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I was waiting for train to arrive at the railway
station. The train was almost four hours late .I was in perplexed mood whether I
should spend four hours at station or come back home and again reach to the
station on time. Before I could decide, a person sat beside me on the bench and
warmly greeted me. I saw he was around forty years old, clad in payjama
and khadi kurta, a cloth bag was slung over his shoulder and a diary was
in his hand. After greeting, he gave a broad smile to me . he looked vaguely familiar
to me. I tried to recognize him, put pressure on mind but unable to remember
him. I cursed my poor memory and with apology I asked- “sorry, I am unable to
recognize you. Do we know each other? Could you tell me where we have met?
He gave a loud laugh on my question. He answered – “See, how this world has changed today. This time people expect you to know him even for greetings, earlier it was not so. I do not know you, but you appear a gentle man, so I sat beside you.”
He introduced himself a social worker. He spoke in loud voice- “After independence of our country, we progressed in every field, we installed factories, created big dam, manufactured many things and tried to become self reliant. We opened up many schools, colleges and institution of national & international repute and got many doctors, engineers, teachers and scientists.” It appeared as if he was delivering a speech before a big crowd. I was feeling like a fool sitting beside him. I interrupted him, “what are you speaking, this is cliché, we know about it .What do you want to say?” He looked unhappy and he expressed it – “I do not appreciate, if my flow of thought is interrupted” and quickly added- “see, what I want to say is, we progressed in every field since independence but our country witnessed a drastic reduce in number of volunteers and social workers. India got independence because of big leaders and volunteers and social workers. After independent, nobody cared to become real social worker, that why India has so many problems. If every village has ten social workers, the fate of country will be completely different.”
The person, who was claiming himself a social worker, looked very interesting. His idea was not confined to just village, block or district, what he was telling, he was telling about pan India. Within twenty minutes of his speech, he explained a road map how our country would get rid of every problem through social workers. According to him, India could become world leader again, if the large number of people volunteered to be social workers. He kept on speaking without any break, I tried to interrupt him, contradict him on three –four times, but he did not allow me to do so. It was one-way communication and he appeared satisfied with it.
He continuously spoke for half an hour and then suddenly he took a big pause. Perhaps he realized, in last five minutes, he was repeating himself, or seeing me uninterested tried to involve me. I utilized his pause and spoke - “I agree with you partially. We need social workers but this is just one but important element for community development. I want to know your contribution to society as social worker. By smile I guessed, He was waiting for his question. He asked –“Do you have at least one hour to see my work for society. I hate those who leave in mid day, when I elaborately discuss my work”. I saw the watch. Still train was late for three hours. I said- “I have sufficient time to listen you, please carry on”.
He put the diary in the cloth bag and took out a book from it. Handing over the book on my hand, he said – “see it; this is my first book on social issues”. I checked the book; it contained around eighty pages, published by local publisher. On the first page of the book, the social worker was with a local leader who was M.L.A till last election. In next page, his photograph was with a local singer who was notorious for singing raunchy songs. Next few pages contained songs and rest pages were full of his own kind of arguments about social workers. Before I could comment anything, he spoke – “Bidhayak ji (Ex- M.L.A) was very impressed with my idea and he encouraged me to write and got this book published. The singer wanted to sing my song and I gave him my permission for it. Very soon, song album will be out and my song will change the environment of this area.” After that, he spoke at length about his close relation with leaders, officers and culture people of the area. I changed the subject – “very nice! I am very impressed with your work. Do you have any organization?”
He was encouraged to hear me. He kept the book in the bag, pulled a folder, and opened it. The folder had many recommendation letters on his name. Every letter was started with -To whomsoever it may concern. He started showing me. “See, the first one is given by the M.L.A sahib; he feels my kind of committed worker can change the society. If he had not lost the election, I would have added many social workers to the society now”. Next recommendation letter was written by a public relation officer of not so famous organization. Other two letters were from the professor of his college. Besides that, he showed me some paper cuttings and some photographs. He was showing the photographs to me, and explaining the occasion when it was taken. All occasions had no relation with any social work but I did not object. When he was exhausted with folder then very politely he spoke – “now do you agree or not, we need more social worker to change this country.”
I found no reason to prove him wrong. “Certainly we need more people like you for the society”- saying so, I got up from the seat, picked up my luggage and walked towards retiring room.
~~~ Ramanuj Dubey
He gave a loud laugh on my question. He answered – “See, how this world has changed today. This time people expect you to know him even for greetings, earlier it was not so. I do not know you, but you appear a gentle man, so I sat beside you.”
He introduced himself a social worker. He spoke in loud voice- “After independence of our country, we progressed in every field, we installed factories, created big dam, manufactured many things and tried to become self reliant. We opened up many schools, colleges and institution of national & international repute and got many doctors, engineers, teachers and scientists.” It appeared as if he was delivering a speech before a big crowd. I was feeling like a fool sitting beside him. I interrupted him, “what are you speaking, this is cliché, we know about it .What do you want to say?” He looked unhappy and he expressed it – “I do not appreciate, if my flow of thought is interrupted” and quickly added- “see, what I want to say is, we progressed in every field since independence but our country witnessed a drastic reduce in number of volunteers and social workers. India got independence because of big leaders and volunteers and social workers. After independent, nobody cared to become real social worker, that why India has so many problems. If every village has ten social workers, the fate of country will be completely different.”
The person, who was claiming himself a social worker, looked very interesting. His idea was not confined to just village, block or district, what he was telling, he was telling about pan India. Within twenty minutes of his speech, he explained a road map how our country would get rid of every problem through social workers. According to him, India could become world leader again, if the large number of people volunteered to be social workers. He kept on speaking without any break, I tried to interrupt him, contradict him on three –four times, but he did not allow me to do so. It was one-way communication and he appeared satisfied with it.
He continuously spoke for half an hour and then suddenly he took a big pause. Perhaps he realized, in last five minutes, he was repeating himself, or seeing me uninterested tried to involve me. I utilized his pause and spoke - “I agree with you partially. We need social workers but this is just one but important element for community development. I want to know your contribution to society as social worker. By smile I guessed, He was waiting for his question. He asked –“Do you have at least one hour to see my work for society. I hate those who leave in mid day, when I elaborately discuss my work”. I saw the watch. Still train was late for three hours. I said- “I have sufficient time to listen you, please carry on”.
He put the diary in the cloth bag and took out a book from it. Handing over the book on my hand, he said – “see it; this is my first book on social issues”. I checked the book; it contained around eighty pages, published by local publisher. On the first page of the book, the social worker was with a local leader who was M.L.A till last election. In next page, his photograph was with a local singer who was notorious for singing raunchy songs. Next few pages contained songs and rest pages were full of his own kind of arguments about social workers. Before I could comment anything, he spoke – “Bidhayak ji (Ex- M.L.A) was very impressed with my idea and he encouraged me to write and got this book published. The singer wanted to sing my song and I gave him my permission for it. Very soon, song album will be out and my song will change the environment of this area.” After that, he spoke at length about his close relation with leaders, officers and culture people of the area. I changed the subject – “very nice! I am very impressed with your work. Do you have any organization?”
He was encouraged to hear me. He kept the book in the bag, pulled a folder, and opened it. The folder had many recommendation letters on his name. Every letter was started with -To whomsoever it may concern. He started showing me. “See, the first one is given by the M.L.A sahib; he feels my kind of committed worker can change the society. If he had not lost the election, I would have added many social workers to the society now”. Next recommendation letter was written by a public relation officer of not so famous organization. Other two letters were from the professor of his college. Besides that, he showed me some paper cuttings and some photographs. He was showing the photographs to me, and explaining the occasion when it was taken. All occasions had no relation with any social work but I did not object. When he was exhausted with folder then very politely he spoke – “now do you agree or not, we need more social worker to change this country.”
I found no reason to prove him wrong. “Certainly we need more people like you for the society”- saying so, I got up from the seat, picked up my luggage and walked towards retiring room.
~~~ Ramanuj Dubey
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