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SAM CLUB DAY ‘16

Sarah Tucker students awai ng their turn to get
Dr. Radhakrishnan's autograph

Later Madan Mohan Lal Verma, progress foreman, would visit me to ascertain if I had any requirements and
was amazed to see that we had no beds and we'd spread the ma resses on the floor to sleep! He quickly went
home and arranged for two charpoys to be delivered. These were short and the ma resses would protrude far
beyond the charpoy! However he was happy that his AWM did not have to floor it. It was early February anyway
and there was s ll some chill in Kalka. Subadra was moved with the spontaneity of Verma.

One of the first things that I had done earlier was to dispense with the services of a shop khalasi who was
working for the AWM at home. Being a small town this bit of news spread quickly and earned me the reputa on
as a person who seeks no favour, that is not officially due to him, from IR. It earned me many friends from the
senior supervisor community and made my job easy. Interes ngly, Dr. Mathur, the railway doctor
complimented me about this.

In Kalka we were treated like royalty, ge ng an invita on from various senior foremen for tea. Most found it
very difficult to cater to her tastes, due to her strict “no-onion, no-garlic” s pula ons! Verma family was to be
the first to be taken by surprise by what was considered to be a near-impossible condi on to meet! He would
quickly rush to the nearby shop to fetch a packet of biscuits. Those invited us later were a li le be er prepared.
But they were all fascinated that the AWM's bride was a young girl all the way from deep south. She and I would
have to explain the proximity of the place to Kanya Kumari and they'd all be suitably amused. And she did not
speak a word of Hindi!

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