The Check gate

 

(A group photo taken after the farewell feast. I am sitting at three from left, the CTO, J.K.R.Das is sitting to my right .)

I joined as Additional CTO in Mukundaprasad check gate after I completed my training in Madhusadan Institute of Academy and Finance (MIAF), and reported to D.P.Rath, CTO, Jatni Circle.

D.P.Rath was a nice person, a talkative man. A pleasant personality, gentle and amiable, one would start liking him after a five minutes’ talk. His family was at Cuttack, he was staying in Jatni. He went to Cuttack every Saturday and returned on Monday. To get the bus, he came to our check gate by jeep, caught the bus there, and on Monday he returned from Cuttack and got off there. The jeep would be waiting for him to take him to Jatni. He discussed with me on any subject that came to his mind while waiting for the bus in our check gate office. Sometimes, especially on Monday before leaving for Jatni office, he would take tea. One day he told me, “You should quit this job.”

In fact, I was least interested in this kind of job. But I had then hard circumstances for some personal and family reasons. I could not do what I wanted. I had to take up this job, enter into government service. I replied, “Sir, you know about acute unemployment problem. I am married with a daughter. What shall I do if I quit this job? Not possible under the circumstances.”

D.P.Rath said, “I have done my M.A. in Allahabad University. When I was doing my post graduation, the banks were nationalized. I had written an article on bank nationalization. I cannot believe now when I read the article that I had once written it. The moment you join this service, process of your undoing begins. After twenty years in this job, you will find, you have forgotten everything; the language now you speak, the words you use, your past... except three or four words like ‘clandestine business’, ‘fraudulent dealers’ , ‘however’, etc.”

During my school or college days, like many students, I had also a streak of ideology. For some years I was also a member of a leftist student organisation. But I was disillusioned with the members and their activities.  I left the party. My circumstances compelled me to earn to live with a fair degree of dignity and the only means I had, or I believed I had, was to go for a job. I did not have courage or means to do anything other for a living. The government job was a secure job. I thought I would in the service and also write features or essays in newspapers and magazines on current affairs. But conduct rules of a government servant did not allow pursuing what I desired. In the MIAF where I was a trainee, I asked B.B.Das. “Being in the job, can I write in newspapers and magazines?”

B.B.Das was an honest and knowledgeable officer. He was teaching us Central Sales Tax and Service Code.

“No, you cannot write, you cannot be critical of government policy being a government servant.” He said.

Soon the job disenchanted me. For the M.Phil I did my dissertation on Indo-US relation. I had studied Marx, Hegel, Ranke or E.H.Carr, used to discuss with my professors and friends communalism, then in early 1980s, communal riots frequently occurred; had read seminar papers (it was part of M. Phil syllabus) on national and international issues. But here, I had to face drunken truck drivers, tax offenders, and delinquent staff, obsessed with mundane and worldly wise matters. I could not reconcile.

( A group photo of officers and staff of Mukundaprasad and By-pass check gates after a farewell feast of an inspector who retired. I am sitting at second from right.)

The job soon frustrated me, I felt restless. One day I was alone in my room, my wife and daughter had been to village. I could not sleep. The days of the Kurukshetra University flashed in my mind. I remembered the library, the rose garden, discussion with my friends in the coffee house, books and different isms we deliberated, national and international affairs we argued and debated. I compared those with the present. The present stirred and provoked me. I wrote a story and it was dawn when I finished. The story calmed me. I sent it to Katha magazine soon after I reached the office.

Next month I went to the magazine stall, and learnt Katha had stopped its publication from that month. I did not have the copy of the story.

                                                        ***          

I was transferred from Mukundaprasad to Patnagarh treasury and from Patnagarh to Satyabadi. One day I was sitting in my office, the postman came and told you had a money order (MO). Katha had sent the MO of Rs. 50, and on message portion of the MO form, the editor had written, “Please accept the remuneration for your story published in Katha in its July issue.”

It was in last week of August. In the mean time, Katha had started republishing and the editor had published my story pending with them. They had sent the complimentary copy of the magazine and the MO to Mukundaprasad check gate, as the address of Mukundaprasad was given with the submission of the story. The officer in charge of Mukundaprasad had redirected the MO to Satyabadi, but had kept the magazine, which was sent by ordinary post. With Rs.50 in hand I went straight to Bhubaneswar from the office. The July issue of Katha was available. I purchased both the July and August issues.

The story was published under the title ‘Yatri’ (Traveller). Most of the letters on the stories of July published in month of August had praise for my story. Later, I happened to meet one officer working in Mukundaprasad in OFSA meeting held in Bhubaneswar. He inquired whether or not I had received the MO he had redirected, and said, “We have received many post cards, views on the story from different places; we did not redirect those as I considered those not important.” I could not explain him importantance of those letters to a writer! Still I was grateful to him for redirecting the MO; otherwise, I would be aware of the story’s publication in Katha.

        (First paragraph and the layout of the story published in facenfacts.com)

Later, I changed the caption of the story to ‘jeebaloka’ (the man not to stay back), which is in my book, Chakrabyuha. It was a favourite story of many. Gourhari Das has selected this story for the anthology of love stories in Odia, ‘Prema’ (Love). facenfacts.com; a web magazine has published the English translation of this story under the caption, Kuruskhetra: A Love Story.