The Milleresque world

Ihave unreasonably avoided writing the following story so far which is actually biographical for my father and autobiographical for me. My father served at a tannery as a night watchman for more than forty years. Even after his retirement, on the tannery owners’ insistence, he continued to serve them as he always preferred the tannery to home. The tannery changed hands of owners for three generations but remained under the vigilant eyes of one watchman who was solely responsible for hiring and firing other watchmen to ensure foolproof security wherein he succeeded throughout his tenure.

We are his three sons who had requested rather insisted that he now leave his job because he is now frail being 85 years of age. Hot and cold weather started telling on him severely. We promised to bear his expenses equal to his wages which were 18000 rupees at the time of retirement and 21000 rupees when he saw off the tannery in 2021. But he wanted to work till his last breath at the tannery. My family has lived by the idiom “to live from hand to mouth”. But by doing some wood work in the day, my father managed affording us a simple life.

One day my father left the tannery for good abruptly but he didn’t reveal this to us. When he stayed home for two days which was quite unusual for us, upon our insistence he divulged the reason with teary eyes which was again unusual for us because he has always kept a stiff upper lip throughout his life. It so happened that the youngest of the owners objected to my brother-in-law’s car being parked rarely at the tannery without his permission. Mostly people living around the tannery park their vehicles there at night and the eldest owners have never objected to it because they have left it upon my father who had developed neighbourly relationship with the community around. The eldest owners themselves also had bonhomie with the neighbours. But the youngest owner who self-claimed to be at the helm of affairs of the tannery affronted my father for not taking permission from him, disrespecting a huge difference between their ages. The youngest owner actually grew up in my father’s hands. My father felt hurt beyond words.

Though the elder owners apologised for the misbehaviour, never did the youngest one feel any qualm of conscience that he misbehaved with the oldest serving employee of the tannery. My father’s eyes are blurred with tears when he exclaims that he didn’t expect such humiliation from his employers, let alone a befitting farewell for a life-time service.

It reminds us of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman dubbed as a critique on corporate dehumanisation to judge the worth of human beings. Willy Loman, the protagonist, is denied any consideration by Howard Wagner, the son of Loman’s former boss Frank Wagner. Howard does not value loyalty and personal relationships, and shows no empathy for Willy’s struggles to survive in the dehumanised corporate system wherein profitability and performance matter only.

We first deemed the employers’ inconsiderate treatment of my father right, thinking that it must have disillusioned him that this capitalistic system commodifies human beings. His family always craved for his company. Even at Eids and other public holidays when the tannery is close for work, he would stay at the tannery for its security because at holidays his duty doubled day and night. Once I suggested that he should include some Christian watchmen who would keep watch at Eids and other Islamic festivals allowing him to spend time with us. Similarly at Christian festivals, Christian watchmen would be off and Muslim watchmen do the job.

He pines away day by day at the apathy of his employers. He just wishes from them a few words of appreciation and a happy farewell or at least an apology from the youngest of employers.

Willy says: “You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away — a man is not a piece of fruit.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2023.

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