MANGO CHASE IN THE RAILWAY COLONY
T X Gnanaraj
Many years ago, Peter a little and mischievous boy lived in Golden Rock, the bustling railway township in Trichy, which was the head quarters of the erstwhile South Indian Railway (SIR) a company-operated railway in those days. Trichy is famous for the rock cut temple. The legend says somewhere in the early 4th century (CE), that the saints of the Jain religion lived in abundance in and around Trichy and they were part of the “palli” – meaning a congregation and school for Jin “savants” and students.

However the legend of Golden Rock is altogether different. The very justification for the township is the sprawling workshop at Golden Rock. The legend has it that when the British (Railway) officers went for tiger hunting near the hillock (Ponmalai) they found chunk of gold under a dead tiger. So the name Golden Rock was derived – “Pon Malai” in vernacular. The massive and large workshop stood impressively employing thousands of workers of varying races, religions, communities, language groups, regions of Tamil Nadu and various States. The Armory Gate at the main entrance is a landmark. The sirens – call for the workers to attend workshop would be made at 6.30 am, 6.55 am and 7.00 am for the morning session to begin the work. Again in the afternoon at 11.30 am to close the morning session. In the evening the sirens used to blare at 12.30 pm and 4.30 pm. Most of the residents in the railway townships used to know the time only with the blaring of the sirens, as the wearing a wristwatch was a luxury in those days.

The railway town ship was a veritable fairy castle for Peter. Whatever may be the demerits of the British rule, the biggest merit was their concern for education of the wards of railway employees. Not only had they thought of the wards of the Eurasian railway employees but also the native employees. Hence they started English and vernacular medium schools in large towns like Madurai, Villupuram, Trichy, Jolarpettai, Arakkonam, Jolarpettai, Palakkad, Podanur, Chennai in the Southern Railway zone. The railway township was full of various types of quarters depending upon the rank and file of the employees. While the non gazetted staff and artisan staff resided right form the A type, B type, C type, D type, to F type, the gazetted lived in the G and H types. He could tell the details right from the North D type on the one end and the G type on the other end. The walls of the workshop extended to such a large area. In between these quarters, large parks were located. These parks maintained remarkably by the administration provided the lung space for the employees and their families. These parks had all play items like see saw, slide, swing, etc for the children. In the evenings these parks would be crowded with children.
Come month end come the retirement processions with horses, bullock carts and some times even elephants leading the procession with the retired persons. In those days, longevity was not as high as of now. So retiring from the railway service after 58 years i.e. a minimum number of 35 years service was really considered as a great blessing. Indeed it was worth celebrating. Generally the retired persons would be presented with a walking stick with a silver top handle. To watch the retired persons with the walking stick proudly in their hands beaming with smile and mirth and with too many garlands around their neck was really captivating. Some of their younger colleagues would be dancing in full sprit. Normally there would be lunch distributed to every one inside the workshop or sweets not chocolates which was considered as luxury, were distributed. When the grand procession consisting of colleagues, friends and union representatives, relatives reaches home the sweet home, there was another grand dinner was waiting for them. That would remind us of a grand feast. The sons and daughters-in-law, daughters and sons-in-law, host of grand children would be having a grand dinner. Some affluent retirees would erect “pandals” like the marriage pandals and with colourful serial lights. Of course not without the blaring horns of cone shaped speakers loudly playing the MGR and Sivaji Ganesan songs from the gramophone records. It could be seen that the little boys used to dance in the open are near the pandal. In case the dinner was ful of meat, a host of dogs would be lurching around and the little rascals used chase them with varieties of stones. Definitely, the retirement function at home was a costly affair yet no one was averse to them as after all the oldies were having a real rest tike after so many years of hard work. One the same day the father retires, the son would be making arrangement to retain the railway quarters in his name. That was so common those days. It was a costly affair to think of owning a house in towns like Ponmalai. So the workers solved the crucial housing issue in a simple manner. By merely getting appointment to one of the sons or wards, the quarters would remain with them. No one was willing to part with railway quarters with varieties of trees mango and plantain and sometimes coconut trees and many flowering plants. Peter knows that there are some families live in the railway quarters for three to four generations ie for more than sixty to seventy years. That speaks of the strong houses built by the British for their workforce and the continued maintenance. Those were the past glory of PonMalai railway quarters.
The British probably thought that the physical health as well as mental health was required for the wards and their parents. The schooling is either free or with nominal fees along with uniforms. As a result, employees were relieved from worrying where to keep their children for education. That really had increased the productivity of the employees. Besides, in those days the women folk of the railway employees were illiterate or semi literate. The British did not want the women to while away their time. The administration established handicraft centers for cutting and stitching the uniforms for the employees and the railway school children. That kept the women folk occupied and eliminated the idle mind from them.

Moreover, the British believed in the all round development of the mind and body of the railway employees and their wards. They established divisional and sub divisional and health units in divisions, sub/extra divisions, and remote areas. The present day Primary Health Centers of the State Health Dept are poor comparison to those health units. They are the predecessors for these Primary Health Centers. Thus wherever large railway establishments were established, one hospital or health unit was started. Golden rock being a location for a sprawling workshop, a major hospital existed there just in front of the railway workshop. For peter and his friends it would be an expedition to go around the hospital. Many times peter and his friends used to enter the hospital under the pretext of seeing Mrs. Pereira mother of Basil or some times they were forced to go to hospital for “throat touch” a medication those days to cure throat infection – now defunct.
Peter was fortunate enough to go around the entire hospital, as his uncle had been admitted there for a prolonged period. His uncle Antonyswamy worked as Goods train Guard in the Southern Railways. To Peter the doctors with a long half sleeved white coats and stethoscope, the nurses in lily white gowns and knee length stockings, the ward boys with a short white caps, the “ayahs” with white sarees with blue double borders, the tablet racks, the long steel syringes, the bandage clothes, intravenous liners, white cots with green or red woolen blankets, the aroma of medicine etc were all totally new to him. Besides doctors told Peter’s mother that Antonyswamy was very sick and may probably die and advised her to the nearby church to pray for him. At that time his uncle was kept on the support of many tubes for breathing, for feeding, for urine output etc. that sight really frightened him and still it is embedded in his mind. Sometimes, he woke up in the middle of the night and would loudly cry. Luckily the round the clock attention of the doctors and the paramedical staff and above all the prayers of so many people including the fervent prayers of his mother, his uncle was retrieved from the cruel jaws of death. Literally peter was thankful to the doctors and paramedical staff more than to God.

Peter knew every detail of the pits and mounds along the walls as the lines in his palm. He also knew the way to “chinna”(small) park, “periya”(big) park and finally the “yaanai” (elephant) park. These were the three parks located from the main entrance at the Armory Gate till the G (officers’) quarters. The “china” park refers to the park near the armory gate, the “periya” park refers to the park near the electric transformer & the bridge and the “yaanai” park refers to the park near the G type (officers’) quarters.

Peter and his friends were interested in playing hide and seek near his house, located in the F type a bullock cart stand (“vandi” stand block) was there. The ritual of hide and seek game would start at the dusk and go on till 7 pm or until mother of any of the boys give a nasty call. The structure of the blocks were quadrangle on the three sides blocks of houses and one side plain area was very useful for the boys to play the game on a wide area. After one volunteer goes and counts one to ten under a lamp post, all other boys used to go hiding in various houses or near the fences, or behind the houses etc. The volunteer had to go around quickly and must find out the other boys. Sometimes it would be very difficult to hide as some of the boys silently went in to toilets.

For playing the hide and seek game, Peter and his friends would run block after block in the F type. While running they could not resist the temptation of the small and ripe mangoes. Even while playing hide and seek the boys had their weapons in tact. The inseparable weapon of the boys was the “catapult” which the Anglo Indian friends of Peter used to call “shooting rubber”.

Afternoons of Saturdays and Sundays were the apt time for playing hide and seek when most of the parents and elders would be snoring away their time. Some elders would be wide awake to watch the little rascals like Peter and his company jeering, shouting, booing, and running like an army company on retreat. The elders also would know that the little devils not only would disturb the tranquility of the holy afternoons but also invariably indulge in mango shooting with their terrible “catapult”. Indeed the “catapult” was a terrible weapon in the hands of these little rascals. They were used not only to shoot the mangoes but also the “oonaans” , the garden lizards. The pebbles in the case to mangoes and the iron pieces in the case of lizards were ammunition for the shooting. The pebbles hit the mango accurately and the mangoes would be shared equally among the wandering little rascals.

Another pastime for the boys was playing marbles in the vast tract of land between the railway quarters’ blocks. Every block of quarters would have a gang of boys and it was very difficult to penetrate such gangs. In case of any trouble or gang war the entire gang would rally up with the affected boy. Such was the solidarity among the gangs. Purchase of marble was entirely an interesting affair itself. Each one would be very secretive not to reveal the source or shop from where the marbles were purchased. Some marbles are strong and sturdy while some are not so hard and enduring.
Also the magnificent Railways Institute stood where Peter and his friends would sneak to watch the Ballroom Dance conducted in connection with some Anglo Indian functions like New Year, Christmas, somebody’s birthday, some wedding anniversary and marriages were held. There would be heavy scramble and competition to stand near the window to peep and watch the Anglo Indian couples swinging to drums and music. Peter always liked the “biriyani” (delicious food prepared with lot of spices and meat) distributed during such dance schedules. He, some how used to get a portion of the “biriyani” from his Anglo Indian friends especially from Joan who was very fond of him.

The houses in the railway township would invariably have a mango tree, a drumstick tree and a few plantain trees. Probably the mango and drumstick trees were the secret reason for high rate of birth in the railway colonies. For the first time the people from many states, many castes and communities speaking many languages, started to live together. It was a wonderful experience for Peter. Dravida Mani, Srinivasan alias Seenu, Sampathkumar alias Sampth, Mohanarangam alias Mohan were some of his friends. Peter also had some girl friends. Emelda, Vanaja, Kalaichelvi, Kalyani were his friends too.

Hey stop! The railway township was multi lingual, multi regional, multi religious, and multi racial too. So nothing prevented Peter to become friendly with the boys and girls of the Anglo Indian community. Peter was friendly with Kevin Wood, Ralph Fernandez, Joan Pereira, Sandra Brian and others. Some of them even walk with him up to the Tamil medium Railway school and take part ways to their English medium railway school at the far end of the quarters near the Pon Malai.

Indian Railways is the pioneers in providing quality primary and higher education to the wards of railway employees. With this lofty aim, the railways have established numerous primary, secondary, high schools and higher secondary schools to provide liberal education both in English as well as vernacular. In southern railways alone there were atleast seventeen schools. These schools not only facilitated the wards of the railway employees but also the students from non-railway employees. Two such schools are located in Golden Rock. One is an English medium school and the other was Tamil – vernacular medium school. However both the schools existed in a sprawling campus adjacent to the Golden Rock “Pon malai”. The number of students both girls and boys in Tamil Medium school was far too greater than those in the English medium school.

Peter was in the Railway Mixed Multi Purpose High School for only three years from 6th Std to 8th Std. the Tamil medium school was located in three different places. While the primary sections 1st Std to 3rd Std near the Armory Gate, 4th Std to Std 6th stood near the “china” park and the 7th Std to 11th was located near the Golden Rock along with the English medium school. He could remember some of his teachers Shri Abraham, Smt Ganga Bhai, Smt Amala Bala Chander, Shri Ayyalu, Shri Nelson the terrible PT master, Shri Kalyanaraman, Shri Davis, and

Another past time for the boys was flying the kites. The month of February is the ideal time for flying kites, as the winds are soft and salubrious. The large ground on the way to the Pon Malaipatti Bus stand, near the F type became handy for Peter and his friends. There would be variety of kites. Some made out of newspapers, glass papers, and color papers. Some are even strange shaped kites revealing the creativity of the individual.

The work of making the strong thread would begin immediately after the Pongal - makara Sankaranthi (harvest) festival. Boys used to scramble to collect variety of ingredients for making a strong thread. Broken glass pieces, home made gums, yellow powder, etc would be applied on the ordinary thread to make it stronger. That was done to indulge in “deal” meaning cutting the thread of other kites while kites afloat. One needs special tactics to make his kite fly at the highest point in the sky and also skillfully cut the thread of the other kites. There would be verbal and some times even physical duals on the strife. Boys of the same block use to make a gang and each gang would spring to support in case the thread of any of the kits flown by members of their gang. There used to be betting also among various gangs.

Peter was very particular to accompany his mother to the Sunday market – “shandy” it was called by the Europeans. Every Sunday morning till late in the evening the huge ground would be full of all grocery, vegetables, cookies, utensils, clothes, fowls and hens, goats, halwa (a north Indian sweet made of wheat flour, ghee and white sugar it comes as a sticky paste and tongue lashing taste) and sherbet.

The secret behind his voluntarism to accompany his mother to the Sunday market was the “rose milk” priced at 4 anas (an ana contained six paise and one rupee consisted 12 anas even today the words kaal ana, ettana are in vogue while the kaal ana is today’s 25 paise coin and the ettana is today’s 50 paise coin). He would first remind his mother on the previous day when she goes to church (St Joseph’s Church – dedicated to the workers’ patron saint St Joseph, a carpenter by profession, foster father of Jesus Christ) for the Saturday novena. “ Amma tomorrow I would come to market with you and you will get me rose milk”. His mother would immediately agree that she would definitely get him rose milk.

Peter was content with the rose milk – the pink colored drink with the seeds of one herb “sabja”, the lingering taste of it in his tongue while some of his companions would check in at the “badam halwa” stall. Two or three “badam halwa” stalls used to be there. Each shop would exhibit a huge life-size photographs of wresting champions – some even said the person was non other than “Bhima” the wrestler brother of Arjuna one of the chief protagonists of the great epic Mahabharat. Peters’ friends would buy halwa for 4 annas and immediately after eating would like to twist their hind arms muscles and boast with their companions.

Another place Peter would like to go with his mother was the Syndicate Bank near the Railway cinema theatre. Since there were little private players in the field of entertainment in the railway quarters’ area, the Southern Railway itself had cinema theatre near the accounts office (SAO/W&S/GOC). When Peter’s father was working in Guntakal, Peter and his family lived in Ponmalaipatti a village cum town on the edge of the Golden rock railway quarters. Peter had never seen a bank until his mother asked him one day to accompany her to the bank. Peter had no idea about a bank. On entering the bank he saw people queuing up to deposit or withdraw money.

When he asked his mother what she was doing in the bank. She explained to him that his father would send money through the same bank in Guntakal and the money would be deposited in her name in the bank in Golden rock. She would withdraw money to meet the family expenses. Peter went around the bank premises with inquisitive mind. At that time itself he planned that the very next day he would share with his classmates his experience at the bank. Peter could not still understand how the money deposited by his father at Guntakal would be reaching the bank in Golden Rock. The same doubt he had also whenever the postman used to deliver some money to some families instead of letters. Anyhow he made up his mind to share the experience.

Peter was studying in the 5th standard at the St Agnes Higher Elementary School, Ponmalaipatti. The congregation of sisters of Servite of Mary Immaculate ran it. Peter could never forget the school as joyous days at the school still lingers his mind. Though he studied there for only four years, the impression made by his school was very deep.

Peter was very weak in mathematics – anyhow, he learnt that almost 90 percent of students are weak in mathematics. To his annoyance the mathematic teacher always used to ask questions, tables, memory mathematics only with Peter. Many times he was humiliated. The mathematics teacher -to rub salt to the wound- used to call Peter’s younger sister who was two years junior to him to teach mathematics in front of the entire class. Peter used to hate such humiliating situations. The only solace for Peter was, after all it was his own sister and not some other girls to add injury to the insult.

One day after the school was over some boys were playing with the wooden fences – palisades. Without knowing the implication, Peter joined them and enjoyed throwing the palisades here and there. Lo, suddenly, the HM (nun sister) came in to the scene and the elderly boys just took to their heels and vanished leaving behind only Peter and his friend Sukumar to be caught red handed by the HM (nun sister). Both of them were perplexed and did not know what to do and they were wondering why the senior boys just ran away and vanished. They could not understand that throwing unused and dismantled palisades would be such a crime in the school campus. The HM told the boys to bring their parents the next day before the start of the school assembly.

During the assembly the next day Peter’s mother and Sukumar’s mother were present. After the initial prayers, the HM sister called upon Peter and Sukumar to come stand near the flag mast. Peter and Sukumar were in jitters and wondering what is going to happen to them for the “offence” they have done. To everyone’s surprise and to the surprise of the mothers of Peter and Sukumar, the HM sister, stated that it was a shameful thing to damage the palisades in the school for the senior boys and left the junior and innocent boys to face the HM the other day. She warned that unless the seniors on their own come forward and accept responsibility she would remove the boys from the school. One by one the seniors ventured out and stood in front of every body with their heads hung deep in to their chest. The HM sister was kind enough to absolve the seniors and warned them that any recurrence would prompt their dismissal from the school.

The punishment for any serious offence is to carry the bricks up to the second floor of a building under construction. The number of bricks would vary according to the offence and the class. However, that would be trivial compared to the joyful moments he spent in the school. He vividly remembered the day he was admitted in to the school by his elder sister since his father was busy with the work and his mother could not come to the school. His elder sister told him “Peter you should join this school so that along with all of us you could come to school”. “You would get “pall” (milk) powder twice in a week” Peter had only tasted the milkmaid condensed milk brought home by his grandfather but he had not tasted the milk powder offered at the school. Only on tasting the milk powder Peter realized the taste even surpassed his “Sunday market ambrosia – Rose milk. No body can explain the taste of the milk powder. Later Peter came to know that the milk powder and broken wheat were received free from the USA through CARITAS – a social welfare Organization of the Roman Catholic Church.

Petrified, the senior boys quietly came forward and stood in silence. The HM sister said the she appreciated the juniors i.e. Peter and Sukumar, who on seeing the HM sister, did not run away but stood there to explain. She could judge they were after all innocent yet she wanted the seniors to understand the mistake of throwing the blame on the juniors on detection and wanted them to accept the responsibility voluntarily. Peter had learnt a lesson that day which he ever practiced thereafter. He would always appreciate and forgive person who accept the responsibility for goofing and own up moral responsibility.

Peter had a classmate by name Sukumar. He was very short and puny in stature. He was very timid and shy. One day Peter had told him that there was a huge vulture sitting atop the school roof and it likely to lift him when he went home in the evening. He forgot what he told Sukumar and took it as a childish prank. He left home as soon as the last bell rang. When he went to school the next day he learnt that Sukumar was having high fever and the reason was that some one in the class frightened him that a giant vulture would lift him when he would return to home. Fortunately, Sukumar did not reveal who frightened him. Peter heaved a sigh of relief. God had saved him really Peter thought.

Peter like any of his age group boys used to boast his lineage greatly to his friends. It was true that in his native village in Tirunelveli his maternal grandfather had vast track of lands and was considered as the ipse facto leader of the village. He had traveled to Malaysia, Singapore, Ceylon in those days, as there was no need of passport, visa. The entire south Asia was under the British Empire. Similarly, his paternal grandfather was a teacher in the Penang Free School, Penang, Malaysia and he died and was buried there. Peter told his classmates that his grandfather had vast tracks of land and in it some forests, meadows, hillock were also included. Further he said that wild animals used to roam freely in his grandfather’s jungles. Another grandfather, who was in the Indian army, went for hunting in those jungles. His classmates listened to the stories Peter used to spin, took him seriously and believed whatever he said.

Further, Peter’s another maternal grandfather Mr Ratnam, was a Non Commissioned Officer in the Indian army. He had joined the army during the World War II and visited Peter’s home during vacations. Mr Ratnam was a Subedhar Major and during the World War II he had fought along the with the military personnel of the allied nations (British, American and Russian) in Saigon, Vietnam, on the banks of river Irawati, Rangoon, Burma, in the deep jungles of Cambodia, in the hilly terrain of the Chiang Mai , Thailand etc. Whenever, he made a visit to Peter’s house he used to bring a large black colour trunk box containing tins of condensed milk, clothes, chocolates and other gifts. Peter was least interested in such “childish” items.

Peter used to admire the two guns his grandfather brought with him. One was a single barrel gun and the other was double barrel gun issued by the army. Sometimes Peter tried to lift one of the guns. His grandfather used to laugh at him. His grandfather, during the vacations, went for hunting to the forests near Tiruverumbur, those days a small forest with wild pigs, udumbu, flamingos, cranes ( naarai, kokku), water birds ( naarai, ullan etc). The BHEL’s Boiler Plant started with the cooperation of Czechoslovakia today stands majestically along with the National Institute of Technology (formerly Regional Engineering College, Trichy). Those days even the employees of BHEL declined to live in the newly built two storey quarters in fear of burglary and attack by wild animals.

When his grandfather, went for hunting sometimes he used to take Peter with him. His grandfather always went for hunting with his full army uniform with the medals etc full paraphernalia. Peter used to wonder why on earth his grandfather was wearing the army uniform which he considered irksome. One day as he went with his grandfather for hunting for the first time, the town bus stopped at the sign made by his grandfather. Peter had seen town buses stop only at the bus stop sometimes do not even stop. However, on seeing a person with full army uniform, the town bus driver stopped the bus. Peter realized the reason for his grandfather wearing the army uniform whenever he went for hunting.

Peter had his clothes stitched by Varghese tailor in Ponmalaipatti. Those days Varghese was a very famous tailor for stitching children as well as elders’ dresses. Paulose, son of Varghese tailor, was a classmate with Peter’s sister. For the first holy communion of Peter (a sacrament in the Catholic church when boys and girls reach the age of 10 or 11 they would be permitted to partake the holy body and blood of Christ in the form of host made of wheat and red wine) Peter’s father had stitched the clothes - white half pants and half sleeves shirt with a white bow with the help of Varghese the tailor. Till this day Peter would proudly show the photograph to every one including his children and grand children. Now the breed of tailors is on the wane as from old to young people prefer to wear readymade clothes. However Peter had never liked the ready made clothes, as they were irksome and over or undersized. Varghese’s tailor shop was located on the main road in Ponmlaipatti. During the evening Mani the baker would bring in his tricycle with a bell, coconut buns, biscuits, rusk, and other baked items. Peter would be invariably waiting for Mani to buy the tasty coconut bread. Before Mani visits a place the sweet fragrance of baked coconut bread would go and from the fragrance itself, every child would know that Mani is on his way. Udhaya sooriyan (rising sun), the hair saloon, was another place where Peter would frequent during leisure time. It was a hotbed of persons with various political leanings and the most important being the communists. Peter was not interested in politics as he was not aware what was what, but he used to go there to study the once famous and now defunct “soviet land” Tamil Magazine. He used to read it avidly the heroic stories of the development of the peoples of the Soviet Union, the news items on the science and technology, the developmental work, the stories of the various states of the Soviet Union like Girghistan, Azerbaijan, Bylo Russian, the essays on the education and schooling at soviet Russia, the children retreat at Kiev on the banks of Caspian sea, the dolls of the central Asian republics, Tashkent etc etc. it was a different world. Once he took the magazine there was no time for anything including food or water. Peter was slowly attracted to the humanism of the communism, though as a Christian he was taught to hate communism. At one point he even wanted to participate in the annual essay competition and go to Russia. He even dreamt of marrying a Russian girl and settle in Ukraine republic.

Once Peter and his parents were invited for a marriage at C type quarters. When they reached with some gifts (normally ever silver utensils which were a status symbol those days with the name of the donor engraved by a smith who normally sits at the entrance of the utensil shops), there were three houses were teaming with people and all the houses had huge plantain trees (it was a symbol of plenty and abundance and represent the generation of people according to folk lore and tradition) gorgeously tied at the entrance.

Those days there were no marriage halls and railway staff used to celebrate the marriages at the house itself due to spacious places available. Peter and his parents went in to the pandal (a shamiana type made out of coconut leaves and white clothes) and sat for dinner. Some one from the guests recognized Peter’s father and asked what he was doing here. Only then Peter and his parents realized their folly. They had gone to dine in another house instead of the house they intended to attend. Such identity crisis used to happen often in railway quarters. Thereafter some ingenious railway staff started keeping huge name boards out side the pandal indicating the name of the married couple.

Sometimes sad occasion too happened. One day Seenu annan, residing opposite to Peter’s house, met with an accident. The entire houses in the two blocks were stunned. Despite being a Saturday, no one looked happy. It was as if the entire movement of the world has come to a stand still. The whole day the boys’ gang never peeped out of the houses. No radio was heard. Only the men who went to the workshops were seen returning. Everyone was eager to know the status of Seenu annan who was admitted in the Government Hospital at Trichy town. Some one whispered that Seenu is likely to be shifted to Railway Hospital. Some clever boys ran to the house of Mrs Pereira who was a Matron at the Railway Hospital. Basil son of Mrs. Pereira told the boys that Mrs. Pereira had gone to hospital for duty and only on her return they would know the status of Seenu annan. By evening at 7 pm there was confirmed news that Seenu annan has been transferred to Railway hospital and he was indeed conscious. All the people in the two blocks heaved a big sigh. Some mothers, who were fasting without even drinking a drop of water from morning, finally broke their fast and started eating. Such was the explicit expression of solidarity and sympathy with the grieving family of Seenu annan. Every one was touched by the act of people and felt that the village spirit of concern and sympathy was evident and they were fortunate enough to live with such compassionate people. Some clever persons reminded it is not god who caused the solidarity but Indian railways and every one should be thankful to the Indian railways. Many more stories on the social life of the railway employees in the vast and greenly railway quarters exist in every nook and corner of this vast country where the railway network has expanded.

COMPUTER AS AID TO EFFICIENT MANAGEMENT

Shri C K Hassan Koya (now Sr So /Construction/Calicut) my colleague introduced me to the wonderful world of computers, in the year 1995. At that time there was only one PC 486 colour monitor. The colours fascinated me but frightened by the jargons a few computer savvies spoke. Yet I was determined to try my hands on computer. Everyday in the evening after office hours I used to sit before the computer that was kept in a narrow room. At least minimum of one hour I used to sit before it.
I was at that time a Senior Section Officer of Establishment Audit Section. The section was in total disorganized as most of the works were done manually and the section has to depend on a few individuals for such specialized works. Further, the files were kept in a disorderly manner that no one can locate important files easily. I had tremendous tasks before me but I had to face them alone of course with the help of computer.

ORGANIZING AND INDEXING SECTION FILES:
As a first step to organize the files I listed out the files subject wise and number wise. I indexed them with the knowledge I gained as student of library classification. I had completed my Bachelor of Library and Information Science (BLIS) earlier. I used the Dewey Decimal Classification for this purpose. Accordingly, the files were organized subject wise and number wise. Using the elasticity of Dewey decimal classification, it was easy to segregate the files. Further these files were given a distinct serial number on the top right corner for easy identification. Also the list of files according to the serial number was displayed in the cupboard for quick retrieval. I used Lotus 1-2-3 an MS DOS based spreadsheet for this purpose. Also I used the Norton Editor (NE) a predecessor word processor to word star to make word files.

PREPARATION OF PAY TABLES:
The preparation of pay tables until I joined the section was a highly classified secret practice and no one except one person was able to prepare it. In the beginning, I used to go and wait for the clerk to come and prepare the pay table. This is a basic document for the payment to artisans in the workshops. Incidentally, Carriage and Wagon Workshop, Locomotive Workshop, Electrical Workshops, Engineering Workshop, Flash Butt Welding Workshop, S&T Workshop, Press, General Stores Depot (GSD) and Mechanical Stores Depot (MSD) are under the administrative control of this office. This document will display each shop in many batches and groups duly indicating the cash amount to be disbursed. Eg : The Carriage Building Shop in the Carriage & Wagon Shop/PER, is divided into several batches so that there are enough pay clerks to make the payment. The money value of each group would be around Rs 5 Lakhs. The cashiers will draw cash using this document and handover the cash to the pay clerks and obtain acknowledgement. There was to be four batches for Carriage and Wagon Workshop, two for Loco Workshops, two for Electrical Workshop, two for Engineering Workshops, and one each for GSD, MSD & S&T. The cash total was to tally with the total cash amount provided to the cash office. Some of the shops in Loco, Carriage and Electrical used to intermingle and thereby create confusion. I studied the document for a week and found out that if the format can be fed into to computer, the secrecy and dependence would be eliminated. Accordingly, I used the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet to prepare the pay table. For two months I prepared parallel pay tables allowing the same clerk to prepare the manual pay tables. After two months, the clerk was surprised that I did not wait for him to prepare the pay table. Any one from the section could now prepare pay tables for the artisan payment. One of computer savvy clerks by name S Chandrasekar, was very enthusiastic about the new facility created by me. He was to prepare the payment duty honorarium for the staff every month manually. He hit upon an idea to link the pay table WK3 file with the payment of honorarium file WK3 using the vertical hold and horizontal hold facility available in the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet. Previously, the payment honorarium bill was to be prepared manually after ten days. Now after four months of computerized milieu of the pay tables and the list of pay clerks, the payment honorarium bill could be prepared within two days after the ninth payment.

PREPARATION OF QUARTERLY STATEMENT OF PAY AND ALLOWANCES:
This statement is prepared once in a quarter indicating the various types of establishment expenditure department wise and Primary Unit wise (e.g. 01, 02, 04, 06,07,08,09 etc. Three numbers of double foolscap were required to prepare the statement manually. The dealer is to collect the details from the bill passing register of each bill passing clerk total them vertically (primary unit wise) and horizontally (department wise). Also the statement had to indicate the number of staff group wise e.g. A, B C & D. I literally took pity on the clerk and together with him I explored the ways to improvise the methodology to mitigate the misery of the clerk. I encouraged all the staff to strike totals at the end of each page and the dealing clerk had to collect only the page total and enter in the appropriate lotus 1-2-3 wk3 file spreadsheet that is already loaded with arithmetical as well as logical formula.
DRAFT PROPOSAL FOR ANNUAL TRANSFER OF TIAs:
The most important task before any AAO Station Inspection is the annual transfer exercise that earnestly begins in the first week of February. There were about 100 TIAs in the HQs section as well as in the HQ. There were many sections in the HQ. The HQ, PRS, Rapid Force, Rates etc. The divisions are MAS, TPJ, MDU, TVC and PGT. Though the fifty percent of the TIAs are clustered in the HQ, it is the toughest decision to change them within their work spot. The outstation transfers are relatively easier as the division wise transfers are done due to the regional groupings. e g the TIAs from MDU normally would not prefer to go to TVC or PGT divisions and vice versa. It is this common minimum program among the TIAs of outstations helped smooth transfers. The speculations and lobbying would start as early as January as the dead line for transfer application is December. Until the transfer orders are published there will be daily-unauthorized orders issued locally over the teacups. Many a heartburn case is reported on the management or mismanagement of the TIAs’ annual transfers. This time my DY FA&CAO /T wanted to play it safe as she was genuinely interested in the welfare of the TIAs and their families. I suggested that computer can be used to create a data base consisting of station codes, names of optees for each station, number of years of service each TIA completed etc. these details were already available in the MS Excel worksheet format. I created a new database file incorporating all the details of each TIA. Earlier the Administration and Organised Trade Unions have signed an undertaking on the norms for transfer of TIAs. Then a station wise option wise and seniority wise statement was prepared. The list was displayed to Dy FA&CAO/T for her final decision. She according to the seniority of the TIAs, transferred the TIAs. Surprisingly, the transfer order was a total success. Meanwhile, a separate meeting was held for the TIAs of PGT and TVC divisions due to earlier mismanagement of transfer of TIAs on those two divisions. During the meeting, which Dy herself presided, made the norms of transfer clear and the vacancy positions were made available to the TIAs. That transparency won the hearts of the TIAs and they readily agreed for the proposed transfer. Probably, for the first time in SN section the TIA transfer orders were accepted whole-heartedly without any murmur.

PREPARATION OF SECTION PROFILE:
Another instance where computer came handy in the efficient management of sections is the preparation of section profile. Though the computational ability of the computer is exploited, the computer is used to store and retrieve the section profile. The section profile would contain the following: Staff Profile (DOB, DOA, EQ, previous experience, address etc) Work Allocation, List of Files & Registers, Training Details, register of registers, calendar events, internal and external reporting etc. this would serve as a ready reference to new incumbent section officers, officers and inspecting officials, internal auditors etc. besides the official information, it creates a personal relationship with the subordinate staff and win over their confidence. In a large organization like railways, the interpersonal relations are missing and that creates a rift at various levels. Cheerful and cordial relations would definitely improve the work output.