TV Repair charges
His smile displayed the happiness he must have felt in his heart! The big buck teeth, which were such a prominent figure on his face, broke through the cordon of his lower lips to express their gratitude. He extended his right hand towards me, grabbed the twenty crisp hundred rupee notes and instantly pocketed the money. Then, mumbling his gratitude towards me and reminding me to call on his services anytime, he walked away.
Gerald Rozario is a peon in the office of a reputed steel company in Calcutta. My acquaintance with him had been during the days when I worked for this steel company. From there developed a bond that I have found difficult to break even after leaving the company and moving on to greener pastures. Gerald had a quality that is so rare in today’s world-he could make people smile at his own expense. His dumb looks, ridiculous pronounciations, his way of walking, everything had a comical characteristic that left people smiling when interacting with him. There has been so many times, when one is riddled with problems at the office and the mood is really low. A small comment by Gerald however, suddenly would lighten the whole atmosphere and compel everyone to forget the momentary sadness and break forth in a smile.
There was something else though that made me really appreciate the spirits of the man. He always considered the office as one big family and every person in the office, irrespective of whether he was the big boss or the boss’ secretary was, according to him, part of this family. When someone asked him for help, he would go out of the way to help him. He was always eager to do any sort of personal work that one of us would request him to do. The tip that awaited him at the end of the job was immaterial to him, he never bothered about that. What mattered was his endeavour to complete the job to the best of his ability. Then there was routine during every Christmas which caused me to develop a soft corner for this man. Every year, during Christmas, he used to get his mother to bake a big fruit cake, which he used to bring to office to distribute to all of us. This gesture of his always touched my heart and I failed to understand the bonding he had developed that made him do this every year.
After joining my new company, I began to slowly lose my contact with my erstwhile colleagues in the old company. People who used to be friendly earlier started avoiding my calls in the fear that they do not leak out any confidential information to me. One of them directly asked me not to ask him any information as it would mean spoiling the relationship between us! Gerald was certainly not one of them. He used to call me at times to check out if I was ok and there was any personal work that needed to be done. He probably was lured by the prospect of a generous tip once the work was done. It always felt good to hear from him, just like a bride probably feels when someone from her maternal home calls her up after a month of her going off to her “sasuraal”, to find out her well-being. Most of the time, he would simply call up to tell us that he was well and then ask me to remember him if there was some work. One time he called me up in the evening in a highly agitated state, telling me excitedly that he had an accident and that he had fallen down! He simply kept on repeating the same thing and it took me a while to find out what exactly had happened and that it wasn’t a very serious issue. One more time, he called up telling me that he was down with a severe cold and that the doctor had prescribed many medicines. He wanted to come down and show me the prescription, which he did despite my telling him that it would make no sense to me. I gave him some money to buy the medicines. It always felt good as Gerald probably acted like an umbilical chord, binding me to the old environment where I had spent 5 glorious years.
This time, the request that came from Gerald was a little extra-ordinary and I was definitely not prepared for the same. He called me one morning starting with the usual exclamation of “Sir, Aami bhalo aachi! (Sir, am well). It was when I asked him about the reason for his call that he started talking about his dead television! During one of the typical Norwester storms in Calcutta, his television had probably been affected in some way by the lightning! As a result, he indicated, life had ceased to have meaning for him after that. He did not have Priety Zinta for company inside the confines of his small room and neither could he watch the T20 cricket matches that were due to start soon. So life had become a bit of a bore for this man and he was desperate to seek my help. His meagre salary was in no way suitable to allow him to spend the amount that was needed to repair the old TV. The repair charges were almost equal to one month of his salary!
The reality hit hard. Here was a person who did not even have enough to spend on getting his old TV repaired. In contrast, we spend money on replacing our old TV with a new one just to be in touch with the latest trends!
Gerald Rozario is a peon in the office of a reputed steel company in Calcutta. My acquaintance with him had been during the days when I worked for this steel company. From there developed a bond that I have found difficult to break even after leaving the company and moving on to greener pastures. Gerald had a quality that is so rare in today’s world-he could make people smile at his own expense. His dumb looks, ridiculous pronounciations, his way of walking, everything had a comical characteristic that left people smiling when interacting with him. There has been so many times, when one is riddled with problems at the office and the mood is really low. A small comment by Gerald however, suddenly would lighten the whole atmosphere and compel everyone to forget the momentary sadness and break forth in a smile.
There was something else though that made me really appreciate the spirits of the man. He always considered the office as one big family and every person in the office, irrespective of whether he was the big boss or the boss’ secretary was, according to him, part of this family. When someone asked him for help, he would go out of the way to help him. He was always eager to do any sort of personal work that one of us would request him to do. The tip that awaited him at the end of the job was immaterial to him, he never bothered about that. What mattered was his endeavour to complete the job to the best of his ability. Then there was routine during every Christmas which caused me to develop a soft corner for this man. Every year, during Christmas, he used to get his mother to bake a big fruit cake, which he used to bring to office to distribute to all of us. This gesture of his always touched my heart and I failed to understand the bonding he had developed that made him do this every year.
After joining my new company, I began to slowly lose my contact with my erstwhile colleagues in the old company. People who used to be friendly earlier started avoiding my calls in the fear that they do not leak out any confidential information to me. One of them directly asked me not to ask him any information as it would mean spoiling the relationship between us! Gerald was certainly not one of them. He used to call me at times to check out if I was ok and there was any personal work that needed to be done. He probably was lured by the prospect of a generous tip once the work was done. It always felt good to hear from him, just like a bride probably feels when someone from her maternal home calls her up after a month of her going off to her “sasuraal”, to find out her well-being. Most of the time, he would simply call up to tell us that he was well and then ask me to remember him if there was some work. One time he called me up in the evening in a highly agitated state, telling me excitedly that he had an accident and that he had fallen down! He simply kept on repeating the same thing and it took me a while to find out what exactly had happened and that it wasn’t a very serious issue. One more time, he called up telling me that he was down with a severe cold and that the doctor had prescribed many medicines. He wanted to come down and show me the prescription, which he did despite my telling him that it would make no sense to me. I gave him some money to buy the medicines. It always felt good as Gerald probably acted like an umbilical chord, binding me to the old environment where I had spent 5 glorious years.
This time, the request that came from Gerald was a little extra-ordinary and I was definitely not prepared for the same. He called me one morning starting with the usual exclamation of “Sir, Aami bhalo aachi! (Sir, am well). It was when I asked him about the reason for his call that he started talking about his dead television! During one of the typical Norwester storms in Calcutta, his television had probably been affected in some way by the lightning! As a result, he indicated, life had ceased to have meaning for him after that. He did not have Priety Zinta for company inside the confines of his small room and neither could he watch the T20 cricket matches that were due to start soon. So life had become a bit of a bore for this man and he was desperate to seek my help. His meagre salary was in no way suitable to allow him to spend the amount that was needed to repair the old TV. The repair charges were almost equal to one month of his salary!
The reality hit hard. Here was a person who did not even have enough to spend on getting his old TV repaired. In contrast, we spend money on replacing our old TV with a new one just to be in touch with the latest trends!
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