Remembrance of things past

Four Malayalis, who worked for decades at the Bhilai Steel Plant, and live there, visited Kerala to meet their old friends. A story about their experiences 

Pics: From left: PRN Pillai, N. Ramadasan (red T-shirt), MNC Pillai (in front) and GVK Nair; a Bhilai group settled in Thrissur 

By Shevlin Sebastian 

Once a month, four veterans -- PRN Pillai, N Ramadasan, MNC Pillai and GVK Nair --- meet at each other’s home in Bhilai. They play cards or talk about politics or reminisce about their long careers at the Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP). 

One day, Ramadasan said, “I wonder how our ex-colleagues are doing in Kerala. Maybe, we should go and visit them.” 

The others mulled over what Ramadasan said. Then they decided it was a good idea. There are about 300 families now settled in Kerala. So, on one fine late January day, they set out on the Korba-Thiruvananthapuram Express. 

When they reached Palakkad a couple of days later, at 9.30 a.m., two friends received them. One of them was Padmanabhan who worked in the accounts department of BSP. They freshened up at his home, met Padmanabhan’s wife, children and grandchildren, and proceeded to the house of another friend Balasubramaniam. “Then these two friends accompanied us as we met all our old friends in Palakkad,” says Pillai. “One of our colleagues had died, so we went and met his wife.” 

For the next one week, they met people at Thuravoor, Vaikom, Kottayam, Thiruvalla, Chengannur, Mavelikara, Pandalam, Pathanamthitta, Adoor, Kottiyam, Karunagapally, Kollam, and Thiruvananthapuram. 

In Thiruvananthapuram, journalist Anil Philip met them. His late father KV Philip had worked in BSP for 42 years. “With the help of Anil we were able to meet many families in Thiruvananthapuram,” says Pillai. “Earlier, he took us to meet his mother Leeelamma at their ancestral home near Chengannur.”  

At most of the places, people remembered their life in Bhilai and shared unforgettable anecdotes with the quartet. And everybody agreed that Bhilai had a charm of its own. 

“It is a well-planned city, which was designed by the Russians,” says Pillai. “So there are wide streets and plenty of greenery.” The steel plant was set up on February 4, 1959, during the premiership of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. At that time, the plant had an employee strength of 55,000. “There were more than 5000 Malayalis who were employed,” says Pillai. “Now the staff strength is 30,000.” Interestingly, very few of the succeeding generations of Malayalis are employed at the plant. “Many have gone abroad,” says Pillai. 

Meanwhile, in Kerala, Pillai and the others were surprised to hear that most yearned for their life in Bhilai. “They said that they missed the close friendships,” says Pillai. “In Kerala, they told us, there is no concept of visiting each other just like that. People meet only during weddings, birthdays, funerals and other such functions. In Bhilai, it is just the opposite. So, we are very close to each other. Leelamma is sad that they had left Bhilai. She felt happier there.” 

Of course, one reason for the lack of friendships is because the mental wavelength is different. “When you have lived 40 years away from Kerala, you will think differently to the people here,” says Pillai. 

In fact, a few families returned to Bhilai because they did not like it in Kerala. “They felt out of place, so they came back,” he says. “They told us, ‘Don’t make the mistake we made’.”  

  

Pillai remained in Bhilai because he is a widower. “I know that if I have any problem, my friends will be there to help me,” he said. “Because of their presence, I feel less lonely.”  

In the end, the group managed to meet 75 families and travelled 750 kms across the state. 

And barely a week after they returned, they received the sad news that KV Nair who lived in Cheriyanad, near Mavelikara had passed away. “He had come and met us,” says Pillai “Nair was around 75 and was in good health. He had gone to the Mavelikara General Hospital to get a certificate for his daughter, had a sudden heart attack, collapsed and died.” 

The group was grateful they were able to meet Nair. “We are all in our seventies and eighties, so time is running out for all of us,” says Pillai. “We are glad we were able to make this journey."