GHANSHU
"What makes the Earth go round, Ghanshu?" The teacher had asked the third-standard student.
"The Sun, sir."
"That’s partially correct, but could you explain how exactly?"
"If the Sun doesn’t appear everyday, there will be no new days. Then, there would be no seasons, no summer, no rains and therefore no water. That means that birds and trees and animals would perish. That also means there would be no weeks, months or years. World would not move! Everything will stop like a dark night!"
That was Ghanshyamdas! He always had his own peculiar logic and reason for everything. The teachers found it at times, irritating, but most often amusing. He always wanted to know more than the teachers had to tell him. At times he would go on and on with his questions. The teacher would stop him by saying that he would learn more on the subject in his next year, in the next standard! They never punished him. However, occasionally they did show their ire. He was not one to be punished. For he was the adopted child of the school.
Ghanshu was only four when both his parents died in a road accident. His father was the school peon while his mother worked as a sweeper. The school appointed his only relative, his maternal grandfather in place of his father so that he could stay in the same servants' quarter and take care of the child's education. Ghanshu was not only admitted to the school but was also given free education along with uniform and books. He was an earnest student. His grandfather had a small mango garden, just eight trees, in a village near Ludhiana. Every summer vacations he would take Ghanshu to his village as the mango crop ripened. Every time Ghanshu returned with a generous bori of mangoes for his friends as well as the school staff.
The year was 1968. Now in his ninth standard, as the summer vacations approached, Ghanshu faced a dilemma. He wanted to go to the NCC camp but knew that his presence at the village was as important. He was one of the two unit commanders of the school NCC, about which his grandfather was proud of. He could not, but somebody told his grandfather about the camp. He was not surprised that his grandfather readily agreed to his going to the camp. The camp was in Palampur and they had to travel by train to Pathankot. He could get down at Ludhiana on his way back from the camp, his grandfather assured him. In any case, after school closed his grandfather had to stay back for office work for another fifteen days or so. He told Ghanshu that they would reach Ludhiana just about the same time since he also had to go to Jullundhar to buy pesticides. Ghanshu agreed.
NCC camp is always a great fun for the children. Though it appeared to be a rigorous non-stop exercise - wake-up time 0430, morning drill at 0600, breakfast at 0800, lectures and other group activities at 0900, lunch at 1200, specialised tasks at 1400, evening tea at 1630, social and cultural activities at 1800, dinner at 1930 and finally lights-out at 2130. Lights-out at 2130! Where on earth can a child go to sleep at that hour during a summer vacation! However, most did, due to the rigours of the day and the fear of oversleeping the morning drill. Still, the companionship of nearly five hundred other cadets from different schools, the outdoor life and the sheer fun of being away from the day-to-day nagging of parents kept the boys in good spirits. They always had their personal jokes about each other as well as their officers. There always were some kind of small rivalries among cadets from different schools. No wonder those ten days were full of incidents, happy or sad, but memorable. Like the day one of the boys found that across the brook where they used to collect water, there was a small area where podina (mint) grew like weeds. Ghanshu masterminded the plan to get the podina by night and other ingredients from the kitchen for making the podina chutney. The chutney was secretly ground on the stones by the brook and ended up full of sand! His entire unit was punished for breaking the rules of the camp when one of them was caught bringing the podina the second night. The boys went through the pains just as gladly as they laughed over the sandy chutney. Ghanshu had absolutely no complaints.
Ghanshu also enjoyed like the others did, yet he was different from the rest. He always had to perfect whatever he attempted. He had to prove to himself, if not others, that he was the best. He worked harder than they did. Yet he was always available to everyone in his sorrow and joy. As though predestined, Ghanshu was awarded the 'best cadet' trophy of the camp.
The best part of the trip, as always, was the return journey. There were no apprehensions any more - therefore no worries. There were no competitions - therefore no rules. All the discipline was thrown out as soon as the boys were dropped back by the army trucks at the Pathankot station. Before the train could leave, the boys were given half an hour's break for whatever little shopping they wished to do for home. Shravan Kumar had bought two cartons of cherries. The boys convinced him that they wouldn't last the long journey. So, the cherries vanished before their lunch. Manjit Singh had ten kilos of walnut. The boys decided to keep them for evening snacks. Pawan tried to hide his bag of apricots, so others kept him away from the midnight feast of the same! "Why do these idiots buy such consumables?" One of the boys had laughed. But even during all this marauding, Ghanshu tried to keep order so that the distribution was even.
This was one of the special trains run by the Railways for the NCC camps during the summer every year. Most of these trains were point-to-point. From each pick-up point, about twenty school teams boarded. Each school had about thirty members in all. Each compartment of the train was allotted to two schools. The whole train was thus full of NCC cadets along with a handful of JCOs and other staff from the army. As is common with most schoolchildren, the boys usually stuck to their own schoolmates. If someone were to go down a couple of compartments to be with friends from other school, he would miss some feast of cherries or apricots! The problem with these special trains was that they never kept to schedules, particularly on their return journeys. They had to give way all the time to the regular trains. As a result these trains were stopped at any odd place - some deserted station, some signal, some jungle - just about anywhere, where there is room to keep the main track free for the passing train! At a field it stopped for so long that the boys went around and gathered hara chana, till they were spotted by the farmers and chased all the way back to the train. It was Ghanshu who had to pacify the farmers.
It was about 12 o'clock when their train was stopped at a small station to let an express train pass. They were just two hours away from Ludhiana then. Everybody expected it to be a normal stoppage that would last about half an hour or so. On one side of the train was this deserted platform and on the other side ran a water pipeline that was used for filling water in the train. It was one of those hot summer noons and the boys were exhausted by their earlier escapades. The boys were already down to their shorts due to the heat. The temptation of water was too much. In no time all the taps of the pipeline were open and half of boys in the train were frolicking under the running water! Even their guardians, the JCOs, joined the ranks! It was some sight! A mad crowd of three hundred children having fun, playing with streams of water, all along the track! The railway staff at the station initially panicked because it was not possible for the handful of them to control the huge crowd. One alert staffer went up the main tank and shut down the water-flow. Like many others, Ghanshu was also caught unawares and had to clean himself up finally in the bathroom of the compartment.
When he woke up, Ghanshu found himself, and the train, still stranded at the station. They had all gone to sleep after their lunch and it was nearly four o'clock! As the boys got up one after the other there was talk all around about the reasons for the delay, the pathetic state of the Railways, the disgusting way the politicians managed the affairs of the country - just about anything they could curse! When someone resented that they couldn’t even have a cup of tea at that godforsaken station, all of them began to feel the urge for that magical 'cupppa cha'. Soon the conversation came down to arranging tea. They rummaged their stock and found that there was one packet each of tealeaves and powder milk. "That is enough to make a bucketful of tea!" Someone had exclaimed and that gave Ghanshu a clue for making tea. He explained his plan - that they would put all the stuff together in their steel bucket and then put boiling water from the engine. Just a little gentle shake after that and the tea would be ready! The boys had forgotten that they had a steam engine, one right thing the Railways had done! All preparations done, they walked up to the engine. It was not possible to draw hot water from the boiler because there always was excessive steam inside. So they were asked to put the bucket at the exhaust. The driver opened the exhaust as gently as he could, yet, when the steam came out, the bucket, with all its contents, was blown almost a bogey away!
Another hour went by and Ghanshu began to feel that he would much rather walk down to his village. They now came to know of the situation. There was an accident about ten kilometres further down. They were waiting for the rescue train from Jullundhar to reach the site. Ghanshu found it funny. Here were five hundred cadets, well trained in rescue work, held up on the way for some rescue train to arrive all the way from Jullandhar! But his JCO took it seriously. Soon whistles started blowing. Select cadets gathered their first-aid kits and rescue gear. About hundred cadets, lead by Ghanshu and the JCOs set off for rescue operation.
It was a ghastly sight! The express train, which passed by them around lunch time, had rammed into an upcoming passenger train and some bogeys had fallen into a canal. Although the accident had taken place about two hours ago, there still were cries for help coming from the half submerged bogeys. Ghanshu and his team started their work. It was a very difficult task. Some bogeys that were inside the water had rolled to their sides. Their doors were locked and there was no way one could get in as the windows had bars. People trapped inside had been hanging by the windows because that was the part above water. This made the task more difficult because people could not be moved away from the windows. Some villagers had brought iron rods with which they had managed to break the bars of some windows and rescued some people. Ghanshu realised that faster way to get them out was to go inside the bogey and try to open the doors. The plan worked and soon evacuation of the trapped passengers became easier. It was now that Ghanshu came to know that there was another bogey, completely submerged in water, under the ones that appeared on the surface. There was no time to think. The cadets jumped to their duty. Soon they were dragging bodies from the underwater bogey, some dead, and some unconscious.
It was dark now. Ghanshu was totally exhausted. The cranes, ambulances and other help had arrived. For the last time Ghanshu went down. Inside he could not see anything. As he swam through the objects, he felt somebody touching him. He groped and got hold of the body. He started towards the door. Suddenly something happened and the bogey began to roll over. He got trapped inside. He did not loosen his grip on the body and kept pushing for the door. He could not hold long enough. His breath gave way and he fell unconscious.
About an hour later, when the bogey was pulled out of water by the cranes Ghanshu was found dead, in the embrace of his own grandfather who was returning from Jullandhar in the express train!
© S. Ravikiran Shastry