Swargarohan

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Swaragarohan

1965: IIT KGP

It was the first weekend of my joining Gokhale Hall as a young teacher...all of 21 years...in a single room with a single cot and a single table and a single chair, and a single bathroom shared by a dozen rowdies.

There was this gentle knock on the door and a lad my age and build entered.

"Dhobi sir!"

"Name?"

"Mithai Lal sir!"

"Where do you live?"

"Dhobi Ghat sir!"

And he took my wash and returned it the next Saturday...and the next Saturday...and the next Saturday...for the next 40 years till I retired from a palatial 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom, 2-balcony flat.

Acquiring a wife and a son in the mean time.

Mithai Lal remained gentle as he aged along with me.

He was the sole literate, non-smoking, non-drinking gent in the sprawling Dhobi Ghat community housing about 200 related families from Bihar...Mithai Lal, Rasoi Lal, Kanhai Lal et al.

So he soon became the favorite of the perennial local MLA, Gyan Singh Sohan Pal, who used to regularly visit the Dhobi Ghat to solve their problems for votes.

...A decade from our first meeting, Mithai Lal brought his infant son:

"Name?"

"Vinod sir"

"Not Vinod Lal?"

"No sir!"...with a gentle smile...

...And soon thereafter:

"Sir! I got a job as khalasi in the Railways sir!"

"How come?"

"Sardarji helped sir!"

...Another decade later:

"My son got a job as helper in the DRM's office sir!"

"How come?"

"Sardarji helped sir!"

...And thereafter:

"My young D-i-L got a job as Hindi teacher in the Railway School sir!"

"How come?"

"Sardarji helped sir!"

...Another decade later:

"We built our own house in Jhapatapur sir"

"Sardarji helped?"

"Yes sir!"

...Another decade later he was in my flat the day I was leaving KGP:

"When will you retire, Mithai Lal?"

"Another 15 years sir :)"

"Sardarji helped?"

"Yes sir"

And then he fell on my feet. 

I lifted and embraced him.

And smelt Ethyl Alcohol...

:)

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