Two angels whom I interacted with!

I am a 66 year old man from a small town called Darjeeling in India. I just wanted to share something in my life venture which might be helpful and inspirational for youngsters . We should feel ourselves as the blessed ones because whatever we got, how much we got, others didn't get it. Whatever we could do, how far we could do, they couldn't. For all these I feel myself as really fortunate. Though I was fatherless since my childhood, yet my childhood and also the youth time could interact with these two true angels , who filled that vaccuum in a very comfortable manner. For me the definition of a father is totally different from others as I experienced the guide, love and care from these two angels in a different way.

I became acquainted with the first one in whose home my sisters were working when I was four or five years old. And they took me to his place in Darjeeling, Dinky Cottage, above New Dish Restaurant at the Municipal office lane. Opposite to his house was the famous Sen's Kothi. This gentleman's name was Major Walter James Cumming, a British Officer settled down in Darjeeling after the Second World War. And he was commonly known as the "Roti Sahab", because he used to feed bread to the school going kids daily. He was the first angel in my life, who paid my school fees,while we used to work for him. Work like cleaning cooking, washing etc. He used to take me with him wherever he went like his meetings, bank jobs and even for breakfast at Pleeva(now:Glenarys). He taught me and helped me become the person I am now during this time of approximately twelve years.

After passing my final examinations in high school, I enrolled in St. Joseph's College to study the arts. He continued to support me there as well, teaching me more, providing for me, and providing me with excellent guidance as an British Officer of Piffer, who had fought in the North West Frotier Province during the First World War. He used to write with pencil, his auto biography regularly and it continued for twenty years or more. ( This Autobiography was published in 2010 by Pen and Sword Military and the title is " Frontier Fighters "). He used to read the Bible constantly and used to explain us the good wisdoms such as 'Fear means love and not hate '. Then I understood my school's Motto " The fear of God is the begining of wisdom ". My school was ' Turnbull High School' , a popular Protestant School. I adore my first angel because, despite what you may think, it was with his help that I made the decision to become a teacher in order to instill good wisdom in the young minds of the town. So, after completing my Graduation, I pursued the Bachelor of Education Degree as it was neccessary to become a teacher in 1979-80. And in 1980, I joined St. Robert's High School as a teacher on Deputation, after which I acquired the permanent position in 1981 during the Headmastership of my second angel. When my first angel, Major Cumming came to know about it he was very, very happy and he blessed me to be successful. He went to his Heavenly Abode in 1993. As such , I thank him and I pray for him even today .

So, leaving my first angel here, now I move fotward to meet the second one at my first job. During my one year's Deputation period, a Rev. Fr. William Bourke SJ(Winner of Madan Puraskar) was appointed as the new Headmaster at the beginning of 1981. I was regularised in May 1981 and we worked together for ten years. During this period Fr. Bourke ( as we normally called him ) was preparing The " Sahi Shabda " a thesaurus of Nepali(our mother tongue) words. He was already taking our help in the collection of the Nepali words. He retired in 1981 and started to work at Bellarmine Language Institute situated near Loreto Convent School. He invited me to join him there. During 1991 to 1993, I was in contact with both the angels together. I also became the means to acquaint the two Great Souls in 1991 itself.

As I join Fr. Bourke at Bellarmine Institute in 1991 I began to know this second angel fully. He was also a genius having learnt 22/ 23 languages begin to read the Hebrew and Greek Bibles to be translated in Nepali Language. This work with the finishing work of the Sahi Shabda began at the Institute, where two nuns were already working as the typists. During this period, I learnt many important prospects like time, people, self and work from him. He had the opinion that once we write down our ideas or thoughts, they remain with us forever..I still remember that and follow it myself, even now. Only for Sahi Shabda we had collected around five thousand words with its synonyms and also the antonyms, though the published book could accomodate a little more than two thousand words only. After that work was published, we started the collection of proverbs and phrases in Nepali and English to match them. After matching them in the above mentioned two languages, we published the " Proverbs for Today " where the English proverbs were matched with that of my local language(Nepal). So from 1980 to 2019, during my tenure as the teacher of St. Robert's School and the sidekick of Fr. Bourke at the Bellarmine Institute, I learnt, that the desire to work hard leads to enthusiasm and more work till you nail it. So this was my schedule almost everyday - 9:00 am to 3:30 pm(IST) - school duty and 3:45 pm to 6:00 pm(IST) - the project on books with Fr. Bourke at Bellarmine Institute . Even on Saturdays and Sundays, we worked from 10 am to 4 pm at the Institute for over 12/ 13 years. This was the real Motto of St. Robert's school 'Ad Miora Natus Sum' meaning 'I am born for higher things'. At this juncture, I learnt from Fr. Bourke that 'clean heart and mind will lead you to success'.

To conclude, in short, for me, Major Cumming and Fr. Bourke were real angels and inspirations with whom I accomplished a lot and to this day, I tell people about them. Fr. Bourke, who had been transferred to Matigara(Siliguri) fell ill around 2019 while I was in Bangalore city, where my kids work. My wife and I regularly visited him but in November of 2019, after we visited him at the Gaya Ganga hospital in Siliguri, he headed to Heaven.

Therefore, I honestly feel that my life was blessed, I say, it was a privilege for me to even know these two angels in my lifetime and work with them. If I can say to all of you that we all get a chance to come into contact with the angels , we need to know them and welcome them in our hearts so that your hearts can be filled with joy and accomplishments forever...Don't have to look for angels in the sky, they're amongst us!

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