My first job was in Ramgarh, a subsidiary of SAIL manufacturing firebricks. It was an old defunct factory privately owned, stripped of assets by the owners eventually nationalized by the government to run by SAIL. It was located in a place called Ranchi Road because it was the nearest rail head about 40 km from Ranchi. Ramgarh was only some 5 Km away towards Ranchi, a cantonment town housing the Sikh Regiment. It used to be a beautiful wooded place. Back then sparsely populated, idyllic, lush with slender but high rising Saal trees, green most of the year and when yellow briefly in Fall, the place seemed like on fire. There were seven-eight little bungalows near the factory premises where entrenched officers lived. A little away from the noise and bustle of the factory, amidst the woods, was a large Guest House where, we the young engineers, were provided accommodation. This far in time it looks so endearing and romantic but while I was there it was humdrum home nothing more. Since it was firebricks plant therefore it raised copious dust of powdered silica sand, China clay and other motley fireclays used for making high temperature resistant bricks. A new dust catching plant was installed but it not very effective. Workers were used to living in dust while we sat in our cabins only occasionally wading out to check on machines. I was part of a new batch of seven- eight raw engineers who had joined the company.
The climate here was moderate with frequent showers between hot summer days. This was tribal country although most permanent workers and staff were outsiders but most of the manual work was done by tribal women called Rezaa engaged through labour contractors. These women were strong, muscular and promiscuous.
Ramchandran Sahib
Inscrutable Ramchandran was a fifty plus frail angry middle-aged man. Wore glasses over sunken eyes in his small head with thin grey hairs. He did not possess any educational degree but tons of experience in Kilns. He was the Kiln man, a no-nonsense specialist, even top brass was deferential, to him. The fellow was always busy. Ramchandran was a bachelor; after work hours kept to himself. Since he was a bachelor therefore lived among us but kept his distance. He would mostly remain in his room only come out for dinner and then back to his room.
In his absence a couple us, in particular Umakant Basing, who was adept in the art of pantomime, would mock him. U K Basing would make Ramchandran, Gabar Singh and in his typical south Indian style regale us with Sholay dialogues. On one occasion Ramchandran Sahib (we used to call him Ramchandran sahib) caught me in the Sholay parody act, I thought all hell will break but he merely looked hard at me and then a little trace of smile broke out in his face. Thereafter I thought he had a soft corner for me because everyday in the evening he would take a peg of Old Monk rum in his always shut room before getting down to mess for dinner. One day he called me aside and whispered, ‘Sharmaji, aap ko jab rum mangega, mere room men knock karengaa”.(Whenever you need rum, knock at my door) Not much was known about him or his family. He seemed be a man on his own. Many old fellows, who knew him from his past companies, told that he was always like that.
So, life moved on. A couple of years passed by when one day suddenly there was some buzz about Ramchandran. While returning from the factory to Guest House after work, we saw a plump Rezaa( a tribal woman), may be in late thirties, sitting under a large tree outside the Guest house. We came to know that she had stationed there for past few hours, not talking to anyone. Later whispered gossip came to us that she is Ramchandran’s wife. Late at night after dinner we didn’t see her at her station under the tree, apparently Ramchandran had taken her to his room (he had a room for himself whereas two of us engineers shared a room). Next morning the woman was gone. Nobody had the courage to talk about it with Ramachandran. A few months later Ramchandran too left the company.
Who knows, may be his location exposed to that woman meant she will be a frequent visitor, so he left. But that’s what gossiping folks would think, may be something else was the reason.
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