Big Boss the humanitarian

S. Perumal

It was about 11 O'clock in the morning hours of a working day in an up country tea estate.

Mr. Rajnath, the senior superintendent of the estate came out of his office and walked smartly up to his car which was parked a few yards away, pulled out the front door, got in, switched on the engine and steered out on the muddy road heading towards the upper region of the estate.

Far away in the same muddy road about 15 boys and girls around 10 to 12 years of age, all children of the estate labour were on the way to their dwellings. They were returning home from the so-called estate school set up by the management.

One of them ran fast along the road as if he was driving a car, making all the sounds, noise and signals while another pelted stones at the roadside trees that shaded tea plants. Another went on performing somersaults to make the others merry.

The car had come closer, the children could hear its noise and one chap shouted, "Oh boy, the periadorai's car is close by. Lets all hide somewhere."

Panic stricken boys and girls hid behind the tea bush on the roadside. Periadorai is a word used by the estate folks to identify the senior superintendent of the estate, meaning the Big Boss. As he wielded enormous powers in the estate he was pictured by the workers as a cruel person to their children to keep them under control.

The car went along the road passing the spot through the thickly grown tea plants like a bird cruising through the clouds and halted at a particular place meant for parking vehicles that loaded tea sacks to be taken to the factory.

Mr. Rajnath alighted and walked meticulously as if counting his steps. Being an ex-military officer his physical build and walking style added more dignity to his personality.

He stopped at the foot of a small rock that stood by the side of the road and climbed to the top of it with his booted legs easily and standing there like a majestic king casting his powerful look around the estate.

It was magnificent sight, the whole area was like a green blanket spread out with the evenly pruned tea plants everywhere.

Naturally, he felt proud of himself, for being the senior superintendent of the vast estate, its management, several assistant superintendents, an office, with several clerical officers, a tea factory producing and exporting high grade variety of tea, tea makers, field conductors, supervisors and thousands of labourers under him.

It has become a practice for Mr. Rajnath to climb that small rock whenever he was on supervision in that part of the estate to have a free and clear look over the estate and the worksites from there.

But Mr. Rajnath was not interested much in the field works that day. He also was not interested in listening to the sweet tunes of the hillside birds, the murmuring of the brooks and the everlasting melodies of the silvery water falls. His thoughts were full with his wife's memory for it was her anniversary and he had conceived an idea to do some compassionate and humanitarian task on that particular day in her respect but he had not decided yet what it should have to be. So he did not stay longer on the top of the rock, climbed down and as he was walking back to his car thoughtfully there was a labourer walking fast towards him. He looked miserable and like a ghost in agony. Meeting the superintendent on the road is a forbidden practice in the estate unless such a thing was pre-arranged. So no worker in his good sense would venture to meet the Big Boss on the estate road like this.

Rajnath was surprised a little to see the man confronting and before he could sort out the situation and stop him from proceeding further the worker - Raman by name - bowed down at his feet prostrating and holding his legs with both hands and begged, "Oh! Sir, I worship you, have mercy, I seek your help to save my poor wife who is suffering from acute labour pains, I have no other means, even the estate lorry has gone out of order, they say......," he went on sobbing.

Raman's intention was revealed in these words but its not the superintendent's duty to lift workers' pregnant wives to hospitals, so Rajnath shook his legs to retrieve them from Raman's grip saying; "Get away you... what are you trying to do.....?"

The man was simply thrown away to the other side of the road like a bag of rubbish.

Mr. Rajnath who was not an uncultured or a ruthless man was only following the code of behaviour left behind by his predecessors who never treated the estate labour as human beings. Some of the traditions left behind them are disregarded by the present gentle folks like Rajnath as such do not go with the country's culture any more.

Mr. Rajnath came from a respectful family and held an honoured position in the society. He carried a very kind heart with a soft corner for the poor but never tried to display them for personal gains.

After kicking away Raman, Mr. Rajnath turned back with an angry frustrated mood to his car when he heard the poor man sobbing again; "She is going to die, sure what can I do, if that is her fate, God only can save....." These words were like spears penetrated Rajnath's heart, for he alone could realise the actual pain the man was undergoing.

Rajnath recollected the circumstances under which his wife Rani met with her death. She was in her advanced state of pregnancy when she was left alone in their bungalow. He had gone on field inspection and the servants also gone home to return in the afternoon. Unfortunately, she had slipped in the bathroom and collapsed, she lay unconscious, when Rajnath turned up she had already passed away without any help forthcoming. That left a life long shock for Mr. Rajnath.

The recollection of that pathetic incident stimulated Mr. Rajnath's conscience with humane feelings. He thought "what is the use of being a human if you cannot help another who is in distress?"

He stepped back as if acting in a spell and without much ado he signalled Raman to get in to the car and drove it towards his line room. Some women there brought out the ailing girl to the car. Raman was there to hold her in. The car then headed fast along the muddy road to the hospital in the town. That was of course a rare phenomenon in the arena of the estate life for the senior superintendent coming to the living quarters of the workers and picking up a worker woman in his car to the hospital had never happened there in the past. This was like a God in heaven descending to save the mankind from a calamity.

Workers; men, women, old, young and children had already gathered in numbers at the place. Everybody was commenting about the episode when an old man of 70 years said, "Great things are taking place. I was born and brought up in the estate and had never seen a Big Boss doing a thing like this to save a worker woman's life. May be it's because the soil, the culture and faiths of the country has moulded him in this way....."

In astonishment and admiration everyone was looking at the old man to utter more in praise of periadorai. When one of the urchins gathered there took off from the place in the same road as if a car would do.

"Purrr...." he said "Get to a side everybody, periadorai's car coming... Puru Puru Puru..." He made all the sounds and signals of the car and dashed away followed by his friends.

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