Describe the suffering and humanism in Lalajee.
Answers
The passenger steamer was late in arriving from Samaria hat. I was standing on the landing stage watching the passengers disembark and hurry up the ramp to the broad gauge train which I had arranged to detain a few minutes for them. Last to leave the steamer was a thin man with eyes sunk deep in their sockets, wearing a patched suit which in the days of long ago had been white and carrying a small bundle tied up in a coloured handkerchief. By clutching the handrail of the gangway for support, he managed to gain the landing stage, but he turned off at the ramp, walked with slow and feeble steps to the edge of the river and was violently and repeatedly sick. Having stooped to wash his face, he opened his bundle, took it from a sheet, spread it on the bank, and lay down with the Ganges water lapping the soles of his feet. Evidently, he had no intention of catching the train, for when the warning bell rang and the engine whistled, he made no movement. He was lying on his back and when I told him he had missed his train, he opened his sunken eyes to look up at me and said, ' I have no need of trains, Sahib, for I am dying'.
It was the mango season, the hottest time of the year, when cholera is always at its worst. When the man passed me at the foot of the gangway, I suspected he was suffering from cholera and my suspicions were confirmed when I saw him being violently sick. In reply to my questions, he said he was travelling alone and had no friends at Mokameh Ghat. So I helped him to his feet and led him the two hundred yards that separated my bungalow from the Ganges. Then I made him comfortable in my punkah coolie's house which was empty and detached from the servant's quarters.
I had been at Mokameh Ghat ten years employing a large labour force. Some of the people lived under my supervision in houses provided by me and the balance lived in surrounding villages. I had seen enough of cholera among my own people and also among the villagers to make me pray that if I ever contracted the hateful and foul disease, some Good Samaritan would take pity on me and put a bullet through my head, or give me an overdose of opium.
Lalajee Suffering and Humanism
Lalajee was a business man possessed a flourishing grain business, he made a mistake of taking a partner, he knew nothing about him. One day he went to long journey.
Lalajee returned to his shop and he was shocked because the shop was empty. He was cheated by his partner, he had only little amount in his saving. After that he worked many years as labour for the salary seven rupees a month. The income is not enough for his family, his wife also died after the partner cheated him and he was affected by cholera.
Jim Corbett is a English man meets Lalajee when he was affected by cholera. Jim corbett treated him and saved him in cholera at Mokameh Ghat.