—Damodar Boruah
Those were the days I cannot forget even after almost seven years. I do not want to write about it, but I cannot stop myself from doing so; and here I am writing.
Few months before my marriage during our courtship period, I needed a great deal of cash in my hand to maintain the budding relation and to call regularly the then fiancée and now my wife. Sometimes, I had to go to my wife’s maternal aunty’s (mahee) home, where, I would carry sweets, vegetables, fish or meat etc as a token of courtesy.
One day, sitting alone in my rented room, I was worrying how I would continue the next few days without salary. If I got the draft scheduled to be received the next day then my most of the problem would be solved. Although I had to pay some dues it was not a problem if i was stationed at the headquarter in Jorhat. But as a medical representative, I had to work in headquarters as well as in few external stations like Dergaon, Titabor, Sivasagar, and Bokakhat. In those external stations, I needed a lot of money to visit twelve doctors, six pharmacies and the wholesalers. Without a fat money bag one cannot work there as there were lot of expenses.
Those days my financial situation was very terrible. In my wallet, I hardly had two rupees most of the time. Even if I did not have enough cash in my wallet, there was no need to worry to be in the head quarter, as my two wheeler was always filled with enough fuel to visit Jorhat Civil Hospital, now remodeled as Jorhat Medical college, where generally I could attend the targeted doctors on a particular day. The life of a medical representative is not at all easy. One has to attend minimum twelve doctors and 6 pharmacies, and in addition to that, one has to collect daily orders from various pharmacies to place that to wholesalers. Sometimes, a Medical representative has to collect stock in his bag and immediately deliver it to make it available in the pharmacies where there is a demand. Many a times, pharmacies make fake orders in order to satisfy a Medical representative only, which infact are not actual order. In such cases, when the products are made available by the salesman of the wholesaler, then the Pharmacies would return the products. Then the owner of the pharmacy would say,— “We did not order on our own, we ordered it on the request of the medical representative. You can keep it if you want to, but we would pay you only when the products are sold.”
Despite these problems, there was not much worry to work in my headquarter at Jorhat where doctors are within the range of ten kilometers. The only worry I had was to fill my bike’s tankey with a capacity of about three litres. If I could fill that, then it was enough to work for a week as my Unicorn has a mileage of 50km/litre.There was no need to worry for afternoon lunch in the mid of my duty, as one hotel was familiar to me. Its owner once said to me, if you don’t even have money then also you don’t need to worry. I have a relationship of trust with those people. There are three grocery shops which allowed me to buy at credit at any point of time. Their owner knew that Damodar took credit only that much which actually needed. So there were no problem in arranging the essentials. Even a fish vendor was my good friend who would also give me fish as and when necessary. I required this option, since at any moment someone from aunty’s home might ask,— Damodar dada, please throw us a party! In that case I could manage somehow even my salary draft was not encashed.
The company I was working was a good company, but as it was just launched, salary was quite meager. For a person like me who was about to get married, that amount was not enough. I could not make any significant amount of bank balance by working in that company. I was always in financial crunch in those days. However, I never asked my father to help me out despite my never ending problems. However, I had to continue working in this company till I got a better option.Moreover, it was an important phase of my life; I was afraid no girl would marry an unemployed man. So, I had to carry on my job.
Occasionally as and when I got time and opportunities, I visited aunty’s home which was in the town itself or in my way to doctor’s chamber. Unfortunately, my fiancee’s mother did not like the idea of her daughter getting married to me. So, her aunt was my only weapon. Hence, even aunty did not call me, and even when I was waiting for my salary draft, I had to frequently visit aunty’s home to impress her hoping she would help me by all means. But alas! My condition was such that, my wallet used to be filled with not more than two rupees! What would happen if Aunty’s son would ask,— Damodar da! give me a ride on your bike. I could not deny them. How could I? They were the persons who would certify about me before my aunt and my to be wife’s mother. If I would deny them on the pretext of not having enough petrol, or I didn’t have money to fill petrol, what would be the reaction of them. What would happen to my marriage prospect. Would a Professor marry a person like me who didn’t even have cash to fill petrol in his bike. Anticipating such scenario, I used to tell aunty’s sons that the two wheeler was having problem and it was in garage for repair. Hearing this the two sons never asked the bike to ride. In those days, my Honda unicorn was a wonderful bike, and all were interested to ride it.
Anyway whenever drafts came, I felt relieved. Today, I still remember how I won the hearts of many wonderful people just with my trust and faith. Despite amidst an ocean of a problems I sailed it through easily. Somehow I managed it with good interpersonal and self management. However, I do not want anyone to be in such situations I was in.
Damodar Baruah is a man of many hats. He has a keen interest in creative writing. His works have been published in various international anthologies and journals. At the same time, he is an entrepreneur, tea planter, and a farmer with innovative ideas. He is also associated with many social works.