The nostalgia of saying ‘Hello’ to Tata for the first time

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NORRIS PRITAM

One fine day in May 1975, I landed in Jamshedpur, now popularly known as Tata Nagar. And that proved to be a turning point in my life. Not only was I fortunate to spend time with some of the top Indian athletes at Telco, but my stay was also a launching pad in my career as a sports journalist.

In late 1974, I ran in the 3,000 m steeplechase event in the Indian National Open Meet in Calicut. I was far from a medal, but a talent scout of Telco present there offered me a job in Jamshedpur. During my train journey from Delhi to Jamshedpur, all kinds of thoughts were running in my mind – first time away from home, first job, top Indian stars as colleagues, etc. But once in Jamshedpur, all these fears vanished. I was inducted as Automobile Supervisor in Auto Division. Imagine a supervisor in the Auto Division who had never even driven a two-wheeler, let alone a car. In fact, before this, the only mode of transport I had driven was a bicycle!

On the first day when I went to the office, people in the Auto Division were quite surprised because athletes hardly ever attended the office except on pay day! But I met some of my colleagues and made friends with them. It helped me see the testing track inside the huge Telco complex where expert drivers would test Telco trucks on varied terrains. It was a dangerous act which visitors were not allowed to watch. But being an athlete, and also the one who expressed a desire to attend the office, this privilege was bestowed upon me.

During my school days in New Delhi, in my social studies book I had seen a picture of an old man with a long beard and a rather unique tall cap on his head. There was another picture of the same man sitting on the ground in front of a makeshift furnace. The teacher had told us that he was Jamsetji Tata, who used to make steel. We, all young students, were very impressed that he could make steel! That was my first introduction to the word Tata.

As I grew up, the picture of Jamsetji had almost vanished from my mind. But Tata remained etched even more strongly. Commercial Tata trucks on the road, Tata salt at home, and various other Tata products dominated my life. During Republic Day parades in New Delhi, I was excited to see those giant military trucks with guns atop them with TATA written in capital letters on their bonnets.

Later, as a young long-distance runner, I used to watch star Indian athletes in National Championships with Telco written on their vests. This was my first introduction to Telco. I had never imagined one day I would get to wear that vest and rub shoulders with some of the great Indian athletes.

Along with the job, I was also allotted a two-room apartment in a newly developed block which was then known as K Type! As Jamshedpur was developing then, my house was at the far end of a new residential block close to the forest. More popular N Type houses were near the Telco Gate and Ram Mandir. Close to the Little Flower School was Telco’s athletic track where I used to train twice a day. Adjacent to the track was a slight steep stretch for uphill running.

The nearest shops for me were at Kharanga Jhar. There was only one eating joint, or a dhaba, where every day they would make Jheenga Posto. I had never heard of this dish before, and I thought it was some kind of seafood! Not a great one for seafood, I never tried it. Instead, I bought a stove and began cooking myself. Apart from our athletics training schedules, I hardly had much else to do. In fact, in the beginning I was a bit lonely. After the evening training session, I often used to take those shared tempos to go to Jubilee Park and Bistupur, some eight kilometres from Telco.

That was filling up for my daily visit to Connaught Place back home in Delhi. At times, there used to be a trip just to Sakchi for groceries, etc. Prasad, a six-year-old boy staying close to my house, was my sole company. Often his mother would send me some special food for me. Mrs Robert, working in Telco, and her daughters Gloria and Salome were also like family who made me feel at home when I was settling down in a strange city!

Native Biharis and Bengalis from next door Calcutta (now Kolkata) were the two major communities in Telco then. It was not the Internet era, and we used to crave for letters from home. The solitary postman would say “athi’ several times in a short conversation. It took me a long time to realize that the word didn’t really mean anything, but it was just his pet phrase (takia kalam). `Kotha Kare ke’ was another word that I picked up while shopping at Kharangajhar!

Initially, I felt like Alice in Wonderland. But as I became familiar with people and the way of life, I quite started liking Telco, and as I am writing this, the call of the tempo drivers `Telco, Telco or Sakchi, Sakchi’ still reverberates in my ears.

(The author is a highly respected and prominent New Delhi-based veteran sports journalist, author and former long-distance runner. Over a career spanning more than four decades, he has established himself as one of India’s most respected track and field experts, extensively reporting on systemic issues and historic moments in Indian sports.)