A QUIET PERSON!

In the early Sixties we lived in a small little Colliery township in Bihar. Bhurkunda and later Barkakana, the places we lived in, were back of the beyond places. They were colonies for officers of National Coal Development Corporation (NCDC).  The nearest town was Ramgarh which was about 3 miles away. Ramgarh was a Cantonement. There was no Railway station in Ramgarh. The nearest station was called Ranchi Road. In Ramgarh there were a couple of shops from where our provisions were bought. The one shop I remember very vividly was called Mohan Stores. There was also a Cinema Theater in Ramgarh and that is where we went to see movies every now and then. I remember seeing "Hum Hindustani" over there.  I still remember a lovely song from the movie "Chhodo kal ki baatein, kal ki baat purani, naye rang se likhenge milkar  nayi kahani, Hum Hindustani." It is actually an ever green song which applies to every new generation. We usually went in a group to Ramgarh. We would go in two Jeeps, of which one would be driven by my father and the other by Azad Uncle. Those trips were full of fun, laughter and enjoyment.

In Bhurkunda every week a load of coal straight from the Colliery was dumped outside our backyard. Then a fire was lit in the heap of coal. It was allowed to burn for a long time so that the raw coal was turned into soft coke(coal) which could then be used in the kitchen for cooking. We did not have gas in our houses then. When the coal used to be burning outside our house, my younger brother Sunil would imagine them to be Dragons. He was always the adventurous sort who reveled in stories of dragons, and people going around with bow and arrows. In fact he could always be seen with a bow around his shoulder and arrows in a quiver on his back. Another favourite of his was a gulel. He would go around armed with the gulel and try to hit whatever took his fancy. It could be a leaf, a fruit or a bird.

Sunil loved to wield the lathi too. In those days we all had Gurkhas guarding our house. The Gurkha always had a lathi with a little metal strip wound around one tip of the lathi. One day Sunil was trying his skills with the lathi when our youngest brother Ujjwal toddled into the arena which was then the fiefdom of Sunil, the Lathi wielder. As can be expected having come in the line of attack, Ujjwal became the injured soldier. The lathi hit him straight on the bridge of his nose.

As educational facilities were not too good in Colliery townships, Sunil and I were sent to Boarding School in Ranchi. He went to Bishop Westcott Boys School and I was sent to the Girls School. These Schools were in Namkum near Ranchi. Whenever our parents came to look us up, Sunil would run after the Jeep and try to climb in from the back, when they were leaving.

In Bhurkunda in our little Colony we had a lot of friends. Lalanji, Amarjeet, Bhola, Mangal and Manju were our good friends. For some reason we always ran on the streets, perhaps playing chor sipahi, and  always sang at the end of the game, manju motkin l..a..s..t, Manju motkin pagli das, Manju motkin pagli dasin. There was another game which was very popular, it was a tongue twister, “paka hai, kachha hai, paka hai, kacchha hai”.

Later Lalanji whose name was Prasenjit also joined State Bank of India as a Probationary Officer.

There was also Sukanya Natarajan, who lived opposite our house. P M Singh Uncle and Mr. Lakshmanan had huge colonial bungalows with badminton and tennis courts. Singh aunty used to make the most amazing pakodas. Those were the days when one could enjoy lots of home made snacks, play, run around and not have a care in the world. Everyone's house was our own house!

Later Sunil and I moved to Hazaribagh. I joined Mount Carmel school and after spending a little time in the junior section of Mount Carmel, Sunil was shifted to St. Xavier's School. Sunil was very good in sports. He took part in almost every Sporting event and made a good name for himself.

When dad got transferred to Faridabad, Sunil moved to Kendriya Vidyalaya, which was diagonally opposite our House. Sunil's stance at the Racing event was always admired and he was usually asked to demonstrate his style. He has a Black Belt in Judo.

 Sunil has been quite a freak for neatness and tidiness. He loved to keep his room beautifully decorated with odds and ends, picked up from here and there. On Sundays for lunch Sunil always set up the Dining table beautifully. He prepared the lunch and served it with great fanfare.

 Sunil is a quiet person who never likes to talk about what he does for others. He is a Good Samaritan but is ALWAYS very secretive. We never knew that he was a regular blood donor until we just happened to see his donor card. He has also always been in the fore front to help people in times of need. Be it financial, emotional or simply the strength of his stature!

Even now Sunil has maintained his love for outdoor sports. He goes for jogging, has run a half marathon in various places, including Port Blair, Shimla and the recent Airtel Half marathon in Delhi.

His latest adventure has been going to the Mount Everest Base Camp in December 2011. That has been quite a feat, which is really commendable. He went up to a height of 20,000 feet.

In keeping with his love for adventure, clues, the unknown, suspense and detection, he actually works where all these skills can be put to good use. His reputation as an extremely honest and incorruptible Officer travels before he does.

He is the finest example of a person who can be called a coconut. Very hard to crack and showing a very rough, coarse exterior, he is extremely soft from the inside. He is emotional, helpful and highly misunderstood. That is Sunil Uke, my brother for you. He is younger than me, but is always willing to take on the mantle of responsibility. Will the real Sunil Uke stand up for once and show who he really is?