Full time Employment-II

Fulltime Employment- Part-2

I was among the new staff, joined in the first quarter of 1970.The others were:

K.R.Kutty General Stores
Madavan Nayak Tin sheet stores
Parthasarathy Administration

I was staying at Gandhi Nagar in 1970. This colony was 4 KM from the factory. I was not entitled for transport facility. So I was walking to factory or taking a cycle rickshaw to reach my place of work well before 9AM.

K.R.kutty and Madavan Nayak were staying in a village – Sihani by name- 2 KM from the factory. They also came to work the same was as I did. Their lad lord was one Mr.Thyagi (surname). He was an agriculturist and also maintained scores of buffalos for milk.
Thyagi, always milked the buffalos by 5AM in the morning. He made it a point to spare half a liter of milk for the use by my friends Kutty and Nayak.

On Sundays, I visited them and we spend the day cooking, eating and passing time by discussing familiar matters of the week. We never discussed politics or anything about individuals in the factory. Most of the time, we were wondering about our future in Ghaziabad as the conditions were not very bright. The only positive aspect of our employment was – we worked for a reputed company who paid wages at par with Tatas and Birlas then.

After few months at work, I was entrusted with weekly Maintenance jobs- to done on Sundays when the factory was closed for production.
Those who attended work were entitled for half days salary and a fully paid compensatory day off within that week. Maintenance and stores staff attended work on Sundays. So, we three (Kutty,Nayak and self) were always in the factory

Seeing my plight for attending to work, a fellow staff Mr.Anil spared his bi-cycle (He was entitled for factory transport) for me to use till I became eligible for transport.

My day off was always on a working day for others. It helped me in doing my jobs like going to Bank, Post office etc; I also visited Delhi on working days at times, though I could meet people only in their offices and not in their homes.

In my anxiety to learn everything, about Delhi, I made frequent visits covering many places and houses of relatives. I made myself familiar with the geographical conditions and bus routes (Delhi Transport Corporation) On public holidays, I could avail a concession bus ticket for Re.1 for traveling in all routes as many times as possible on that day. This encouraged me to discover many routes from Palam Airport to Shadhra.

On most Sundays, my uncle went to Delhi to meet his friends living in many parts of the city. He visited them on rotation, as it was very difficult to cover all places within the day.

On one Sunday, I went out to buy some vegetables from the nearby vendor. I went to the shop accompanied by another friend, who came for lunch on that day. On that particular day, my regular vendor’s shop was found closed. So, to find if any other shop was open in the neighborhood, I started enquiring with people having other shops in the same lane.

While walking, I accidentally touched a set up displayed along the street. This apparently, belonged to a sweet shop whose owner, also sold poori-baji regularly. Being a U.P Brahmin, he performed rituals before opening the shop or set his oven on fire.

The item I was holding was the brim of his large copper pot with about 50 liters of water. Seeing me holding that, he yelled at the top of his voice, abusing me and accusing me in local dialects of Hindi language. I did not understand a word, but realized something was wrong. Then my friend stepped in and clarified what was his problem with me. The owner yelled, and said that I have polluted his holy water, kept for pooja. He had already purified, and offered that water and was about to start the final ritual. My friend explained to him that I was new to the area and just came from madras and added that I too was Brahmin. On hearing this, the old man said that all madrasis are CHAMARS – meaning all persons from madras are the most backward people. After that he retired to his shop for replacing everything.

The greatest end result was that I became his regular customer in the following months, and at one point I clarified if any one had upset him some time ago, and narrated the incident. Believe me he could not recollect the incident, and could not recognize me either. He regretted that he spoke in haste which he should have avoided in the first place.
I often made it a point to say halo to him whenever I passed by his shop. Our friendship was a very good one. I shifted to (Raj Nagar) a far of colony close to my place of work, in the subsequent years and could not visit him as before. Many years later, I learned that he passed away.



To be continued ----------


Sivasubramaniam
09-09-09