I stayed in Barbil, a mining town in the middle of a forest, for 5 years in the 50s. It was a place where I had many adventures. In this second of a four-part series, I share how I learnt to drive and some other stories. Read the first part of this series if you missed it.

One day I had gone to Champua, the sub-divisional headquarters of the district, for some work. After I finished the work, I came to the bus stop to wait for the bus to return to Barbil. The usual bus had left and I was waiting for some long-route bus. Suddenly a jeep came along in high speed and screeched to a halt near me. A Bengali mechanic employed with another small British mining firm, Freeman, was at its steering wheel. As far as I can recollect, his name was Arun Dasgupta. He knew me and asked me to hop in instead of waiting for a bus.

After driving for a while, he asked me if I knew driving. When I replied in the negative, he said ‘okay, I will teach you’. He stopped the jeep and asked me to move over to the driver’s seat. He explained to me how the engine functions and how the driving shaft transfers power and moves the wheels. He showed me the use of the clutch and the brake along with the hand brake. Then he simply asked me to drive. His only warning, that I should engage the clutch depressing it fully and release it slowly keeping it balanced with the accelerator.

He also advised that being a village road; I should try to keep the jeep in the middle. After one or two hiccups I learnt the technique and was merrily driving along. In an hour’s time, I became a confident driver and reached Barbil safely. Whenever I got the opportunity thereafter, I drove a jeep. I simply loved that versatile contraption. I also learnt how to change tyres and do basic maintenance.

I had some wonderful experience with this vehicle. Once I was crossing a fast moving rivulet and the wheels of the jeep were getting stuck. I decided to use the four-wheel drive. I asked my khalasi to wade through the water drawing the thick cable at the front of the jeep, tie it with a tree on the bank. I started to roll back the cable using the engine power. Slowly the cable rolled in while the jeep moved towards the bank and crossed the waters.

Once I took a jeep from a transporter to Chaibasa, the district town of Singhbhum. While driving back, the hydraulic brake failed on a downhill slope. I was going rather fast and the handbrake would not work. What to do?

Suddenly an Idea struck me; I could turn the steering wheel to the hill side and forcibly stop the jeep by dashing it against the rock or put the jeep in reverse gear and freeze its forward movement. I did the latter and luckily the gear pinions did not break and the jeep stopped. A passing jeep’s driver helped me to refill the brake fluid, plug its leakage with soap, and I was ready to move.

I get a Driving Licence

I had to one day go to Keonjhar, the district town, in connection with a workman’s compensation case. Around 2.30 pm, I was planning to return to Barbil and thought it would be good if I had a cup of tea before leaving.

I was sipping tea at a tea shop when a police constable came rushing to me and asked me to come to the office of the Superintendent of Police. I asked him the reason, but he did not know. I went there and met the SP, a young IPS officer, S K Padhi. He offered me a cup of tea then asked me if I was going to Barbil.

I replied in the affirmative and then he asked me if I would take him along. He had some urgent work at the Barbil police station but his own jeep had broken down. I readily agreed and drove him down to Barbil and dropped him at the police station.

After three or four days, I had to go to Keonjhar again. I decided to make a courtesy call to the SP. I asked him how he did he come back from Barbil that day. He said that his jeep had been repaired and it was sent to fetch him back. After a few minutes of chit chat, I asked him how he found my driving. He said it was fine.

I then asked him if he would give a driving licence since I did not have one and he was the licensing authority of the district. He laughed and asked me to deposit Rs.10 at the treasury. I did so, and after a few minutes I got a the-then British India driving licence. It was a big document, unlike our sleek modern-day driving licence. I had that old licence for many years before it got tattered and finally I got a new one in Jamshedpur.

Stowaway on My Jeep

We had declared a strike in OMD, the biggest mining outfit in Barbil area, to force a wage demand. Conciliation efforts had failed and our case was referred to an industrial tribunal. The first sitting was held at the Collector’s Court in Keonjhar. The OMD had engaged a barrister to argue its case. We also thought that it would be good to similarly engage a barrister to argue our case and to demonstrate that we are no less serious about our demand. I went to Calcutta and talked to a well-known barrister, Snehanshu Acharya, who used to take up workers cases for free.

I met him and asked him to represent us. He said he was not available on that day as he had some urgent matter in the Supreme Court. He then phoned his friend Barrister A N Ray to take up our case.

I went to meet A N Ray at his 15 Panditia Place residence. He was a fine gentleman, suave and highly knowledgeable. He agreed to come to Keonjhar with his cousin Manas Ray, also a lawyer, as his assistant to argue our case without a fee. We booked train tickets for them from Howrah to Jajpur Road station, the nearest railhead to Keonjhar. The train was to reach Jajpur Road station in the morning.

I decided to borrow a jeep and, with an assistant accompanying me, drive down to Jajpur from Barbil to receive them and bring them to Keonjhar. After having a late-night dinner at Keonjhar, I drove to Jajpur Road through the forest.

For a change, it was a pucca road, and I was merrily driving along at a fast clip when I found that the road was being widened at some places by putting soil and sand on the sides. After a while I found another jeep was also driving ahead, but the fellow would not allow me to pass. I then speeded up and tried to overtake him by going on to the kutcha road, but he also speeded up.

Suddenly I saw a wooden pole in the middle of the kutcha road which is put there to measure how much earth has been put there on which the labourers’ wage is calculated. I could neither skip it by moving back on the pucca road nor go further to the right on the kutcha road as there was the danger of getting stuck on the loose soil.

Come what may, I thought, and hit the wooden pole bang in the middle of the jeep’s bumper and sent it flying. No damage done, I got on the pucca road and sped along to Jajpur Road. I did not stop anywhere and reached Jajpur Road a little before the arrival of the train. As soon as I stopped at the station, an owl flew out from the radiator. The poor thing had flown in somewhere on the forest road and was stuck there. It could not fly out as I was speeding and the air pressure kept him stuck to the grill.

The shops near the railway station were then just opening. I went to a tea shop and I and my assistant asked for hot tea. The shopkeeper obliged and then I was in for a shock. He asked me to wash the glasses in which he had given us tea. He was not sure to what caste we belonged to, and were maybe untouchable. He insisted and we had to oblige.

The lawyers came and joined me on the jeep. We reached Keonjhar without any further ado, had several cups of tea at the Dak Bungalow as it was pretty cold. We attended the tribunal and Barrister A N Ray argued our case forcefully and the day’s hearing was completed.

The cook at the Dak Bungalow had cooked a good meal for our lunch. In the afternoon the Raja of Keonjhar, a former feudatory state, invited the two Rays to have tea with him. Later in the evening, when I was getting ready to take them back to Jajpur station, a message came that the Raja Sahib has decided to drop them at the station in his car. This was done and I returned to Barbil.

The next hearing of the case was held at Gopalpur-on-Sea where barrister A N Ray again came and made the final arguments. We won the case.

A footnote to this story                                          

A N Ray was soon made a judge of the Calcutta High Court, and as is known he was later inducted to the Supreme Court. First as a Supreme Court Justice and then as its Chief Justice. He had pronounced the judgment in the famous Indira Gandhi case. His brother Manas Ray also became a judge of the Calcutta High Court. I had by then moved to Delhi from Barbil. After some time, I went to Berlin as a journalist, and never met them again.

I had many more adventures during my stay in Barbil. In the next part I will share about snake encounters and other stories.