Remembrance

 February 24 is the Central Excise Day, it seems, celebrated in the memory of the 1944 Salt Act, and to encourage the sincere officers.

That reference brought back a trunk full of memories of Papa's. Papa was a Central Excise Official. He was horribly honest. Yes, I have used the right intensifier for the adjective.

Well, his genuine honesty, his being true to his profession, his observing both the letter and the spirit of the Central Excise laws sure brought him genuine satisfaction, but it landed him in many difficulties, too.

First and foremost, due to his honesty, he was a thorn in the side of the corrupt and their boot licking lackeys. As a result, he had to face umpteen transfers. Before he could properly settle down to question the status quo, the powers that be in that place would get him sent away so that their dark deeds do not get exposed. He and Aai literally had to pack all the utensils and other stuff in a big trunk, and move on. Hence the reference to trunk full of memories. 

Since he so much insisted on the subtleties of the Central Excise rules and complex subsets of sub-regulations, he was obviously much in the way of those who would like to bend the systemic rules any which way.  He was too straightforward to even notice such daggers beneath the cloak types, moreover.

 He generously helped the honest though. I remember, one of his colleagues, a Customs officer, met with a major accident, but was not helped by the powers that be in his office. Papa stood by him like an elder brother, he used to ferry him to hospital, too, though obviously he could not help the man financially. I suppose though, it is Papa's psychological support that finally got him through. 

Papa had to live in awful places all alone as Aai-Papa, they both, decided that Pune should be the educational centre for their children. I still can see that one room small tenement in Sholapur in my nightmares. For a couple of years, he used to daily commute to Mumbai, and back. The very thought gives me the heebie-jeebies even today.

He believed in you so completely, totally and intensely that you could not even dream of breaking his faith in you. Such a faith is great in the personal space, but in the public sphere, such a completely straightforward behaviour makes you an easy target of the crooks in the office based politics that is the bane of our polity.

Well, I have always maintained that it is the honest, genuine officers like Papa who drive the jaded juggernaut of the system and keep it mobile, relevant. People like him may be very few, may be, just 2%, but it is they who are the essential glue, the cement that keeps the entire system from coming apart, be it the socioeconomic, cultural, political sphere(s). Such people may not reap many public rewards as they often may not have the chicanery needed to land such awards. Their very life, however, is the biggest prize though. Fond though difficult memories indeed!

Pratima@ a simple life genuinely lived, that was Papa.