BENEVOLENT MARWADI !

‘Food, tea and salary’! I was extremely happy! Since there was no one that I should go at Rawali Camp Koliwada house either to consult or to obtain approval, I conveyed my consent to the hotel owner and got busy with the hotel job. The hotel owner told me that I could sleep on the plank kept near the maindoor of the hotel when it was closed. So when the working time was over, I went to the gate of the mill and told about my job to Mr. K.J. Sawdekar who too looked relieved.

In fact every miserable moment, bad event or seemingly insurmountable difficulties, every time it strengthened my confidence and endurance. It stimulated vigorously my ambition to become a big man – truly not yet knowing what it meant – and it cemented my determination to overcome the poverty. I certainly knew one thing. overcoming poverty meant stopping the starvation of my family.

I was happy that elimination of starvation began from me, with the job in the hotel. There were two more boys in the hotel. We would get up early in the morning at about 3:30 AM, wash the entire hotel floor, clean all the utensils, arrange cups and saucers, plates and prepare some common recipes. Tea was to be made available any time for the mill’s shift workers.

Owner of the hotel was a Marwadi (people from the Marwad region of Rajasthan State were generally known as Marwadi). A thin and a short man, having wheatish complexion, with long black moustaches, soft spoken and thorough gentleman. He would bring a number of edible items prepared at his home for sale in the hotel. He was very punctual and was present at 8 AM in the morning. There was a small hillock not far off from the mill and hotel where he was staying with his family.

Very often I went in the mill to serve tea and eatables to the mill workers and also colleagues of my cousin. They felt sorry to see me working in the hotel and always advised me to   pursue my education further. Most of them knew that Mr. K.J. was my cousin. I would be minute to minute busy with my hotel work. After a month, I did not know why but my employer told me not to take food in the hotel and asked me to accompany him in the afternoon to his house as he was going daily for his lunch.

One day he took me with him to his house and asked his wife to serve

me food with their two children – might be of 3-4 years old. She served

me and I ate it also but after that I began weeping. When my sobbing receded, the housewife asked me the reason. I simply avoided to answer and kept quite. Fact was I could not resist remembering my mother. After that in spite of my employer’s insistence and kindness I did not go to their house.

One thing I realized that this work would not take me to my destination. My employer was a very kind heated man. So one day I told him the reason I cried at his house and explained my ambitions. In fact he had already increased my salary from Rs. 4/- to Rs. 8/-. I had no other expenses except some money for soap, hair oil etc.  I was depositing my salary amount with him only.

I vividly remembered that it was the month of August and I knew schools were started. Four months were passed I left my village. And this time my family knew that I was in Mumbai and with our cousin which in fact was not a fact. One day seeing in a sad mood my employer asked me to go back and study. He did not stop only advising me. Next day he bought my ticket for Shegaon and gave me my savings. Now he asked me whether I would come to his house and meet his wife and children. He also told me  that she had been fondly remembering me. I went to them and called her Maushi (Maushi means mother’s sister), touched her feet with reverence. She gave me some sweets and blessed by putting her hands on my head. I noticed her eyes were wet. I touched feet of my employer also with deep respect and with heavy heart I left that kindest couple.

I purchased a new trouser and new shirt and now in the new dress with no fear of ticket checker as I was holding proper ticket. By Nagpur train I reached Shegaon. There I purchased some sweets and remembering all good and bad events of Mumbai and then my family members and walked the distance of three miles and reached home with great hope and excitement. But when I saw house locked and it looked deserted, our neighbours told that my mother, brother, his wife and children had gone on construction work at Jalamb where the bridge was being constructed on the river and Raghunath with his wife had gone to his in-law’s village.

Terribly upset and disappointed I walked back to Shegaon immediately and from there by train reached Jalamb which was just next railway station about 10 miles from Shegaon. After making some inquiries hurriedly I reached the construction site. It was nearly evening. I saw my brother Gunaji removing big boulders of stones from the rock and my mother and sister-in-law crushing the stones with hammer. I went just near to my mother. She looked up and for a moment, could not recognize me, probably she saw me in new clothes. But in a fraction of seconds she got up and rushed to me and holding my face in her shrunken thin hands started weeping. My brother and his wife also joined. For me it was joy and sorrow. I was in new dress and they were in torn clothes, looked pale, physically shattered and lifeless. I saw heaps of stones and crushed stones around. They were sleeping nearby in the open, going for the bath in the river water where I saw a railway bridge was being constructed across the river.

I had some money. I gave it to my brother who went to Jalamb and bought some sorghum flour and vegetables. They cooked food in the open as usual and that  first  time probably we took full meal!

Throughout the night my mother did not sleep. They had no idea about my exact where about. They did not know whether I was dead or alive. Only my brother was certain in his mind that I would not do any bad work nor I would commit suicide. If at all I would be in Mumbai in search of a job. “I was sure you will come back”, my mother kept on repeating this in her feeble voice. Every now and then she was touching my forehead, face, back and moving her thick fingers in my hairs. Next two days I did stone crushing with my mother. After a week or so we left for our village as the work was suspended.