In 1934, Mr. Shambhu Nath Bhattacharyya, or SNB for short, was a mere 9 years old when the world around him collapsed. He was the eldest of 3 siblings which included a 5-year old sister and a brother who was just 8 months old. All of a sudden, his father, who was the station master of a wayside and non-descripit station, going by the name of Kalunga, expired, leaving behind a widow and 3 children. The cause of his death was a gastric ulcer which burst and led to internal bleeding. Kalunga, was a god-forsaken place, with no medical facilities or even a GP to refer to in case of need. The family was overnight rendered both headless and helpless. In sheer desperation they moved to their ancestral home at Faridpur Dist. in what what was then East Pakistan and what is now Bangaladesh. However, this move did not prove...
more... to be prudent or satisfactory and in the aftermath of the communal riots in the early 40s, the family once again shifted base to Tatanagar in 1942.
There were quite a few relatives of the family in Tatanagar and many of them were employed with BNR (Bengal Nagpur Railways), the precursor of the undivided SER. And railway jobs were literally available for the asking. All you needed was a reference by a serving employee. And soon enough, SNB, who had passed the MATRICULATION exam with a 1st Division, secured a job in the Raliway GRAIN SHOP that very year. It took me some time to understand what this grain shop was, as I initially misunderstood it to be some kind of a factory shop. But on probing SNB explained that it was nothing but a RATION SHOP owned and managed by the Rail company to ensure that its employees did not desert their places of posting on the grounds of non-availability of essential commodities. As SNB pointed out to me there were quite a few families there hailing from Kerala, Tamilnadu and AP. And the grain shop even sold raw coffee seeds to cater to their requirements, apart from the usual rice, wheat and pulses. However, the nature of the job which was a temporary one, did not appeal to SNB. He was a good student and cut out for better things. It was therefore inevitable that he gave up the job and a few months later joined as a GOODS CLERK.
SNB thereafter worked for about a year as a goods clerk but even that job was not to his liking. He appeared for an apprenticeship exam conducted by SER and joined the Mechanical Department in 1944. He had at last found a placement to his satisfaction and retired in 1986 as a Boiler Inspector at Kharagpur. Now this is a post in IR that no longer exists with the phase-out of steam locos. I asked him about the duties that this job entailed and he explained to me at length the work he had to perform. Each running steam loco had to be examined by a BI every month and tested for water leakage,steam leakage and boiler scales. These defects according to SNB hampered the efficiency of the locos besides endangering passenger safety. There was so much pride in his eyes and voice as he spoke at length on the matter. The BI had to furnish a mandatory monthly FITNESS CERTIFICATE in respect of each loco in service. The attitude of the gentleman mirrored his philosophy that " Work is Worship ". According to him, minor defects in the locos were set right at the loco shed under his supervision while for major repairs they had to be despatched to the workshop. In the middle of the discussion, he told me that the jurisdiction of BNR and later the erstwhile undivided SER extended from Howrah to Waltair (now Vizag) on the Madras line (880 kms ) and up to Nagpur on the Bombay line (1139 kms). It also included a number of branch lines besides the link line to Asansol as a connect to ER. And as if to test my knowledge he asked me " Do you know how many divisions were there under SER ? " and I started off with Howrah. Pat came the correction " You are wrong. Howrah was the Zonal HQ but not a division ". And he rattled off the names of the 7 divisions at one go. These were Kharagpur, Khurda, Waltair, Tatanagar, Bilaspur, Nagpur and Adra, if I remember right. Each division had one BI while Kharagpur, the mother division had 2. However I got a chance to display my knowledge when he asked me the present jurisdiction of the fragmented SER.
In fine, interacting with this IR veteran was a great learning experience and one I shall cherish for many many years to come. I hope I have been able to convey the gist of the life and times of SNB as narrated by him. For it is difficult if not impossible to accurately bring out each and every facet of a conversation with a dedicated employee like him. Thank you friends for bearing with me patiently for 2/3 days till the conclusion of this post.
