I thought I would make a telephone call to Gopal. It had been a long time since I had
talked to him. I called his number; it rang a number of times but there was no
response. Two days later, I tried once again, with the same result. A week
later, I attempted a third time. As no one picked up the phone this time as
well, I decided to go down and meet Gopal at his residence. When I reached and
rang the calling bell, Sandeep, the youngest son of Gopal, opened the front
door. “Is your father at home?” I asked, soon after entering the house. He gave
me a strange look. “You don’t know? Father expired two months back. We had
given information about it in two leading newspapers.” I was shocked to hear that. I had been out of
station around that time and had somehow not heard about it.
Gopal’s wife
walked in and joined in the conversation. They seemed to be very matter of fact
about the whole thing. As the discussion progressed, Sandeep said, “Father
never bothered about anything, except about his own needs. He wanted to eat and
sleep well, particularly looking forward to the non-vegetarian preparations at
the week end.” I was surprised to hear that. After all, he had as the sole breadwinner brought up four children. Sandeep dismissed my
observation on these lines with a smile “I know dad’s friends think a hell of a
lot of him. For us, he was nothing special. You should see the amount of
financial and other support parents give their children. Uncle, I know you
would have done a lot for your children!”
I was a
little embarrassed. I could not claim to have done anything extraordinary for
my two sons except provide the normal sound education. Not wanting to listen
more of such talk, I hurriedly took leave. “Keep visiting uncle” called out
Sandeep as I stepped on to the street. In my mind though, I kind of knew that
this would be my last visit to this place, given the fact that my friend no
longer lived there. As I trudged along on the street pensively, memories came
flooding into my mind, of our association and the various activities that we
had engaged in together over the years…. Memory of the last time I had met
Gopal came rushing in like a flash. His
face had been troubled; he wanted to tell me something, but was holding himself
back. I had encouraged and cajoled him to speak. Yet when Gopal completed his
tale, I did not know what to say.
Gopal had been a colleague in a previous
company and had retired 8 years ago. We were meeting after a long time. He had
seen many ups and downs in a working career of over 35 years. He started as a
clerk, worked his way up and was a manager at the time of retirement. During
this period, in the home front he focused completely on the education &
wellbeing of his four children. He had the satisfaction of seeing all the four
doing well, three of them boys, engineers and the girl a dentist. After retirement,
he was living with one of the sons in Chennai, the others working in other
parts of the country. His earning was a monthly pension under the company's
pension scheme.
Gopal had
shared with me about the small, little ways his son was seemingly humiliating
him.... A diabetic, he needs to go for periodic checkups. Recently, his son
accompanied him but soon disappeared at the hospital. The consultation fee was
to be paid at the cash counter before meeting the doctor. He searched for his
son, Sanjeev but he was nowhere near the counter at the reception. He later
found him standing in a corner far away and had to request him to pay the fee.
When he
finally met the doctor, he advised him to take three dozes of an injection to
avoid kidney complications. Each of the doze would cost Rs 1500/. Sanjeev said
he would cross check with other hospitals & confirm whether this procedure
was absolutely necessary and whether a less expensive medicinal doze was
available. He had a doubt that the doctor was suggesting unnecessary procedures.
Now, one and half months had passed and still there was no sign of Sanjeev
taking him for the injection. Gopal had reminded him 3 to 4 times but he didn’t
seem to pay attention. Now he didn’t know what to do. His eldest son was coming
from Kolkata next week. Perhaps he should tell him of his plight and seek his
help...
As he was
sharing with me his problems & feelings, Gopal's voice broke a number of times.
“You know," he told me "This Sanjeev was an introvert, could not
speak English well and lacked in self-confidence. I went and fought &
cajoled a premier college in the city to accept him. I had also arranged
private tuitions in the subjects he was weak. Today he has blossomed in to a
very confident young man. He is earning a handsome salary in a software company.
He has a wife & a little girl who is going to play school. He has no other
commitments. Yet, he is reluctant to help me in times of need...."As mentioned
earlier, I did not know what to tell Gopal or how to console him... I mumbled
something like "It is sad. Children should show more care..." I had waved to Gopal and moved on with a heavy heart.
Now as I walked further away from Gopal's residence, the same thoughts came to my mind. "Today's employee is tomorrow's retired employee. I wonder what fate awaits me in a couple of years...."
