The Night Guard

I have been thinking of writing this since many days. But thinking about poor people always gets belated, always gets neglected. We have got a notion like “Who cares about them?”  Really poor people! Remember we studied in our early days of School about the ‘People who help Us’ in Moral Science. There were the sweeper, peon, watchman, milkman without whom our daily life is just impossible. Now you must be wondering why Satyaki all of a sudden is writing all these. Actually lately, I also have been watching a ‘man who helps us’. The man is our Night guard.

I don’t know his name, not only me but neither of us in the colony knows his name. That is too common. We only pay him at the end of the month which is not a large sum and talk to him when we would be out of station for a few days. What I have been watching lately is the hardships he has to bear just for a small sum of money at the end of the month.

He comes at about 11 to 11:30 p.m. blowing his whistle and knocking his stick on the road. After making a few rounds he rests under the light in the small dispensary of our colony. He starts his round after about every half an hour or an hour at most. My exams were going on recently and I kept awake late night studying for my tests and that’s why I know when he makes the rounds.

Now the problem is that, this year it is very cold in Durgapur. We all sleep under our cozy quilts and blankets and still keep murmuring,”Uh! So cold, When the hell will this cold go?” Hardly ever we think about the man who is outside under the bare sky breathing in the unpleasantly cold air. He only comes with a blanket to help him in the cold.  We all sleep in the night so we don’t get to know when he is taking the rounds. In fact often we presume him to sleeping and after getting up from our comfortable winter sleep when we see him going home with his blanket, we grumble telling ourselves that he only sleeps, then what the use of paying him every month?

                Fact is that he often takes the rounds. And anyways he is neither very powerful, nor armed. So he won’t be of very much help if actually there are thieves.  Then what is the problem if really he is taking some small nap? Just imagine being all alone in the cold night with only the dogs as friends. We should rather not grumble on what he is doing and happily pay him at the end of the month.