Learning at 83

Senior citizen Soli Bamji called the Helpline of Dignity Foundation for guidance to fix a software program in his digital camera. "Little did I realize that the 83-year-old student was going to teach me not just a lesson or two in digital shooting and computer pricing but a whole package of attitude to life and living,” wrote editor Dr Sheilu Sreenivasan in Dignity Dialogue (February 2002) which carried a cover story on Bamji: "An Extraordinary Commoner.”

"Perhaps there’s nothing like an ordinary human. It just needs situations to bring out the extraordinariness in people. On the face of it...Bamji would seem like your regular next door neighbor, leading a retired life alone in an old south (Bombay) house. Beneath this quilt of ordinariness lie layers of extraordinariness,” noted an introduction to the piece.

"The table there is just 85 years old, the tape recorder 27, sewing machine 85...That’s my speciality — to keep things in good shape, to make things last,” revealed Bamji, adding, "That’s what has kept my ego intact. My belief (that) I can do things.” To keep his expenses low he creates useful gadgets for his home, designs furniture, paints the rooms of his house, stitches curtains, retouches paintings to keep them looking new. An avid photographer, he bought a new computer to learn how to manipulate and enhance photographs taken on his digicam and not just to send mails and chat with his son Cyrus. "As I grow older and move out less, I shall use it for aggressive surfing,” he has decided.

Bamji: constantly discovering Photo: Dignity Dialogue

A science graduate from St Xavier’s College, over the years Bamji’s innovative skills have surfaced in different work areas, he disclosed to Dignity Dialogue. During his uneventful 19-year tenure as textile technician for Tata Mills Limited he once had an opportunity to overhaul a machine to speed up production. As a research technician with Thomson Research Associates in Toronto, Canada he was able to increase the life span of the felt used in drying paper by applying a specially formulated chemical. His next assignment was for a jute mill in Calcutta where he devised a contraption to regulate the moisture content. In France he got into the export-import business and gave talks in French on his area of expertise — Asia. His last professional working assignment was in Australia where he sold spray coating material to metal industries.

His decision to move to another country or stay on at one place was invariably guided by the interests of his late wife Khursheed or Cyrus’ schooling. Although not planning on a career after marriage Khursheed was persuaded to start as an officer with the Government of India’s tourist office, made director of southern region subsequently, asked to start a tourist office in Toronto, posted to Paris and Australia thereafter. Her last posting was as joint director general at the Directorate of Tourism. Undermining his sacrifice, Bamji conveyed, "I recognized that she was the more dynamic and focussed of us two...I did things by close thinking; but she would go in a flash; she was quick in judgment.” After her tragic end 13 years ago following an accident, Bamji has learnt to accept life. He does though cherish fond memories of their togetherness as in 1953 when they covered 22,000 miles and 20 countries, driving all the way from Sweden to Bombay in their Mercedes diesel!

When asked if he regretted spending his retired life in India instead of Ca-nada or Australia, his answer is invariably a ‘no,’ on the rationale, "Though many things are disturbing about India, especially the confrontations with government agencies, I enjoy the familiarity of things out here, the friendliness of its people and never cease to wonder at the great fact of how a billion people live in India in relative peace...Though I am technically lonely...I don’t dwell on that... I enjoy so many things, the computer, new friends, new places and I am constantly learning, investigating, discovering...”