; I sat down in half stupor thinking about the whole affair. I never noticed any unnatural behavior in him during his stay; he did his duty diligently though his cooking was not of Hafiz’s standard. I was uneasy to think that he was masquerading as cook in my house when the police was looking out for him. Though he presented me with a story but where was the veracity of what he had said. I had unknowingly given shelter to a law breaker; he could have been a habitual one too though did not do any harm to me or indulge in any illegal activity during his stay with me. For a few weeks after his departure I was tense, waiting for a visit from the local thana. Fortunately nothing like that happened.

Begusarai ,the nearest town was a notorious area, the area was full of antisocial elements, looking back today I realize that it was foolhardy in my part to keep someone in my house about whom I knew nothing. Well that was the time of my bachelorhood; there was a streak of recklessness in me, many a time my seniors cautioned me about my carefree way of life.