Hello, All Good?

The workplace where my father is employed is an EOT manufacturing firm. The employee base mostly encompasses blue collar professionals. A handful of the senior-level team to which my father belongs takes care of accounts, marketing, operations, mechanical drawing etc. The workplace is a production site which keeps buzzing throughout the day, courtesy - big machines, sirens, horns, and traffic snarls on the adjacent main road.

Laborers come every day with their customary tiffin carriers, work and sometimes work overtime for some extra money. Their job is tedious and is nowhere close to AC borne environment or any other comfort. The work profile is mostly around using heavy machinery, loading, unloading, fitting parts, shoving raw materials so on and so forth.

One of the laborers was Raviraj. Young, hardworking and a migrant from Bihar. He usually worked in the night shifts and used to leave early in the morning somewhere by 5 AM. He was very cordial and never left work without saying a hello to the night shift guard. It was one of those fateful days when he had just left work and was walking on the side of the main road. Suddenly, in a fraction of seconds, he was knocked down by a tempo. He died on the spot. It took next three days to settle everything for the office staff that is sending the body to his native, providing some relief money to the bereaved family and sending heartfelt condolences as well by a senior level officer.

After three days, things were back to mundane routine. The night guard was at his usual sleepyhead form and occasionally, opened his eyes to give a vague supervision around.

At around 5 AM, he was gently woken up by a pat on his shoulder. The guard opened his eyes and saw Raviraj.

He smiled and said, “Hello, all good?” Raviraj left and wasn’t seen again.