Life, Lilies and Surf

Chapter 6

Let us be up and doing with a heart for any fate

Still achieving, still pursuing

Learn to labour and to wait.

                                     Longfellow - Psalm of Life St 9

The journey to the posting at Madras after the training was uneventful.  No doubt there was a tinge of sorrow at leaving friends of the batch.  The pleasant days spent in Simla were always a cherished one for all those who were recruited directly and drawn to the Service.  Such unalloyed happiness and carefree life were ever remembered as the most memorable period of life both from  personal and official angles.  The enchanting atmosphere and  nature's romantic ambiance of the queen of hills were engraved in the memory of the youthful officers.  The woods, trees, green carpet of the hillsides, the flowers of varied hues and glorious myriad coloured sunsets especially after the rains were so pristine and  breathtaking at the time Latha stayed in Simla.  It was not overpowered by commercial buildings and tentacles of holiday hotels and inns that have sprouted at every possible hillside and promenade during the last fifty years.  That virginity and embracing sweetness of mother nature sowed the seeds of many love stories between young ladies and men, who had come to take their specialised  service training there.   Some of them ended later in  wedlock that lasted well and endured for the rest of their lives.  Latha was possibly too serious minded or did not have the correct chemistry to develop such an intimacy with any of her colleagues.  So, unscathed by any such episode, she came back to her home town to join her first posting.

Who knows how fate and fortune would take her as she would meander through different postings and different stations meeting all sorts of persons.  The key of the box that contains the future scenes of life is ever held away from us.  It is a blessing and a curse.  It is a curse, as we are not forewarned about the many catastrophe that lie ahead of our life.  It is also a blessing as hope remains in the hearts of all of us like the waves of the sea.  The waves never die and they always untiringly come  curling and tumbling, soaring and growling to reach the shore of happiness.  Unable to sustain the continuous embrace of the shore of happiness, they roll back to the depths of the sea torn away from the joyous embrace.  The waves never tire in their unceasing  heroic efforts to reach the shore again and again. 

If it is known earlier that the outcome of the efforts would be empty, negative, futile and transient, no one would strive for any goal whatsoever.  Mere existence and efforts to maintain the humdrum living would have been the history of  mankind and of all individuals, irrespective of their religious beliefs or atheism.

Latha's return to home state and joining her parents was a day to reckon with.  Her mother was beaming with happiness and pride at her daughter's elevation and new founded position and status brought about by sheer tenacity, perseverance in achieving the goal.  Her father was very proud  as he became the father of a covenanted officer.  He said that he no longer had any need to go from house to house to collect pittance of money as dakshina for the religious rites performed by him.  Visiting the funeral ghats and leading the persons to do the last rites of their dead kith and kin was not needed. 

He announced, " Latha, I am calling it a day.  I do not want people to talk that a great officer like you has a father, who performs rites and rituals for people in order to earn a livelihood. They would think that you are not supporting me. So, I am calling it the quits."

Latha was not unhappy about the decision of her father.  Her house soon became a busy place.  Relatives who never talked to her parents started making visits.  Solicitous inquiries were now made about her health and her future plans about settling down in life. Was she not interested in marriage ?  This was the question frequently asked by the kith and kin, who suddenly seemed to have surfaced like long lost sweet hearts.  Latha took all this as a part of the ways of the world.  She sometimes thought that she was perhaps too mature or down to earth for her age.  Any way she felt that it was better to be like that rather than be bird brained to think that all the new found solicitous behavior was real and for her intrinsic worth. Money and position are like jars of honey.  Ants and flies throng to the jar as long as it is not empty. 

She joined as officer in the same office, where she was a clerk.  It  was a milestone day for her.  She had her own room, attender, telephone, both in her office room and her residence and two tiers of officers and staff were reporting to her.  Her old friend Krishna was still there.  He came now and then to her room to chat with her.  Her friend Bhama was also posted as a sub-collector in a district town under the collector of the district.  The paths of the two had forked as Bhama could spend her years of service in the same state, called by misnomer as all India Service, while Latha would be transferred to other states truly as Service with all India liability.  Now and then Bhama would talk to her.  There was no STD facility in those days.  One has to book a trunk call if the person's phone was in another town and wait for the call to come through.  Depending upon the distance and connectivity of the telephone exchanges, it may take any time between quarter of an hour to three or four hours even.  So it was not possible to keep in close touch with each other.   

Krishna's frequent visits to chat with Latha were not much appreciated by Latha's boss, who wanted subordinates to keep a respectable distance from covenanted class one officers.  Familiarity breeds contempt.  That was the oft quoted saying of her boss.  She also started realising that it had some truth as others in the office were not appreciative of closeness of senior officers with subordinates especially if they were of different sex.  Probably, some unguarded comment of Krishna could have made her think so.  He used to call her very lucky and possibly there was an under current of wee bit of jealousy or frustration that prompted the saying.  May be he was correct she thought.  She never had any swollen headed opinion about herself and so she was not offended by the statement.  Luck, she felt was very necessary to get a good rank and enter a Service at high level.   Some of the brilliant students who were gold medalists of universities and post graduates narrowly missed coming out successfully in the Union Public Service competitive examinations that selected officer only on merit.  There were some like that in her office and in fact in many  government offices.  On seeing success of persons like her, they were ever seething with unjustified indignation at the system of competitive examination.  Some of them gave vent to their frustration by becoming union leaders, who under the guise of camaraderie and Karl Marx spent their official life inciting trouble by continuous character assassination of the successful direct recruit officers who had become their bosses.  This is a common malady in many government offices. 

Luckily Latha had not been close to many people in the office as a clerk.  So, there was no great problem of old friendship standing in the way of her working.  Except for Krishna and Bhama, she had not made any great friends with any one and so she was only a clerk who was very busy preparing for her graduation and competitive examination.  In the household front, there was a sea change.  She rented an independent house and moved out of the rabbit ho.  le of portion, where she lived so long.  She also got a car, a second hand Ford and learnt to drive.  She bought new clothes for her parents and herself.  Some furniture and stainless steel vessels popularly called ever silver vessels were also purchased.  Life was beginning to look fine.   She bore no ill will towards her relatives, who never looked in her direction but paid visits now and then.  Each one had some thing to ask or planning to cultivate her so that they can ask her for favours. 

After a few months she got an order posting her to Bombay as the deputy to the head of the department of the office there.  She soon wound up her things, packed her bags and sent her furniture and house hold things by truck to her quarters in Bombay. 

Life is myriad and we know not what awaits us.  Latha was happy to move out of her old office where she started her life and made history of sorts by coming back as a senior direct recruit officer selected by the top most recruiting body in the country.  She hoped that Bombay should be better.  May be she would start a new life.  May be she would find some one to share her life and enrich it.  There is no replacement for hope and making efforts for betterment materially, mentally and psychologically is the essence of living.

End of Chapter  6.

NB: I am extremely grateful for those who maintained some interest and read through this humdrum narrative despite long lapse of time.  The life of Latha would actually take turns and twists in the forthcoming chapter that made me thoughtful, remorseful and even philosophical.  I would try to narrate her story to the best of my abilities. Thank you and please favour me with your comments.