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Earn respect, not attention, it will last longer.
C Radhakrishnan, the loved watchman of SBOA Matriculation Higher Secondary School tells his story to the “Humans of Chennai”
"Earn Respect, not attention. It will last longer."
The recent feature of 'Humans of Chennai' column of City Express touched millions of hearts and 57-year-old C Radhakrishnan received immense love and good wishes from the readers.
In his 20th year as the watchman of SBOA Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Anna Nagar, the man is proud to be where he is right now. All of us aspire to become something in life, to have a certain lifestyle and to earn respect. Radhakrishnan was brought up in Thrissur, Kerala, looking up to his neighbours who were IAS/IPS. The respect that they had in society amazed his little eyes. He noticed the uniform that they would wear and desired to see himself in one.
“A person in his uniform gets huge respect and he will continue to get it,” he believed.
His search for someone who could help him with his ambitious dream began and he approached a bureaucrat for a job when he was just in Class VI. But he was too young for the job and was sent home. That little incident was not going to faze this young man with stars in his eyes.
As soon as he completed his class X, he decided to live with his relatives in Chennai, sure that he would get some opportunity there to own a uniform. He spotted an advertisement for all India recruitment by the Army. Keeping aside all his fears and focusing on just his dream, he applied. And did he get it!
“So, on one fine morning in 1978, I walked several kilometers from my residence to Pallavaram. There, I was selected as Sepoy.” He was posted at the Madras Regiment in Wellington. For 16 years, he donned the uniform and served as Havaldar.
He then took a VRS and decided to retire.
“I had two young daughters. I had fulfilled my dream to be in uniform. Now there was nothing more.”
He came back to Chennai in 1994 but his uniform days were far from over. 2 years later, he got a job at the SBOA School and a uniform to go with it.
“When the Correspondent offered me the job, I had no expectations or even hesitations to accept it. In fact, I was pleased to be a watchman.”
While we all differentiate between each other, when he was asked about how he feels saluting every passer-by, his reply is at once humbling and laced with the truth of life;
“Who doesn’t salute? Even an IPS/IAS person salutes his superiors. But, even then we don’t salute everyone. We are doing it to honour those we like. There is nothing wrong. “We know everyone who comes and goes. It is a position which is very important and I treat my job with the respect it deserves.”
It is through his humble attitude that he has won over the hearts of the students and teachers of the school who make sure they greet him every time they pass him. Radhakrishnan has almost 18 months more to go for his retirement and what makes him more happy than his job is that both of his daughters are alumni of the same school and are making him a proud. While the oldest daughter completed her BTech and is working as an IT professional, the youngest has already landed a placement in the final year of her engineering degree.
Radhakrishnan has taught us that life is all about respecting the uniform that we don and no dream is beyond our reach if we work diligently towards it. We wish him and his family the best in life.
Image Courtesy: Indian Express