Letter to Bipin Uncle
Let me tell u about Bipin Uncle.
In relation he is from my Mom's village..Nani ghar 'Belaow', I don’t know whether I spelled it correctly. We have many amazing names in Bihar/Jharkhand. I remember a name of place as DARU another as Singapore Road(u can find if u travel from Patna to Bokaro by road).Coming back to Belaow ,its a small village near Bihar Sariff(a town in Bihar).I remember our house ,early memories are of a rather old house ,kind of Mud house and later build on bricks. Just beside our house there was another one,Bipin Uncle’s house. In childhood, Mom told me that when that land was digged up for putting pillars for his house, a pot full of silver coins was found, I was fascinated with that. I always thought how lucky were they.
Another thing about our village was there was no electricity, reason, it was a remote place…no..because one of Bipin’s Uncle brother died while fixing some issue in local amplifier, villagers cut the power from the main source after which it was never turned on. They considered it bad luck I believe.
My father had earned his engg degree from Bhagalpur engg collage(one of the 5 engg collages in Bihar),Some time I wonder on the data that Karnataka with almost the same number of students in the state but has more than 150 engg/medical collage against 10-15(need a multiplication factor to get that numbers) in Bihar. Papa works for CCL(Govt service) as mechanical engg. He joined as a junior engg in Kedla(place in current SE jharkand) around 1981.In village it was a big name as my father worked as a engg in city. Although Kedla was not a city,not more than few houses and he lived in guesthouse. Probably with this illusion of big city with loads of opportunity , Bipin Uncle convinced Papa to keep him and get some work. Soon uncle was living with Papa, later Mom joined as we got separate house I am not sure relatively what time I came into picture.(whether it was before Uncle arrived or after that).
He lived with us , I think he was one of the family member I grew up with, I remember all telling how much he used to care about us, me ,my brother Monu and sister Dolly.
He used to cook some time, take care of us and off course was looking for his own future as Papa had convinced one of his friend Sunil uncle, a contractor or small builder in Kedla to give him some. He worked long time with him and later started living separately before my father was transferred to another project in some other place called Jharkhand, ya Jharkhand, that time it was in Bihar and there was no partition as two states, Bihar and Jharkhand, I feel some time proud the fact that the new state was named after our small colony,not sure although what’s the real purpose of naming it after this colony.
Bipin Uncle kept visiting our house, and it used to be a fun time whenever he visited us. He would bring chocolate, or else we would go cinema, a rather rare thing those days.One day I heard that he got married and I was very happy, we all wanted to meet him. We went to meet his family and we all were very happy, and he was very excited.
Meanwhile his work as a contractor was recognized and he slowly become a known name in area where he lived and bagged some heavy deal and made good profits as well. One thing I always heard about him from my parents that he had put lot of hard work in everything. Coming out of a remote village, away from family living with other people, I remember as in initial days he even used to cook food and other stuff in my house, I don’t think papa asked for that but even he wanted to contribute to family where he was staying as even my father want not earning much I remember it was not more than 900 rupee per month in which he has to send around 500 to grandfather for maintenance and study for his brothers. Bipin uncle started as novice in contractor world but with his hard work and dedication had earned some respect around.
Once he started to earn little more he took his responsibility of setting up his brother in city. I remember him starting up some grocery shop and giving the ownership to his brothers. Then came news. He was betrayed by his business partners, Sunil uncle, some kind of fraud which left him scattered and with less money. I never heard as his brother was very co-operative. He even got started getting some threat from local criminals and demand for money.
I believe it was hard time for him, I am not sure how he recovered from this situation, and as per my flashback he started again, this time in more clean way and not much relying on his partners. Those days I was coaching in Ranchi for my engg and often visit him as his new home was near to railway station.He had built a big house, he had three children, and we would sometime discuss their future and study.
I was wondering why he is in so much of hurry, it his passion or something else. He had built his home a big and had given many rooms on rent; I think he would be getting min 15K as rent only.At last he had again built his carrier with hard work and dedication. I remember how much happiness I used to see in his eyes whenever we would meet, I am always like a kid to him. Its long time I see him lately once I started my engg and job in Mysore.
Last week I was speaking to Mom and heard that Papa had gone to his house to meet him. Suddenly everything flashed before me, Bipin uncle. She told he is ill with Diabetes, initially I though ok, it’s not a Big one, Sugar is not a major issue these days, then Mom told one thing I never knew.
It was real bad and it was in their family, there was some king of hereditary problem, even his elder brother or Father could not resist it and left all. My mom felt sorry for this but I was in shock, I could not believe that in these times, cant we do anything, I am still optimistic that it’s just another case of sugar and nothing serious.Then I enquired about if he has got this checked at leading hospitals and if there are people to take care of him, unfortunately as I said his own brother were not very close. I asked if there was a monetary help required, but I think he had planned for this and there was none.
I took his number and tried calling him; I am currently in UK on a project related trip. I called his number immediately, and aunty picked the call but said he has gone to bed. It was not even 10.This made me more worried, is he really ill. I believe it’s not any serious at least at this time as of now as per Mom, he is fine, but I don’t know why I was so restless.
Next day I called him again, and he picked the call after some 3-4 try (signal was really bad in his area that day)
Me: Namatey uncle, sonu bol raha hu
Uncle: O Sonu,kush raho, kaha se bol rahe ho?
Me: Uncle abhi England me hu, company ka kuch kaam tha.
Uncle: Aur kaisa hai,,sab thik tak hai na,tabiyat .waha mausam kaisa hai
Me: Ha uncle sab thik hai,yaha abhi thoda thanda start ho gaya hai.Papa abhi aaye the shayad milne unse hi number mila, bahut din se baat karne ka soch rahe the.Aap ka tabiyat kaisa hai
Uncle: Achcha hi hai, to kaam achcha chal raa hai na.
Me: Ha uncle 2-3 mahino me wapas aa jaunga ,milne ka maan karta hai ..bahut din se milna nai
Hua hai..wapas aane pe milta hu…and unty and bachcha log sab sahi hai na
Uncle : Ha sab thik hai..aane ke baad milna
Hello hello…shayad connection kat gaya.
I don’t know, but I missed something big in the conversation…I could not feel good after the call and I could not call him back as well. I don’t know whether he could see the little drops in my eyes…I don’t know what exactly to tell him..What exactly to express..How to tell all those which I had thought of….I am sure I cannot do this not on call this thing didn’t helped me. I think I need to write a letter, u can’t tell everything on call.
Not me at least. Hope to visit him soon.
