'TYAKTA LAJJA SUKHEE BHAWET'. I recall an event of the year 1990. Vimaljee was five, Dipu seven and Nilu nine year old. I was living in a rented house at Punaichak. The landlord was a fine person. He had one son Gopal and three daughters. Like his name, Gopal was very popular and simple boy. He respected me too much. When I came to Patna for the first time to live, I stayed with Barunjee in 1990 January at Hanumannagar. I wanted a rented house near secretariat where I was then posted. Ashokjee was then living at Punaichak. He was also posted in secretariat. He was with his mother, two brothers and two sisters. I stayed the night with him to see a house for rent at Punaichak. Next morning Ashokjee and I went to meet Satyadeo Babu to take his house on rent. The house was vacated by Er. R.C. Chaudhary who had gone to Birpur to join Road Subdivision. There was one famous J.E., in that subdivision, without writing about whom the article will be incomplete. He was a veteran man. The SDO and EE were in his feast. He used to visit local leaders daily and got advantage of the nearness with them. Due to him, Chaudharyjee’s charge became late. He propagated false cast politics against him.
When we went to Satyadeo Babu, he was out of station. Gopal and his cousin were there. His mother was behind the curtain. I was in need and he was also in search of a tenant. I accepted the rent. I called Aditya, my 2nd brother in law who was residing at Makhaniya Kuan. He was doing postgraduate course in Maithili from Patna University. Professor Amresh Pathak was his head. My family (wife and three sons) was at Birpur at that time. Gopal gave one cot and Aditya brought another from his old lodge. After some months, all materials were brought from Birpur. Wife and children had already come to Karmauli a few days before. They came to Patna just after the materials were brought.
Gopal was very noble and egoless. Though he was landlord’s son, he with his cousin Uday did the whole painting work of the house. I was amazed to see his hard work like a labour. He taught that one should not be ashamed in doing one's work. I remember Gandhi’s work at Johannesburg. In Gandhi’s ashram so many renowned persons were living. Everyone was allotted a piece of land. They were producing some types of crops for their food. There was no toilet and everyone collected the night soil in a pot and disposed it in the morning. The new comers didn't know the rule and Gandhijee himself did the same. But Baa didn't allow Bapu and took the duty. Once Baa's face language was not normal while disposing the same. Gandhijee didn't tolerate it and caught her hair and dragged. While writing his atma-katha he wrote the event and repented. Everybody should do some physical labour; whether he is great scholar, no matter. Mental and physical works should be done side by side. In the present context, when people have become more conscious towards their health, it is too much remarkable. Every intellectual should remember Gandhi’s lesson. I recall my Ranchi period. I and my friend Surendra Prasad lived together at Doranda. This is the period of my first joining at Ranchi. My office was in the barrack just before combined office building. Surendra was in another office adjacent to my office. We met the next day of joining and became familiar. I had taken a two-roomed flat on rent. Surendra was staying with a distant relative. He enquired me about my residence and showed his will to live together. I was also searching a partner. The rent was a bit more which I thought heavy according to my income. More over it was a two-roomed flat and only one room was sufficient for a bachelor like me. I gave another room to surendra. We started self-cooking. There was problem of water in the flat. There was a water-tape on the road before my house. There was no force of water and a big crowd always gathered there. We started taking water from a coolie who brought some buckets of water for us from a nearby well and we paid fifty paisa for each bucket. Sometimes the coolie became absent. We were then very troubled. Anyhow, we brought one-bucket water from roadside tape and did essential works. There was a hotel in the nearby market where we took breakfast and lunch. The hotel owner was very obedient. He became pleased to see us because we were spending more on our meals. Those days Chandramohan was a PG Teacher in the Central School at Ramgarh Cantonment and was also doing PHD under a Ranchi University professor. He came to me very often when he came to Ranchi and stayed with us. He is a man of the land and has no ego and complex. He felt the problem. He went to the well, took bath there and brought two-bucket water for me. This was height of demoralizing and I also started to go to the well for water purpose. Thus, my water problem was solved and my ego decreased a little bit.
No comments:
Post a Comment