March 16, 2006

As a kid I was always being asked – ‘What will you become when you grow up?”

I would say without any prejudice or external pressure – “I would like to become a daily wage-earner”

“Why?”

“Because I wish to slog my sweat out to earn my daily bread.”

My elder sister would pinch me at my armpit. “Shame on you!”, she would react in a disgust-filled voice. “You gone mad? It’s not a good plan for the future. Definitely you have greater talents to become someone else. Think that you are going to become a Lal Bahadur Shastri, the Prime Minister of India. (I did not know that Shastri was the Prime Minister then!)

“How can that be?” I would question my sister, “How can there be two Lal Bahadur Shastris in this country? ”.

While all those around exploded in laughter, my sister felt offended. She made a hasty exit from the scene.

Exclusive Daijiworld caricature by Harini

But my mother was too impressed with my answer. She held me closer to her and asked me with much affection: “My son, but why do you want to become a daily wage labourer whereas all the other boys in the vicinity wish to go to the Gulf and earn their wage in foreign currency? Tell me what is your plan for the future?”

“Mother,” I told her. “It wasn’t my intention to hurt my sister. But I have seen what is really going on around. Those who work in the Gulf remain away from their families for the major part of their lives while the daily wage labourer remains with the family, to protect them, to guide and guard them. I wish to be with you all my life, mother, to look after your needs and comforts”.

No doubt my mother was overjoyed with my plan for the unseen ‘Tomorrow’. There were tears in her eyes.

But so many decades later, when I retrospect over my bygone years, I realize that everything has gone haywire, much against what I had pledged and what I had intended to become. 

“Was I meant to become a daily wage labourer?”

At the same time, I also wanted to become a politician. It was J M Lobo Prabhu who was the first politician I saw as a young boy. He had just then won the Udupi parliamentary seat on a Swatantra party ticket. I was too impressed to watch his wife, Louella Lobo Prabhu canvassing for her husband. Mr. Lobo Prabhu always remained quiet, admiring the oratory of his beautiful wife.

We children would compel him to talk in Konkani or Tulu but he would prefer to speak in English, the language many of us would not even understand. To save the skin of her husband, Louella would start talking in broken Konkani but then quickly switch over to English after realizing that the language she was speaking was tilting towards French.

“So you want to become like J M Lobo Prabhu?” asked my sister.

“No. I cannot speak proper English. I would rather become a Ratan Kumar Kattemar”.
(Kattemar was then a local politician and Lobo Prabhu’s deputy who had just won the Moodbidri legislative assembly seat.)

“Why?” asked my sister.

“Because he speaks both in Konkani and Tulu for hours together”.

When I grew up my priorities changed. I wanted to become George Fernandes because he spoke ‘Aput Konkani’, the language much closer to my heart. Whenever he or his brothers (Lawrence and Michael) visited our village, I was asked to translate their speeches into Konkani. Not that I wished to, but due to the pressure of Dr Sanjeevanath Aikal, one of George’s associates during his younger days.

Just a day before the visit of George to our village, Dr Aikal would meet me at the nearby bus stand and would say – “Tomorrow Georgi (the way he is addressing him) will be in town (but it was a village for others) and you are going to translate his speech, else you will be out of ‘Janata’!

Whenever a leader from New Delhi visited our village, Dr Aikal would coax me into translating his speeches into Konkani and assure me that one day, I will become like the late Justice K S Hegde, the simple person whom I admired the most. He also gave me other options to become like Lal Krishna Advani, Jagannath Rao Joshi or Madhu Limaye, who were relatively unknown in our locality and to our people. But fortunately I remained where I was and I am happy about that.

I also wanted to become a Chartered Accountant so that I could manage the finances of other businessmen and take a share of their cake.

I wanted to become a film star, maybe a Dilip Kumar, for Amitabh had not yet arrived on the scene. But my friends suggested that it was worthwhile to become a Rajesh Khanna instead, for he was the craze around that time. Also my friends found out to my great surprise that my hairstyle resembled Rajesh Khanna's. But hardly I had walked a few steps down the lane and someone commented – “Look, here comes Rupesh Kumar”.

Rupesh Kumar was a flop villain who raped the heroines like nobody’s business and I would pray for him whenever he raped a girl on screen so that he wouldn't go to hell.

But when I eventually grew up and graduated from a college, my mother was the first one to ask me what my future plans were.

“I will remain with you, mother. You need me the most and my protection,” – I said.

She begged to disagree with me.

“No, my son,” she said. “You are a free bird now and you got to fly away, into your own world. Don’t think about me. The Good Lord will take care of my needs. Look around at the place where you were born and grown up. We do not have electricity; we do not have proper drainage system; we do not have water supply; and most of all, we do not have good roads and transportation. We do not have a good bus stop where the elder citizens can wait for a bus. It is your duty to improve the standard our life. You are a son of this soil and you are going to fulfil our dreams. You will slog your sweat out and you will provide us a better living.”

And the next thing I remember I did was apply for a passport to go the Gulf.