Real life story ” The Visiting Card ” By Mahavir Jagdev

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Real life story ” The Visiting Card ” 

 

The Visiting Card

{ Mahavir Jagdev  } Perched high up in the sky, with a coal fired heating kiln in hand, Gopal was fixing the rivets on the trusses of the upcoming Howrah bridge over Hoogly river in Calcutta in the early 20th century. Working from sunrise to sunset he earned less than a Rupee in wages, but he had no option. No home to run back to and no mother’s welcoming arms to fall back into. At fourteen years of age he had run away from his village in Punjab due to the constant beatings of his step-mother. Weak and starved, he was forced to work as a menial labour with a contractor in Calcutta. To over come his handicap of a frail physique he exercised at night to build up his strength and stamina. But the hard manual work proved too much for the young boy to handle and one day he fell off the bridge structure and fainted, he was sacked by the contractor there after.

With no money in his pocket, the young Gopal boarded a train to Rangoon in Burma without ticket, but with hope. It was a long and arduous train journey through dense forests and undulating hilly terrain. The mosquito bites began taking their toll on the passengers, Gopal was not spared. A few days into the journey, he was down with malaria. Running high fever and his body shivering, the young unconscious boy was off loaded by the ticket checker at a railway platform at Lashio, short of Rangoon. That is the condition “Ayee” found him in and took him to her small room near the railway station.

Ayee had a tea stall at the railway station. Her husband who was a railway employee had died a few years ago. The railways had allowed her to run the tea shop. It was enough for her sustenance. The beautiful Burmese woman was thirty years of age, she had no children from her marriage. Ayee nursed Gopal for a few weeks till he recovered. A month’s stay with her and Gopal had got used to her care and warmth. With no where else to go, he stayed on and helped her run the small errands in the shop. The days turned into months and years and he just couldn’t move on. By then, the young boy had grown into a fine man “Gopal Singh”. One day Ayee proposed marriage to him. It was a dream come true and he thought his good times had started.

The Rangoon Express stopped at Lashio station once a week at mid-night. That was the time Gopal got busy serving tea and snacks to the weary passengers. He did so more with a sense of dedication and a thanks giving attitude, than the sheer urge to earn money. It was one stormy night when the train steamed into the railway station, Gopal was ready with his kettle of steaming hot tea and snacks to serve the passengers. He spotted an elegantly dressed up English gentleman frantically shouting for help. Moving towards to the first class compartment, he found a young white lady writhing in pain, she was in labour. Gopal helped the English man and lady shift to the railway station waiting room. Ayee arranged for a doctor to attend to the lady, she delivered a healthy boy. After a few days stay in Lashio the English man and his wife were off to Rangoon. The white man wanted to pay Gopal and Ayee for their help and services, but they refused to take any money. When the train was about to leave, the English man handed over his visiting card saying “If at any time in your life you need help, I will be there for you. I will never forget you Gopal”. …. the name on the visiting car read “Sir Edward Baldwin”…. he was the owner of one of the largest silver mines in the world ….. Baldwin Silver Mines, Namtu, Burma.

Gopal’s happy married life did not last for long. The insect ridden village took it’s toll on Ayee and she was down with malaria. Over the next few months she became very sick and frail and Gopal could not attend to the shop, which ultimately shut down. Gopal felt that he had returned to where from he started in life … perched high up on the Howrah bridge hammering the rivets. He and Ayee took the Rangoon Express. Their only possessions were a few clothes and the visiting card.

It was a large imposing structure in Rangoon where the rickshaw pulled up to. The security guard did not let them in. Gopal took out the visiting card and handed it over to the guard asking him to pass it on to the concerned person. Within a few minutes Sir Baldwin came and took the couple inside his wood panelled office. Sir Baldwin was as compassionate as he was when he left the Lashio station many a years ago. After listening to their story, he called for his assistant and did some talking. The next day Gopal and Ayee were off to the mining town of Namtu. Gopal was trained to be a civil contractor for the company. There was no looking back after that day. Sir Baldwin had kept his promise.

Over the years as the business grew, Gopal Singh’s work force increased to over three thousand employees. He had become one of the leading contractors for Baldwin Silver Mines. They moved into a new house. Ayee never fully recovered from her sickness and could not bear him a child. It was a lonely life for both, though he never expressed it, but she could feel his yearning for children and a large family, a home away from home. This was his one desire which she could not fulfil. It was a Sunday morning when he found her dead in her bed, it was his loneliest hour. He came to immerse her ashes at Kiratpur Sahib in Punjab. Destiny had played it’s role.

Gopal Singh arrived in his village on a well decorated tonga, it had been nearly twenty years since he had left his village and no one recognised him. His father had passed away, so had his step mother, the step brothers and sisters had not heard of him. He felt lonely in the village. Life had just passed by him and he felt aloof. It was during these weak moments that he agreed to marry a girl from the village. Over the years she gave birth to six children, the lonely house at Namtu had finally become a home. With his growing prosperity and family, Gopal built a few new houses in the street for his children. Out of affection and respect the locals addressed him as “Gopal Singh, King of Namtu”. Life had come a full circle and he was a very happy and contented man. Then in the second world war started. The Japanese plundered Burma and within months after they entered the war in 1942, Japanese troops had advanced on Rangoon and the British administration had collapsed. The locals were also fighting for the Japanese. Baldwin Silver Mines was an easy target and Gopal Singh could sense the doom looming once again over his fortunes. By January, 1948 Burma had gained independence from Britain, but it was a devastated country. Gopal Singh relocated to his daughter’s house in New Delhi, empty handed.

The last time I saw him was at a hospital in New Delhi. His kidneys had failed and he knew his time was up. He had the look of a lost man but with a shimmering glow on his face, a person who had experienced life to the fullest. As I was leaving the hospital room, holding his hands up in the air he said  “Gopal Singh khali haath aya thaa aur khali haath jaa raha hai”. His eyes closed for a moment and he was again high up on the Howrah bridge, fixing the rivets on the trusses and Sir Baldwin appeared and handed him over his visiting card for the world beyond.

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Mahavir JagdevMahavir Jagdev

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Mahavir Jagdev is an Electrical engineering graduate from IIT-Kharagpur. Having travelled extensively during his corporate career and later in his export business. Writes real life experiences about life in general as he experienced it during his thirty years of travel.

 

Disclaimer : The views expressed by the author in this feature are entirely his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of INVC. 

 

 

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