The Journey Continues

Discussion in 'Religious places & Spiritual people' started by drs3232, Feb 14, 2019.

  1. drs3232

    drs3232 Silver IL'ite

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    Business went well but day by day I noticed that a number of libraries were coming up. Moreover I got distracted by a love affair. I was in love with a girl who was my student. She belonged to our caste. The girl’s family also had knowledge about this but did not oppose this as our family was well known to them. We became very close. You know well, communication being the key factor in love of any period and at any age, what will happen in those olden (golden) days when there was no mobile/SMS, and I had no other way but to use a landline to contact my girl. (I remember gratefully the services of the wife of one of my professors, who also helped me in making the calls, as I did not want the girl’s family to identify me. She would call as a friend of my lover and then hand over the phone to me).

    The doomsday came when my mother went with my girl’s mother for a temple festival in the morning and she was not able to return home even by afternoon. My father came for lunch at that time and found that nobody was in the house to serve him lunch. He got angry and enquired with us later, and found that my mother had gone with my girl’s mother for the temple festival. He went straight to my girl’s house and shouted like anything, pulling the curtain down on our love.

    Even after that I used to talk to her over phone occasionally. One day she told me that their family were planning for her marriage. I told her, “If you are ready, you come out of the house with me and I will take care of you.” I had planned everything in advance and in order, and I informed everything to my eldest brother (Rethnaswamy) who was holding a very high official position in the government of Tamilnadu. He had promised me all help and even made arrangements for our marriage; he had also informed the local police as a precaution.

    The most important day in my life dawned. I was anxiously waiting for my girl to come out of her house; I even got a glimpse of her coming out looking here and there as if she were ready. Time went by, but she never came out. At last I found out that she could not come out as she had been put under house arrest by their people. Everything moved very fast from then onwards. They immediately shifted her to some place which I could not locate. They even shifted their own house so that I should not find her although I tried my level best.

    One day I came to know through one of our family friends that she had got married to a doctor, and the name of her husband was the same as mine!

    One year after her marriage, I got married; but she became a widow as her husband died in a road accident. I remembered the words spoken by her brother when I had informed him about our love. He said, “Man proposes, God disposes.” Yes, it happened just like that!

    I lost my money in the business, my partners deserted me, my own staff deceived me by manipulating the accounts, and I was in debts. My brothers, sisters and my father had a discussion and they settled all my debts from my share of our property, even foregoing a part of their share. I remember that my father, who was a replica of true love and mutual respect, never questioned me

    about anything. I remember the day when I was in my peak period, when he came to my office and asked me, “I need five rupees.” I was shocked to hear this from him, but I knew that he was no more in charge of our studio business and my brother had taken over the business. I never asked him anything. I just opened my cash drawer and said, “Father all that is here is yours, you can take as much as you want.” But he took only five rupees and without saying a word left the place.

    My mother, with whom nobody can compete in the preparing of any type of dishes, now became sick and was in bed. Medical records revealed that she was having cancer. We took her to various hospitals. It was in the eighties when there was not much cure for cancer. She was in her last stage, and hospitals declined to admit her. I had a more affectionate relation with my mother than with anybody else. I started enquiries and found that one of my former customers of the video cassette library, who was a doctor, was a regular visitor in one of the best hospitals of the town. I immediately contacted him, narrated everything, and he arranged for my mother’s admission. The day came when my mother left us forever. When the bill was brought to us and we looked at the bill amount, we could not believe our eyes. My doctor (Dr. Satish Chandran) had collected only a very small amount as the fees. A doctor with ethics and with humanity…

    I was completely upset. I called up my brother and said that I no longer wished to be in Kerala, and to please help me find a job in Tamilnadu. He told me to come to the city of Coimbatore where he was working. My eldest brother was so honest that he was not prepared to go for any recommendations for anybody, even for his own brother. I stayed with him in his quarters with his family. My sister in law (Govindammal) looked after me as her son. I felt very uncomfortable to remain idle in the house all the time. One day I saw an advertisement in which a vacancy for lecturer was announced. I immediately applied for the post and waited for the interview letter. I got it and went for the interview. There were about eighty candidates for one vacancy, but I was very confident as most of them were freshers and I had more than ten years’ experience at that time.

    The interview started and I was called in. One lady who I later understood was the HOD, started firing questions at me. I answered almost all questions correctly. To my surprise, I found that the lady had answers to the questions written on her hand hidden under the table and was verifying the answers. I looked straight at her eyes so that she could not look into the answers and she immediately closed the interview.

    The results were declared, but my name was not there. Again I was not upset. I enquired about the secretary of the college and the location of his house. One fine morning I went straight to his house and introduced myself. He offered me a seat and also a cup of tea. While sipping the cup of tea, casually I asked him, “Sir I am having more than ten years’ experience, and I have answered all the questions asked in the interview. I would like to know the reason why I have not been selected?” His faced showed that he never expected such a question. He said, “See, the Vice Chancellor has recommended his personal driver’s brother for the post, and how can we say no?” I answered, “Sir, why can’t you appoint me as an honorary lecturer? I do not want any salary.” He said, “Ok, let me discuss this in our board and thereafter we shall inform you.”

    After a week I received my appointment order appointing me as an honorary lecturer. Days passed.

    The principal observed my class. After a week he called me and said, “From today onwards you are appointed as a regular lecturer.” From there another mile stone in my career started. I was very strict in the college but passionate and understanding. I was appointed as the NSS Program Officer of the college which gave me a lot of spiritual experience as I used to stay in ashrams with my student volunteers for social work in the local area for about ten days at a time.

    My interest in film making was with me all the time. I started taking short films for the local companies in my spare time, and within a short span of time I became very popular. An idea struck me, and I made a film on the NSS which won me the Vice-Chancellor’s Meritorious Service Award. (The same Vice Chancellor who had recommended his driver’s brother as a candidate against me in the interview).

    In my young age it was my ambition to become a police officer. Naturally I had that in my mind for a long period of time. When one day I saw one of my fellow teachers in police uniform I never wasted a minute. I got all the details from him to become a Traffic Warden in the Tamilnadu Police. I wore the police uniform, and went for training in the PRS grounds. As I already had similar type of training in NCC, I did not find any difficulty in the training. I got a deputation as a Public Relations Officer in the department for a short span of time. This satisfied my ambition to become a police officer. During my service I won the best Public Relations Officer award.

    The college service went well. Our HOD changed and one of my closest friends, a family friend of mine, became the new HOD. This person who was very naive, did not know how to communicate. (This was the same competitor who had competed with me in the interview in the beginning).One day when the department meeting was going on, in the presence of all the staff members he ordered me “You go and switch on my fan”. I felt very much insulted when he said this in front of all the staff members. I decided that one day I have to become a HOD. I started taking efforts through friends and found that there was a vacancy in a new college in a nearby village. Without thinking much about it, I resigned my job. (All my colleagues are still serving in the same college as lecturers).

    I got married while I was working in this college. I felt a little sad when I had to leave the college but I decided that one day I will come back to this college in a higher position. (Yes, I did. Later the University appointed me as a University Representative for the same college for a period of 3 years).

    During this period my father who was a blood pressure patient developed a blood clot in the brain and became paralysed. I remember that day very well; I used to visit Kollam very often and at that time, I was in the house reading a book. When I came out of the room, I noticed that there was no movement in him. The nearby doctor was called in, he examined him and said that he was no more.

    I got the new job as HOD of not one department but three. (Thanks to Prof. Prasad). As an add-on I was also given the Principal in Charge position as I was the senior most. But another lecturer who was looking after this position got irritated and was waiting for a chance to get back at me. One day the students bunked classes and went for a movie - the same situation as I had already handled while I was in Kerala, but here the atmosphere was different. My principal asked me to conduct an enquiry. I conducted the enquiry in my room. Students came in one by one. One girl came in, and while conducting the enquiry, I asked her: “What you are doing? Will you do anything you like?” The words

    were simple, but my opponents twisted these words against me by brain washing the students. They told them, “How dare he use such words to a girl student, we have to retaliate.”

    Fortunately the management and the principal were with me. They said, “Do not worry, we will face it.” The students went on strike. At that time I was staying in a rented room in that small town (Pollachi), and I used to come to the college by bus. Every day, in the morning the students used to assemble before the college conspiring to catch me and insult me before other students (under the influence of my opponent lecturer).As a stringent devotee of Hanuman Ji, it was my practice to chant Hanuman Chalisa while going to the college and while returning back. During these days of crisis, after my morning prayer, I used to concentrate and decide how I have to go to college. Sometimes my intuition told me to go by bus and at another time it advised me to go by an auto.

    When the students waited for me to come by bus, I came by an auto, and when they were waiting for me to come by auto, I arrived by bus. They were never able to find out how I was going to come to the college. Their conspiracy totally failed. In the mornings they used to assemble at a stop prior to the college bus stop till all the students had arrived, and then they would proceed to the college gate. Now the miracle happened. While they were at the bus stop prior to the college bus stop, all of a sudden it rained heavily and they returned completely wet to the college stop and found that it was very sunny there. The next day they assembled before the college gate, and it rained heavily there. This repeated for three days. The students got confused, many of them became sick and the number of agitating students decreased.

    After this, one evening the leaders of the strike came to my room. I offered them seats. They told me, “Sir, we apologise for what has happened, it was our mistake, and we will attend classes from tomorrow onwards.” I said, “No problem, you can.”

    The next day all classes started very normally, but one of the students came and met me in the department and told me “Sir, we want to tell you something. One of the lecturers in your department has motivated us to do this, and before we enter the class we want to have a word with him”. I was not shocked to hear this as I had already understood this. I told them that I would discuss with the principal and inform them. The principal agreed to this. They took the particular lecturer to a room, closed the doors, and after sometime everybody came out. I do not know what happened inside the closed room, and I do not also want to know what happened.

    It was at this time that I got the contact of the ‘Sinchuvadi Swami’.

    Days passed smoothly but my financial position became very weak. I wanted to manage this at the cost of going abroad. One day one of my management advisers came to the college to evaluate all the teachers’ performance under instructions from the management.

    He was a very strict disciplinarian (looked like that, but later I understood that he was a very nice and knowledgeable person who had come up in life through sheer hard work). He called the staff one by one; everybody was very tense but I was not. He called me, and offered me a seat. I was waiting for the questions chanting Hanuman Chalisa in my mind. All of a sudden a bug came into the room from nowhere, and it started circling the head of the adviser. He felt very uncomfortable, and started shooing it away. But the bug was very persistent in distracting him. He looked at me and I said, “Sir,

    it will be over in a minute.” The next second the bug which was flying crashed with the ceiling fan unexpectedly and fell down lifeless. The adviser told me only one thing, “Sir, you may go now and ask the next person to come.”

    This episode was totally forgotten by me and later on when I attended an interview in the same village for the post of principal, and the managing trustee there asked me about this, I answered him, “Sorry Sir, I do not know anything about that.”

    I got an interview letter for the post of a teacher in the government school in Maldives. To my surprise I got selected. I was very happy that at least now I can manage the family expenses as the salary package was very attractive. At the same time there was a pain in the corner of my heart that my family will not be with me. The day came when I had to join duty. I googled and collected all the information about Maldives, its culture, the people and so on. I understood that Maldives is a country where the sands are white as the smiles of the locals, where fish swim happily in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean, where the weather is a dream, and the deep rays of the sun wait to engulf you in their arms.

    My family accompanied me up to the departure gate. I boarded my flight. It was the first time I was boarding a flight, and I had my own doubts as to what if I had a vomiting sensation; only questions and no answers - I felt very shy to ask anybody else. The flight landed in an island within an hour. I was very proud because I was not now ordinary, as I was working abroad. Time passed, and I understood that the flight has landed in a small island where there is nothing but only the airport. I found that there were many other teachers like me in a flock. We went by a boat in turns to the main island Male. A taxi was waiting there for us to drop us to a nearby hotel. On reaching the hotel we received instructions about what to do and what not do. They also advised us after taking our passports to be ready all the time, and that we may be called for joining duty anytime.

    The next day they informed us about the places of our duty, meaning the islands in which we have to join, but they never revealed how many days it would take to reach the island or how we would be travelling. Each night I found some teachers missing from the group. I assumed that they might have gone for joining their duty. All the time I was sleeping or spending the time inside the hotel room as I did not know when my turn would come up.

    To be continued
     
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  2. riyass

    riyass Guest

    oh my god, such a long story , it will be better if you give some suggestion about starting the new business .
     

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