Dr. Ranbir Singh Sarao- Memories of Unforgettable Togetherness

           I have learnt many things from many persons, but from late Dr. Ranbir Singh Sarao I learnt the true meaning of friendship.

He was not an altogether unknown person for me when I was transferred from Government College Ropar to Government Mahendra College Patiala in July 1983. In the two years preceding that I had been commuting to Ropar with a number of other colleagues who taught in Ropar and resided in Chandigarh. Dr. Jaspal Singh was a senior and very vocal member of that troupe. He was an alumnus of Punjabi University’s Department of Linguistics where Dr Ranbir Singh Sarao was his classmate. During our travels in the bus and then on foot to the college, he used to tell anecdotes relating to his study period in the University and mentioned the names of many dons of his alma mater. Of these, the name of Ranbir Singh figured frequently and prominently.

Dr. Jaspal Singh was a staunch Marxist and I too had Marxist leanings. Once I asked him, “Who is this Ranbir Singh? Is he also a Marxist?” In those days Marxism was still alive in Universities and some colleges, and the faculty of Punjabi University broadly observed this line of demarcation. He replied that he was on the borderline but that he was an excellent person and an unequivocal spokesman of Punjabiat. He added that he would introduce him to me if he came to Chandigarh.” When I was transferred to Patiala, at the time of bidding farewell I said to him, “I am leaving but I will miss your company there.” To this he replied, “Do not worry. You will have Ranbir there by your side; make him your friend.” In the euphoria of meeting him there I asked him innocently, “How will I recognize him?” He replied, “That will not be a problem for you, you will easily recognize him. He is the most aesthetically dressed person in the college often found in the company of the Principals because they trust him.” And when I went to the Patiala College to join, Ranbir recognized me in the staff room and rose up to welcome. He told that Jaspal had written to him everything about me. He promised me friendship and accompanied me to the Principal where I was going to submit my joining report. He not only introduced me to the principal Dr. Joginder Singh but also spoke many nice words about me which were truly informal. I was emotionally overwhelmed by his unique gesture of support. I started feeling at home in Mahendra College though it was not entirely new for me because I had studied there for my post-graduation.

Life in the Patiala College was nothing more for me than a routine of teaching and exchanging views with Professor Ranbir Singh. I had freshly spent four-five years in Punjab University’s solid academic atmosphere as a teacher fellow which had groomed me to think and work differently. He liked it. On the other hand I like his sense of keen observation and quick perception with which he used to go behind the appearance of things to provide a wonderful picture of the reality beneath. Besides his characteristic way of explaining everything in fantastic terms comprising heavy English words and phrases appealed to me. His sharp intellect and literary bent of mind put him contrastingly different from the bulk of teachers who remained submerged in earthly matters all the times. So they were all like strangers to me as I was to them. Ranbir Singh also expressed similar feelings about them and we spent our free moments in chatting and learning from each other. For this reason our association became noticed across the staff-room.

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The principal of the college was closely known to Buta Singh, the Union Minister of Home at that time. He invited him to preside over the sports function of the college to encourage the athletes and students. But one day before the function the principal had a severe attack of flue. He was down with high fever and bone-pain. He took vacation to stay home in bed but the news of his sickness at that crucial time spread like wild fire in the college. Ranbir Singh went to see him at his residence called “kothi.” On his return he hurried to me to inform that the principal was hopeless of his recovery and that he was worried about the function. He also told that he had boasted to him about me as the only one who could put him on feet as early as that evening. He knew about my unbound passion for homeopathy and the successful cures I had made treating people with it. To my surprise, soon a peon came to my class room to ask me to see the principal at the kothi. I went there and saw that “awesome” authority writhing in pain and sweat, and complaining of fever, cough, headache, and anxiety. In half an hour I procured Eupatorium Perf-30 and administered it to him. He immediately became comfortable with the aches and had greatly recovered from his tormenting symptoms by the evening. The next day he was in full command of his college business to welcome the minister to the function. This incidence made the relations between Ranbir Singh and the college administrator immensely warmer. It also made me a trusted ‘physician’ of the latter.

Dr. Ranbir Singh was a man of the masses in the true sense of the word. Whenever I visited his house, and I visited it quite often as he did mine, I always found a stream of visitors coming to consult him on various issues and seeking his help. He would call them in or would himself go out to meet them at the door to listen to their problems. He never disappointed anyone of his guests and I personally observed him doing his best for them. Once I humorously asked him, “You look like holding a daily ‘durbar’ in your palatial house!” He smiled and said, “I have an "instinct" to help people. It gives me pleasure to make their lives good.” He also added that he did not nourish a feeling of jealousy like many other people did, that other people should not be helped lest they sit on your head. "I consider it a disease." He always stood for negating the negativities from our life and behavior so that we are purged of the ugly side of our nature. What he said appealed to me very much and I immediately made up my mind to absorb this beautiful thought in my life. It is because of his influence that the sentiment of jealousy has barely struck me ever in the last forty years.

Once he casually asked me if I had a house built anywhere during the period of my service. I replied in the negative and added that did not even intend to do that. He looked at me as if I had broken a sacred rule of life. Taking me to task for it, he gave a long friendly lecture dwelling upon the role and the necessity of a house for raising one’s family. He made me realize that I was neglecting a very important responsibility of a family man. I admitted all his arguments and decided to have a house in Patiala. He was amused when I humorously told him that I would dedicate that house to him when it was built.

Dr. Ranbir Singh was a friend of friends. He could sense others’ problems and would arrange help even before they came to know about that. It was amazing how he left them dumbfounded. It happened to me so many times. But this great wizard of people’s relief was once himself a victim of faculty-feud in his university department. A year later, he confided in me that his supervisor had been harassing him because of his close association with a particular teacher in the department whom he considered his rival. He told that he was suffering because of the professional jealousy of his two teachers. In my enthusiasm to do something for this nice person in my own manner, I went to his supervisor. The don was sitting in his room when I met him. I requested him politely to expedite the work that was pending with him. Instead of a positive response he questioned my credentials for interfering with his work. I was convinced of his wily intention and invited his attention to professional ethics. The heat of our arguments spilled out of his cabin and his unprofessional motives were exposed before his colleagues. I do not know what transpired in his mind but he cleared his work within a fortnight of that incident. Dr. Ranbir Singh thanked me for that but I tried to flatter him that it was his own idea of helping others that had worked for him. He corrected me and said, “But my method is slightly different. I never approach such people directly, but by courtesy of someone else.” I noted down his valuable advice for myself, but honestly it did not work satisfactorily with me. My own style of accosting people in authority directly benefited me the most.

When after many years, he was appointed Registrar of that university, he usually remained busy with his office work. Honoring the huge responsibility that had befallen on his shoulders, I did not meet him that often, sometimes skipping weeks and even months. Whenever I went to see him in his office for some official work, I used to send a slip to him through his attendants to seek permission to meet. Once when I forwarded a chit, he came outside to receive me in person and broke down inside. With a choked throat he said, “What is my fault if I am sitting in this cage? Even friends like you have started distancing from me?” With a great difficulty could I convince him that I had been doing all that to show respect to a friend who occupied a seat of dignified authority. Wiping tears from his eyes, he quipped, “But at least do not humiliate me by sending chits like this.” He crumbled the chit he had been holding in his hand and threw that in the basket.

I can keep narrating the humane gestures of that great person endlessly but the conclusion will be the same. The gems like him are rare to see and exceptional to meet. In his demise I have lost a friend who was a sincere well-wisher and a great helper. He left us at a relatively early age. It was not time to say him farewell, but he might have had his own urgencies to leave early. Adieu friend, adieu! 

Gobinder Singh Samrao