Rest in peace – Anuradha Bhavsar
I have never had the opportunity to
scold her, applaud her, harrangue her or align with her
proffessionally. Neither did I had any inclination, time ,reason or
interest to know her personally. She was one of the faces which is
lost in the crowd of people you interact in the course of your daily
grind. Slightly built and of below average height with a medium
complexion and non descript features . There was nothing in her
appearance that made her stand out in a collection of people. And she
always remained at the background. Because of her status in the
hierarchy, maybe because of her position within a group of highly
ambitious people with overall level of higher IQ. Maybe because of
that feeling of not getting integrated to the people with whom she
worked with . And she was a young kid. Just 21 years or so. Even
younger than my own son.
But she did her work dutifully and with
dilligence. I noticed her stay up very late sometimes on a heavy day
even as many others have left. I often wondered what such people
would be thinking in their minds as everybody left home and they
continue to work on their workstations with heaps of unfinished work.
But again on the next day, one would find them typing out on the
keyboard right in the morning.
I had not much interaction with
Anuradha Bhavsar. Neither did I recollect her instantly when a friend
mentioned her. She joined as an executive in Axis Bank and was
working in the Treasury department inside the Dealing room. Her job
was the lowest in the chain within the Dealing room, sending routine
mails in the morning, typing out letters for the Head ,performing
routine jobs , attending to phonecalls and entering deals in the
system on behalf of other dealers. I have officially interacted with
her very sparingly , mostly connected with sending advisory emails to
clients or getting some documentss scanned or copied, because the
scanner /printer in any office always remain an object of mystery to
me.
During informal get togethers of the
colleagues over samosa parties or birthday cake cuttings also she
tended to align with the other colleague of her rank and they would
stand at one of the corners at the edge of the gathering. In such
gathering where light banter and wisecracks are applauded with laugh
all around and people try to impress others and more particularly
their bosses, nobody cared for their views. Actually this is an
universal problem with high energy centres like treasury dealing
rooms of private banks . You have a collection of young , intelligent
, ambitious, career oriented and performance bonus oriented people
trying to race ahead of the next seat colleague . People play all
types of games to be in the limelight and the feeling of being left
behind is a curse you carry with .
But within the oasis of such people
with above average salaries and high bonuses are patches of deserts
in the form of executives and messengers who are needed to maintain
all the logistical hassles. They are not paid too well and when
compared with the people they work with the gap is too yawning . That
probably makes them a little diffident . Overawed by the
workpressure and the importance of the deals exuded by others they go
into a shell . And perhaps no one cares to break through that layer.
I myself never did . And I doubt only a handful of the colleagues
will be able to say where Anuradha lived. But she was there ,
everyday .
Yesterday , when a friend asked me
whether I knew Anuradha, I could not recollect her at first. Then I
got the news of her death. And I had a faint recollection of her.
When I saw her face in the newspaper article today, I remembered her
for a moment of sadness. It is always sad to learn about a death. She
was not a near one. Only someone who was a colleague in the same
department without too much interaction. But she greeted me with a
Good morning or nodded to me whenever she passed me by. As I said
earlier, I have never had the opportunity to scold her, applaud her,
harrass her or align with her proffessionally. Neither did I had any
inclination, time ,reason or interest to know her personally. But I
feel a sense of loss today. To die at such an young age ! And in thse
circumstances.
A sense of outrage grips me as I read
this newspaper report. But this too shall pass. I will return back to
my daily routine by afternoon. Colleagues will speak about her on
Monday in the coffeepoint . Maybe there will be a small memorial with
a minute's silence to honour her . We will all pray for her soul.
Then we will forget her.
But she did not die naturally. It was a
case of criminal negligence on the part of the doctors. One can say
it is a sort of murder. The whole story is really scary and whoever
learns it will feel uncomfortable We tend to read these things often
and dismiss them from our minds saying – These things happen. Only
when we find something like this happening to someone we know, it
jolts us . Anuradha's death is tragic. Even more tragic is the sense
of alienation that we carry within us. Not reaching out to people.
Not understanding them. Not being able to be of help to anyone
around. Not knowing people. Not keeping track . Not being able to
recollect .
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