Hard work and loyalty pays

This is a story that was told to me by my paternal grandmother when I was a child. It was certainly not the kind of bedtime fairy tales grandmothers have been narrating from time immemorial. This one was real.

Once upon a time during the British rule in India, she said, a white man came to Aligarh (part of the state of Uttar Pradesh). A businessman by temperament, he found the place quite suitable for establishing a lock manufacturing factory.

The Englishman - one S - set up a unit and helped give the city name and fame as being the country's main centre for producing quality locks in those early decades of the last century. He bought a huge chunk of land and built up the factory on half of it and a sprawling bungalow on the remaining half for himself.

A nature lover, he planted various trees and plenty of bougainvilleas with lush green lawns in the centre. Bearing paper thin flowers in different hues - red, yellow, white, blue - the creepers heavily covered the boundary walls of the huge compound providing a feast to the eye.

S created a small farm at the rear. Water for irrigation was drawn from a well by a pair of bullocks. The water was used for the fields and also to fill up a big reservoir. The process was repeated again and again.

Sipping tea on the lawns, the Englishman and his wife would watch nature's beauty around them. Their well maintained lawns often attracted locals and became a cause of envy for some in the city.

One day, S decided to employ an Indian with a fair knowledge of English, to assist him with the office work. He came across one MLR, tested and appointed him. S would address him as Pandit (because in his view most Indian Hindus belonged to the dominant sect of Pandits who were essentially vegetarian).

S was happy with MLR's work but would deal with business correspondence himself. That pinched MLR so, he would quietly peruse the files and memorise S's style.

One day, he drafted a few letters and showed them to the boss.

The Englishman was taken aback. He showed them to his wife and daughter inside, shouting like a boy, "Katherine, look. Pandit writes just like me. I can't believe it".

MLR was promoted as the firm's manager. Demonstrating his greatness, S confessed to MLR that he held a wrong opinion and apologised to him. During the summers, the boss would leave his business and even household affairs in the safe hands of MLR.

After some years, S decided to settle down in South Africa. He refused several offers and decided to transfer his business only to MLR, his loyal and honest manager, even for a paltry sum.

The next day, MLR became the proud owner of the reputed lock manufacturing factory and the huge bungalow and the farm as well. Loyalty and honesty had been rewarded. S and his wife were given a tearful farewell by MLR's family.

Then there was no news of the family. Wide-eyed and mesmerised by now, I asked, "And what about Pandit, the manager? Where is he?

"In the living room, scolding your father."

"Huh? My father? Why? Who is he?"

"Your father's father&. Your grandfather and my husband", she chuckled as I went even more wide-eyed in happiness.

Instead of going to sleep, I sat up in the bed trying to visualise once again all that I had just heard.

Lalit Raizada is a journalist based in India.