Triumphant By Dr. Sanjeev Gandhi is the story of a migrant construction worker who was able to see his native village after cycling for thirty-six days.
He had been working in that metropolitan city for more than ten years. Two years back, when his father died in extreme poverty due to a lack of medical facilities, he called his mother and his wife to his dwelling place. Fortunately, the metropolitan city also provides some dingy cells to live for laborers like him at every construction site. He has three children. The boy is fifteen years old, and his father wanted him to learn some trade in this city so that he might be able to live an independent life.
Two daughters were eleven and eight years old, respectively. His wife also worked at some construction sites. Three members of his family worked a total of ten hours to feed all the six members. Life was going on. Then someone from another land brought a deadly virus into an airplane. The whole city was terrified. They announced a complete lock-down, but he could not understand why they stopped the work, as there was no work, so there was no question of wages.
The owner did not come for ten days. When they contacted him, he replied that he would not ask for any rent of the cells occupied by laborers because this was a tough time. Some NGOs supplied them cooked food which kept them living. But whenever the members of the NGO were there, they seemed more interested in news coverage than to give them proper food.
He was thinking of going back to his ancestral house. He talked to his mother. She could not control her tears. She always wanted to return to her roots. She asked what he gained in all those years here. He earned bread at the cost of his self-respect. The inhabitants of this area did not consider them living beings. They were treated as an object of hatred. They were not allowed to follow their customs and rituals.
A humble member of development was looked down upon as a parasite. Everyone shooed him at every door where he went to seek any help. He left the village in the hope of finding a better life for himself and his family. But this city had reduced him to a laborer without any identity. His wife and children had never had new clothes on their bodies. The girls were learning an alien language.
He realized he had wasted so many years of his life chasing a fallacy of a better life. His wife said that life had become harder in this so-called big city. His young son could not stop himself. He asked why their names were not in the registers of contractors. They were not given any benefit from government schemes. The poor laborer could not answer that.
He was a good student, but the village only had a primary school. After completing his primary classes, his father took him to the landlord for service. He had been assigned to look after the cattle. He worked there for five years. He was given peanuts in terms of wages. As a teenager, he had some dreams. He wanted to earn money. His friends in the village used to go to the city as laborers.
They had respect in the village, and they also earned money. So he decided to leave his job with the landlord and started visiting the city to work as a laborer at some construction site. He got married, and then he needed more money to feed his family. In that city, he got work only for ten to fifteen days a month.
As he became a father, he needed more money, and then he contacted a contractor. He told him that in the metropolitan city, he could get work for the whole month. To do hard labor for his family, he left his village and accepted to live like a slave. In the whole ten years, he did not have time to think about his future. Every day he had to work hard to have food at night and be prepared for the next day. He participated in constructing many tall buildings in all these years, which were the epitome of progress.
He wanted to meet his contractor, who brought him and his family here. When he reached the contractor’s house, the contractor didn’t open the gate for him. After a lot of praying, the contractor came to the door. He said that he could not do for him as the Government had stopped the work. More than three weeks had passed, and there was no hope to resume the work as the patients increased. The contractor seemed helpless.
He assured him that he would ask the authorities to deposit five hundred rupees in the account of his mother as promised by Government. That will be sufficient to keep them at their place. They also did not have to pay rent. NGO was providing them food. Why were they worrying? At that moment, a vegetable vendor came there, and the contractor purchased the vegetables and fruits worth more than six hundred for that day.
He did not have any grudge towards Government. Perhaps he did not know the difference between governance and rules. Moreover, the Government had to think about significant issues, not the trifle ones. He was thankful for the meager help he received during those difficult days.
He did not want to live in this alien land. His native place is more than six hundred miles away. As days passed, he came to know that the disease was spreading. He felt death looming around the corner. This system was for the rich, by the rich, and for the rich. He was merely a voter who had any value only at elections and that too in his native village.
The lock-down could not knock him down, and he decided to return to his ancestral village. He was the dispenser of India’s destiny. How could he feel defeated? He and his son took their bicycles, and all the six members were adjusted. He, along with his family, started for home. In the depth of his heart, he knew that his hard work and determination would bring fruits.
Day or night, police or state borders, blows or tiredness could not stop them. He bore all the injustice because he was taught that the causes of his misfortunes lay in his previous birth. He had done some heinous crimes in his previous births, and due to that, he had no option but to suffer. And he faced all troubles with the hope that he would not have to live a miserable life in the next birth.
Triumphant – at last
After cycling only thirty-six days, he was able to see his native village. He saved the lives of his family. The long journey, hunger, thrashing by the police, accidents, fear of diseases could not harm his determination. He came to his land and resolved that he would not leave his land. He was a triumphant who was not ready to die in an alien land.
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