To Make Something Of Life

I wrote this blog much earlier but could not finish it for one reason or the other. Here it is completed and ready for your reading pleasure.

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I got talking to a supervisor in a hotel recently.
He was in a mood to tell his lifestory to me so I heard it out. It was interesting though in the beginning I was apprehensive of spending so much time.
He came from a village 20 years ago in search of a hotel job and settled down for good.

He was one among a group of 4 teenage friends who had failed their 10 standard exams and knew not how to spend their free time in the village.

A villager who was working at a Chennai hotel had come visiting their village, happened to see them hanging around, wasting their time and asked them whether they were interested in taking up a hotel job. They all jumped at the idea and came with him to the city.

They were introduced to the personnel manager of a star hotel, who in turn took them to the housekeeping department. Hotels are always short of room boys so they were taken in as temporary contract workers. They were trained in every kind of manual labor at site. Before the first month got over, 3 of them took to their heels not able to take the hard work, restrictions and strict supervision anymore. The 4th one had too many responsibilities back home and had no other choice but to stick it out though with a lot of reluctance.

He described what his work was in those initial years.
He was to clean the drivers’ toilets.
After he learnt the ropes, he was given upkeep of public areas like garden, swimming pool, lobby, etc.
3 years later he graduated to do guest rooms under the strict guidance of a senior room boy from whom he learnt a lot. After an year he started doing the guest rooms on his own. By that time his salary also had improved and he was able to send enough for the family to build a small house in the village.

He went to the village after a long gap and felt the respect and affection of villagers who saw him as a hero returning back victorious after a battle. Only he knew what struggles he had undergone to resist temptations of running away from his job like his friends.

He met his 3 friends and they were not doing so well in the village. Actually each one felt they could have stayed back like him and done well for themselves and their families. But they had run away, afraid of hard work and harsher conditions.

Later he moved to better jobs to settle down as a supervisor in an international hotel in Chennai with a good pay. He is married and has two kids. He is educating both his kids in convent schools as he feels the importance of the English language having picked up enough to interact with many international guests. He was saying rather proudly that his daughter scores the highest in English in her class.

He then asked me to see the Tamil movie ‘Angaadi Theru’ which is almost like his own story of struggles.

He said he cried a lot seeing that movie. Though I am no regular watcher of movies for the past so many years now, I watched it and felt how the storyline must have touched the lives and struggles of many lower level working population who have to stay huddled together on rooftops of complexes where they work with not many facilities to boast of. But life goes on for them too. For them this life is better than the one they led back home. They are heroes when they visit their villages. Their grooming is stylish, their dress is stylish, they display certain culture and daring and they have seen the city life. They become role models for success in their villages. This gives them a high.

The only thing which makes all of us committed to something in life is to be looked upon as a successful person by our own. This is the motivation which drives all of us not to chuck up a job even under the harshest of work conditions.

Cheers.
Mahalakshmi