First 'paid' leave after 13 months

It is 11.30pm. We are sitting on the edges of a slope staring into the dark chasm in front of us. Bunty rubbed his eyes with his hands and said he got to go as he had to get up early to start work the next morning. I had forgotten that time had flown away while listening to his stories.

This story is about the first leave one gets after joining a job. When I joined Times of India, I was told that I would not get any holidays for the first year. There would be 7 leaves only which were medical leaves. I could take a paid leave where my salary would be cut for every day I didn’t come to work and which generally never went down well with the bosses. At that time, I had felt it was sheer injustice of the system. How could they take away my right to visit my home (for which I needed a leave)? I thought. But listening to the story of Bunty made me realize how, like me, there are millions others who wanted to go back to their home but couldn’t, just because their job didn’t permit them to.   

Buntoo Singh Ranawat a.k.a Bunty lives 1500 miles away from his village Prakya, which is in the Pali district of Rajasthan. He works in a grocery shop where his day starts at 10am and ends at 10.30pm at night. He never knew his Fate would lead him here as he had always wanted to go to college after passing out of school. But his destiny was being written by someone else.  

Bunty does not regret his Fate though. He is happy that he can send money back to his family with whom he hardly gets to talk once in a week. He stays with his uncle in a basti which has no electricity or water. He joined the store in September of 2009 and will be going back to his village in October 2010. Doesn’t he feel bad to stay away from his parents for such a long time? He gives me a wry smile. Hardships of life give you little chance to choose, I realize.

He remembers Ketlaji ka mandir on top of a hill whose name he doesn’t know. He says a huge Navratri  celebration takes place there. He is planning to go there to see the celebrations this time. I realized then what a great leveler religion is. For Indians, it is a meeting time with friends, relatives and lovers. It is also a moment which helps us forget our sorrows forever.

And what does he remember most about his home? Dal-bati churma, laal maas, dal roti…he bantered on. As my mouth started watering, I got up and looked at Bunty’s eyes. He had that look of a traveler who is eagerly waiting to return back home. I started walking, while Bunty took the first steps towards his journey back home…..

In search of Home

"The smell of kash ful lingering in the air, the calm Rupnarayan river lapping at my feet, the serene picturesque dusk on the banks of the Rupnarayan is what awakens the longing in me to go back home...." said Dilip. Sitting with him over a chai on one of those days when the sun sets right behind our campus, he told me at length about his family and the memories he has been carrying over the years.

Dilip Das hails from Midnapore district of West Bengal where the (in)famous Rupnarayan river flows. It is infamous because it not only provides livelihood to thousands of people living in the adjoining villages but also takes away the same livelihoods when it floods the entire district. The monsoons see a terrifying face of this river which engulfs the villages like a huge dragon. Every year, thousands are rendered homeless because of the flash floods caused by this river whom the villagers worship as a deity.

There is another very interesting significance to the village where he hails from. The name of his village is Nandigram - the very village which went down in recent history as the site of the killings of 14 innocent villagers. He has been there and seen that. But, I didnt want to bring up that sad moment. Rather, I focussed on his memories of motherland and his life full of experiences we can never imagine.

Dilip Das works as a security guard at one of the most prestigious universities of India. He left his daughter, son and wife a couple of years ago in search for a job. His need for a job took him to places he had never thought of - sometimes in such remote places which were literally inaccessible by road.  But he had no other option as he needed money to marry off his daughter and pay for his son's education. On a bare minimum pay, he could not even complain as he could not risk leaving his job.

He first got a job in Nagpur where he served as a guard at a hotel. He had to share rooms with 4 other guys who worked as cooks and sweepers. Having had no other option, he continued for one year till he got a job for looking after a medicine shop at night. It was a winter when he was deported to look after a medicine shop in a village which was in the interior of Chandrapur district. The nights were chilling and there was fear of dacoits, he recalls. One day, he had to face the worse when he was made to stand at gun point and the shop was robbed. He knew his job would be taken away but somehow Lady Luck was on his side. After some months, when he did leave the job, he felt that that experience had taught him the value of conviction and commitment to one's goal. He says now that the one thought that lingered in his mind was that if he gave up the job, he would not be able to run his family. So, he faced all the humiliations and decided to stay on.

Listening to his travails in the hope of getting a proper-paying job, I could not but marvel at the spirit he had carried with himself all this time long. When I look at ourselves wanting a job in Mumbai or Delhi or some metropolis, I can't but marvel at people like Dilip who accepts whichever place he has to work in. I realized the reason behind this after some thought...It was because he was living for his family, while we live for ourselves. We are so much self-engrossed that sometimes we forget to look at those people who are a part our existence....

Summer Internship @ the age of 10!!

Call it "earn while you learn" or "learn while you earn" but the story about Ramesh goes far beyond that. This should be an eye-opener for most of us who are desperately searching for Summer Internships with the best companies across the country. Ramesh gave me an entirely new perspective of looking @ Summer Internships making me realize that SIPs are not just for us but for many people jo rozi-roti kama ne keliye kaam karta hein.

Hailing from the Kuchch village of Gujarat, this 10-yr-old kid came over to his brother's stationery shop to learn the tricks of the trade.He tells me his vacations are going on, the reason for which he came here. Ramesh studies in Jain Boarding School which is in the adjoining village. His parents live in the neighbouring village a few kilometres away.

What does Ramesh do in a day? He photocopies study materials, sells pen and other stationeries and is learning to make presentation files. He loves playing cricket and misses his friends back in his school. Doesn't he miss his parents? He looks down. After some time, he says he does not feel their loss so much as his brother takes care of him. He fondly remembers the time he went to a temple with his brother during Ganesh Chaturthi.

Ramesh's entire day veers around his brother's shop. He observes students who come to the shop and fondly nurtures a dream of going to college some day. I ask him what he wants to study. He has no clue. He could barely imagine what a college is like but weaves his dreams through the characters he encounters. He loves to study English. Though he cannot write the words properly, he dreams of becoming fluent in the subject when he grows up.

I ask him what does he want to become in life. He becomes speechless. His eyes wander off to the far off horizon as if they have gone out in search of answers and he is waiting for them to come back. I realize how futile this is to ask someone who does not know whether he is going to get his next meal properly or not. But still, he smiles at me without giving an answer - a smile that is worth a million words, a smile that assured me  that he will not give up till he finds the answer, a smile that reminds me of him every time I think of him.

That smile made me realize that no matter how many umpteenth problems there are in life, one can face all of them with a smile. An older person would have cribbed about his ill-luck, poverty or inadequate opportunities but Ramesh's smile told me that he is ready to face the uncertainties of his life and go forward towards his imagined goal. As I ponder now, as to how we become so insecure about our careers in spite of having all the facilities in this world, I can't but admire the will and resoluteness of that 10-yr kid who wanted to become something even though he very well knew that he might end up like his brother working in a stationery shop.

As we go into summer internships in the next semester, I can't but fail to laugh at the tantrums we throw with our choice of jobs. Look at Ramesh - he came to work at his brother's shop at an age unimaginable to all of us and for what reason but to learn the trade which might help him earn his two square meals a day in the near future. Maybe he would not even work in such a stationery shop, but still he came to learn the work because for him, work is key to survival. For us, it is not. For us, a Summer Internship is a fashionable option. For Ramesh(who does not know what Summer Internship means & will never know), it is a necessity...

Fear a Job Change?? Meet Raju

Is it only the bosses at the top rung of the corporate chain who can willingly leave one job and go for another even if his former job pays him more than Rs 5 lacs per month? Is the power of choice given in the hands of a privileged few?

Don't you feel the same, especially when you don't like your job anymore and want to move on to a better job except for the fact that you are skeptical about not getting the job? Such freedom of using your will power is generally thought to be the possession of a handful few, but it is, in reality, not the case....The story of Raju is one such example of the freedom to use one's WILL.

Remember, when recession struck in Nov 2008, how many people went jobless? Final Year students did not get Job Offer letters even though 'campusing' was way over. Each one of you were trembling to the core as to whether there would be any jobs after all. At that precise moment, there was someone who gave a damn to the world and carried on his job quietly - without the fear of being thrown out. Guess why? He was his own master. The name of that "someone" is Raju.

Raju belongs to that "rare breed" of people who work in order to see another day. He is not like you and me who work because of a "social" obligation or "job satisfaction". Try explaining these people the meaning of "job satisfaction", and you will realize how inconsequential these two words are. These people can show you how they can get "job satisfaction" in any job they do, no matter how small they are to people like us. For people like Raju, "job satisfaction" means to get the minimum amount of money so that his family can have two square meals a day. For us, "job satisfaction" is a "show-off" - we don't realize the significance of these two words when we utter them.

Raju came to Mumbai 11 years ago to fulfil his dreams. "Mein apna bizness chalana chahta tha," Raju said. He failed miserably. For three years, he struggled to set up a small business but to no avail. It was then that he moved to Pune. "Mein tab 17 saal ka tha. Mein ghar-bari chor ke chala aya tha kaam dhundte-dhundte," Raju uttered in between his yellow-tainted teeth. Raju hails from Baishali jila of Bihar, where his mother and father stay. His current address is J.M. Road where he sells coconut water to the thirsty shoppers as well as non-shoppers.

Cradled on a cart made of rectangular wooden planks are piles of green tender coconut which are the day's freshest catch. This cradle is his office-cum-shop-cum-LIFE. Ever since he came to Pune, he has been selling coconut water to customers on J.M. Road, sometimes though he shifts to Karve Road once in a while. From 11 in the morning to 10 at night, he stays there with his thella (cart) and serves tender coconut water by slicing off the upper skin with a thick blade knife - with such a force that it would seem he can sear off a person's head in no time at all!

Having worked as the "CEO" of his coconut selling shop for the past eight years, he is now tired and wants to move on. His main grievance is that the people of the city are no more the same as before. He is "dissatisfied" with the way the city treats him and wishes to go someplace else where he will get better and more customers. In our terms, "he is looking for a better market."

But isn't he apprehensive of starting all over again in a new city, I ask him. He shakes his head vehemently to show how much he disagrees to my point of view. "Mein jab Bihar chora tha, mera kya kuch tha? Agar mein uss samay khara ho saka, mein aj bhi woh kar sakunga. Samay se kuch farak nehi parta hein mujhe. Mein apne aap pe bharosa karta hoon."  I gave a wry smile to him, implying that I know how far you can go. But his next action threw away my confidence.

He gave a broad smile and extended his right palm. My right hand automatically reached him and clasped his palm (without my realization)..... I knew I had met a winner - someone who does not believe in the economics of this world and lives the way he wants to, someone who does not fear FATE 'coz he believes in himself. My heart melted. I gave him a hug.

An-'other' India

Pintoo is 11 years old. His gaon is in Bihar. For the past two years, he has been living in "Poona". He sells moomfali(peanuts) in front of KFC in the Deccan area. He has four types of moomfali - a red coloured one, a green coloured one, a masala one and a non-masala one. He has no parents. Everyday, he stands in front of KFC from 10 in the morning till 10 at night. When there are no customers, he spends his time observing people and occasionally working as a parking lot boy who looks after the bikes.

Such people constitute the 'other' India - the India without which our life would lose all its colors. Their existence fills up those small gaps in our lives which are left over from our daily hectic schedules. They fill those 2-3 mins of break we get when we are going from one shop to the other or when we are waiting for someone or when we merely want to do something just because we don't have anything to do.

This Blog aims to look at the life of these 'other' Indians through whom the pulmonary arteries of our lives run. They are the ones who actually provide us with the breathing space (and time) which has become such a great necessity nowadays. This Blog will also look at such types of small businesses run by these Indians which fulfill some basic needs which the big corporates or the shops in your locality can not. These people include the moomfali wallas(people who sell peanuts) like Pintoo, pani puri wallas(people who sell an Indian on-the-go snack called "pani puri"), istiri wallas(people who wash and iron other people's clothes), nariyel paani wallas(people who sell tender coconut water), parking lot boys, boot polish wallas etc. Every article will focus on the life and business of a particular type of people, which are based on my explorations of the cities of India.

India-Bottoms Up! reveals the soft underbelly of the Indian society which comprises of those people who add a dash of color and hope to our lives - who fill up those quintessential moments which help make our life a complete whole and whose stories remain untold to the outside world. They are like those varied moomfalis who get lost under the gloss-and-glamour of the KFCs & McDees but remain an inseparable part of our life...