The man who loved his work

Here is the eighth unforgettable character in my life …

The other day he came over to invite my family and me for his house warming ceremony. I was surprised because we never were on such intimate terms – but we went. It was an impressive building – complete with the latest gadgets that one could think of. He proudly took the visitors around showing off his acquisitions – his son is an Engineer settled abroad. He had also contributed his bit to this wonderful asset. A couple of months later, he invited us to the opening ceremony of his restaurant – ‘dine vegetarian in air conditioned comfort’ was his punch line. We dropped in and were once again impressed with his thinking process. He really had it in him to put his thoughts into action.

There was a time when his wife would sell packed groundnuts to make money on the side – he would bring home five kilograms of groundnuts, she would fry them and put them in pouches that he would sell to the shopkeepers. He was also a penciller who took bets on card games (‘satta’) – the numbers would be declared at nine every night and he would encash his earnings on a daily basis. On top of that, he was fortunate enough to have a boss who could be influenced with a bottle of liquor – he took advantage of this and got his promotions in good time.
He recently had his cataract operated, and he has a limp from an accident. He certainly was a successful man traveling in his air conditioned car, but he passed away – to a heart attack.
I knew his father. The gentleman had sired a number of children and my friend was the eldest. With so many mouths to feed, the old man had a tough time. The children grew up independently and, right from the school days, they had aggression written all over them. It was said that when the old man traveled to Calcutta, he would never purchase tickets for all members and he never got caught by the TTE in the train or even at Howrah – in the train, he would ask the members to disperse at the sight of the TTE; at Howrah, he would come out of the station by making use of the broken fences. After retirement, he set up a tiny shop where he would repair various types of domestic appliances like pressure cookers, petromaxes and primus stoves. He would even take up bicycles for repairs, if required.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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