Avijit : The brightest star

Kajal Chatterjee *

Prior to my date of appointment, I had visited the office 4 times for completion of various formalities. On my second visit as I entered a room for a purpose, a baritone boomed in from a corner beckoning my name, but it was full of warmth and affection. Saw a gentleman of my age group (turned out 5-6 years senior to me in age) adorning his seat.

Surely somebody had notified him about myself and impending appointment. As I reached his corner, he asked me to have a seat and thereafter introduced himself and also enquired about my antecedents in detail. And from his own accord, he was providing me various relevant information and advice revolving around office and also gave a break up of the gross salary which I will receive post-appointment!

Though my office colleagues were very wel- coming, yet there existed an obvious vulnerability in the newcomer in me and I gathered that my friendly senior was taking special initiative to make me comfortable and feel at ease in the new environment.

However his brotherly warmth continued to exist even after my appointment. Vividly remember that day after completion of 1 year of office innings. Prior to the Durga Puja season, South Bengal was amidst a severe flood situation resulting in cancellation of holidays right from Mahalaya.

So during the comparatively long Durga Puja holiday, office was kept open, but personnel were asked to attend on roster basis. On the last official day before commencement of Durga Puja, the roster was published and I was ordered to attend office on a day falling in the middle of the holiday phase.

On that point of time, my residence was located around 260 kms from Kolkata. So just to attend a single day, I will have to make a 500 km plus to-and-fro journey ! As I got depressed on noticing the roster, the man (let's call him AP) promptly entered the scene and negotiated with the higher ups so that my roster duty falls on the last day of the holiday period.

Resultantly, I had to simply return a day earlier before commencement of normal office schedule and this arrangement would easily do for me !

And this win-win formula could have been arrived only because of the active intervention of AP!

Even after a quarter of a century from that episode, the warmth of AP still continue to shower upon me. Last April I had found myself in a severe medical crisis revolving around a family member.

Coincidentally just a week or two ago, AP also landed in a complex crisis related to economic matters despite no fault of his . Yet instead of remaining immersed in his own woes, AP used to regularly contact me to know the latest medical status and offer his valuable advice.

Simply I got stunned by his selfless magnanimity in this self-obsessed society! That a person is feeling perturbed on my suffering arrive as a huge tonic in mentally tensed and stressed state and offer a soothing balm in anxious mind!

And as a worker, small small touches used to prove the impeccable sincerity and dedication of AP. During my early days he was in charge of maintenance of leave records. In the blank spaces in the typed format, he used to write the relevant data and information of each per-sonnel. It would be injustice to him if his handwriting be termed as "Nice"! Rather it was sheer calligraphy!

Not in any personal document or diary, not even as pursuer of the profession of calligraphy ; rather his art through pen used to be showered upon mere official document and files which would hardly be taken a second glance by anybody once the information is gathered!

This proves the love and emotion of AP towards his work which provide food to his plate! And just because of his sheer involvement towards the office and colleagues, he used to write down the number of Earned leave and Medical leave at the credit of each personnel in the relevant order though no such option was present in the format !

Or when he was in charge of other assignments, just request him to provide any document without hurry for a job to be done say a week or two later. No prizes for guessing that such document would arrive along with AP within a maximum of 5 minutes! Who dares to taunt "work culture" of offices where the likes of AP also feature!

As the glorious official innings of AP is nearing its inevitable end, I get remembered of him gifting me a large pot of Honey as I used to suffer from bout of asthma very often and this anecdote also reminds me of his warm graceful nature and personality and behaviour resembling none other than Honey!

Physically AP will not make his gracious presence any more in our midst, but he will shine gallantly in the sky of our mind and heart just like Avijit (Vega) - - - brightest star of Lyra constellation - - - through his selfless nature, dedication towards work and brotherly affection cum responsibility towards all.

In Doestoevsky's classic "The Idiot", the Superintendent of the Swiss clinic says to the protagonist Lev Myshkin --- "If people try to act a bit sympathetic towards each other, majority of the problems in our society would cease to exist".

Indeed only if we all try to nurture a bit of empathy and cooperative attitude towards our fellow travellers in family neighbourhood workplace and society at large, respect each other irrespective of our demographic or social status and try to be tolerant of diverse opinions; the world would certainly attain true essence of civilization.

Our AP, the real Bhadralok, indeed follows that ideal path to embrace the vulnerable Myshkins all around us!