If I Try, I Can Fly
“I am proud to be a security guard!”
By Shrestha Roy Chowdhury
Rabindra in front of his workplace
Who is Rabindra?
This story is about Rabindra, 32, who works as a security guard in Ananda Rangapillai Library, Pondicherry University. He left his home in Judgepur, Odisha, more than a decade ago in search of work to support his family. Primarily from a farming family, he did not pursue that career, and in his teenage years, he left his home. He is proud of who he has become today and the honest work that he does. To me, he seems one of the most motivating and kind individuals I have met in Pondicherry.
“My family’s condition wasn’t well enough, I had to get my sister married and get my family stabilized. It is the responsibility of the son in the family to take it all on his shoulders when difficult times come.”
Rabindra, enjoying a day off at his home.
Clearly, that thought still has to reach every nook and cranny of the country. But who are we to criticize a man, for whom it is important that he can provide his family with all the care that he can provide? Rabindra is from a farming family. Although their farming did somehow manage to feed the family, it hardly gave them anything more. And the work was too intense.
“I have seen in my village. People still have tons of problems in their families after getting married and resorting to farming. The workload is too much and the pay is too little.”
Rabindra and his sister are cooking dinner.
Hence, when his maternal cousin was working in Surat, Gujarat, he left for there and started working as a security guard. That was his first gig. He managed to save up enough to get his elder sister married. He was 14-15 years old back then. After a few years of his sister getting married, he moved to Pondicherry to stay with her family and started working again as a security guard. He believes a sedentary lifestyle of most clerical jobs is the reason why we have so much prevalence of diseases. Hence, he always tries to keep active and work out every day. And promotes this to anyone he meets. He learns new things almost all the time when he is free on his mobile. He is especially fond of searching for different meditation methods and their benefits.
“I work out and meditate every morning. And take long walks every morning and evening by the beach barefoot. It is important for our well-being.”
After his evening walk by the beach, barefoot
What keeps him going?
“You know how successful people sit? Like this,” and proceeds to sit in that way. Rich and confident people like Elon Musk have a certain way of sitting, he exclaimed. A way that oozes confidence and intelligence. “I may be just a security guard. But I know how important my work is.”
How successful people sit
He proceeds to tell me about the time of COVID. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people lost their livelihoods.
“But you know, a job that was still very much needed? Yes, of ours.” When the university was shut down, all the students were sent home. We worked just the same. “Our job is to protect, and we take it very seriously.”. But to do any work, you need to have positivity. If you are not positive, you cannot achieve anything. Rabindra then recounts incidents when positivity would solve anything for him. Something he really looked forward to got done. Sometimes, when he would wish for something like money on a certain day, in some way or another, his wish would be granted. But negativity is also a very real thing. If you keep being negative, you only attract that, and only bad things happen.
After his walk, he sits on the beach to rest and think.
He believes the law of attraction is real and that what you wish for comes true. But you need to have strong emotions when asking, for whatever it is you are asking. He quotes instances like, “I said that I would not get to meet my mother before her death, ” and that came true. I could not see her. Since then, I have never thought of anything negative. When I thought I would be able to finish the construction of my house in my village, that too came true.”
What should we strive to be?
Rabindra and his friend Kazi, who works as a security guard in Ananda Rangapillai Library Annex, both agreed on one thing. Security guards aren’t seen as respectful. There are times when they had to face humiliation at the hands of university students.
“What do you guys do when something like that happens?” I asked. They said they let it go. And try not to hold any grudges. If you do your work honestly, it does not matter if someone says something bad to you. You should believe in yourself first, then the rest does not matter. But he says, there are still a lot of students who are very kind to them and become their friends. He talks of a student who works in Bangalore now after passing out, and they share messages, even now.
Pondicherry University on 26th January, March by the Guards
I asked Rabindra, “Any words of advice for me to stay as optimistic as you?”, and of course, he had some. “Every one of us has to do a job. I am a security guard. You are a student. We all have our work assigned to us. Whatever you do, you should always give 100% to your duty. That is all there really is.”
What are we to do, if not properly do a task that is given to us? This was a question that lingered with me.
