The life and death of Arun Gupta

Summary:An interesting insight into rebirth and attachment. The story details about a dedicated pious man Arun Gupta, and his afterlife.

This is an incident of an educational institution.  A lot of employees were working in that Institute.  In that Institute there was a man named Arun Gupta.  He was ardently revered in the whole of the Institution.  He was working since the inception of that Institute.  In the initial days of the Institute, it was in a makeshift condition.  At that time only ten employees used to work in toto.  Arun Gupta joined the institute at the age of 19 years.  He joined the Institute as a Clerk.  In the beginning, the Institute was in Asbestos sheets.  Only four rooms were there to cater to the 10 employees.  

    Arun Gupta was given all odd jobs to do.  He used to like the Institute as his alma mater.  He has made a small puja space in the room where he used to sit.  Every day on reaching the office his first duty was to worship in his puja space.  He was a very pious man.  In the meantime, his institute submitted a project report to the Ministry of Human Resource Development for the construction of an office building.  The MHRD studied the whole project report thoroughly and approved their project.  The Ministry allotted land in an institutional area and made an allocation of funds for constructing a building on that institutional area.  It took about three years to complete the whole building. Mr. Arun Gupta supervised the whole project as well as worked in his makeshift office.  Mr. Arun Gupta supervised the whole project in such a way as if he was building his own house.  During the construction of the building of the Institute, he took a house on rent nearby that building.  He took the house nearby so that he could supervise the construction at night also.  

    During the construction process, he studied books on constructing a building.  He was having a friend who was a civil engineer.  Arun took some of his books to study the construction work.  After studying the books thoroughly he used to instruct the laborers if there was any fault in the construction process.  He learned the construction work so well that the laborers and the contractor of the building thought that he was a structural engineer.  His office colleagues used to say that he farmed (cultivated) the building with his own blood.   After three years the building was completely constructed.  The government has allotted the Institution a huge area.  As they were having a lot of space in the whole complex, they constructed one residential complex also for the employees.  Mr. Arun Gupta was also allotted one flat in that complex.  

    Mr. Arun Gupta never got married.  He was so devoted to the building and office work that he never found time for his marriage.  With hard work and dedication, he became Director of that Institute.  It took him about 20 years to become the Director of that Institute.  Though he became Director, he still supervised the whole building twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening.  Suppose if he found any dirt in the building area, he would immediately call the cleaner to clear that dirt.  With the passage of time, the total strength of the Institute became around 200.  The employees of the Institute teased him by saying that there was no need for his marriage, as he was already married to the Institute.  Due to his dedication and devotion towards the office and building his colleagues teased him that the building was his wife. In this process one day his superannuation day came and he got his retirement. On his retirement day, he got a lot of gifts and a lot of love from his colleagues. After retirement, he was not having any place to live and he was not having any family.  The Institute’s Management decided to keep him as a Consultant.  The Management decided that till he would work as Consultant he could retain the flat which he was allotted.   During his tenure as a Consultant, they fixed a lump sum salary for him. Though the salary was not much still he could manage.  In that salary, he could eke out his day-to-day activities.  Though he had become an old man still every day after the office hours he supervised the whole complex.  At the age of 65 years, he suffered a heart attack during office hours.  Some of his colleagues took him to a nearby hospital.  The Doctors told the office people that his condition was not very good.  After a week he died in the hospital.  As he was not having any relatives to do his cremation, his office colleagues did his cremation.  

    On Mr. Arun Gupta’s death, the whole office felt sad as he was a very dedicated man.  He was really a good man.  Day after his death the whole office solemnized his death in grief.  The whole office observed 2 minutes of silence for him.  As Mr. Arun Gupta was so much dedicated to the Institute the Management decided to erect a monument in his name.  Even after his death, he was revered like a saint.  On his death anniversary, the whole office used to gather in front of his monument and do prayer in his name.

    With passage of time one bitch started to stay nearby staff quarters.  Most of the staff who used to stay there started to give food to that bitch.  Sometimes the bitch was followed by male dogs.  After sometime she became pregnant.  The bitch gave birth to six puppies.  Puppies were so beautiful that people took them to their homes.  Only one male puppy remained in the complex.  The male puppy used to roam with his mom.  In the process the dog became an adult.  One day the bitch also left.  Now only the male dog remained.  The dog was a very good one.  He never used to bite any one.  Everybody used to like him.  The employees who loved him the dog also reciprocated by moving his tail.  The dog was just like a security guard.  Throughout the night he regularly watched the whole complex alone.  Many times he caught the thieves by loud barking. It is a common saying that dogs have a sixth sense.  The dogs can sense the future happenings.  During the Chennai tsunami not a single animal died those who were not tied.  All the animals went to a safer place and saved themselves.  

    Whenever the dog felt sad he rested in front of the monument of Mr. Arun Gupta.  As the dogs have sixth sense he knew that in his previous birth he was Aurn Gupta.  This is his rebirth.  As dogs cannot talk so nobody knew that he was Mr. Arun Gupta.  After office hours he roamed the whole  complex  and watched the whole area.  As he had caught many thieves nobody used to say anything to him.  Sometimes at night he rested in front of the monument of Mr. Arun Gupta.  When he was sad he would sit for hours in front of the monument of Mr. Arun Gupta.  All the employees of the Institute used to tease and call him as Arun.  The dog used to guard the whole building complex as if it is his own house.  People used to say that the soul of Mr. Arun Gupta even after his death could not leave the attachment with that Institute.  So one should not be so much attached with anything, otherwise he would have the same fate as that of Mr. Arun Gupta.       

About the Author:
Dunija Rothschild is a writer, meditator, and philosopher.  She enjoys observing herself and others in the varied colors of life. All her stories and poems take shape from the class called Life, they are inspired by real-life incidents.

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