Conspicuous By Absence
Saturday, 31 December 2005, 3:00 p.m.
Dharamshala: If the count of people with one’s phone number was to be the only measure of one’s popularity than he would certainly be in the league of celebs here at the hub of the administration of Tibetan exiles.
Almost every family in this community of over 1,000 people, comprising mainly Tibetan dignitaries and staffers, had his numbers, or at least, had rang him once.
He was in a way fundamental to their existence. For, he was their “water man”.
Whether the water tank is empty or over-flowing, water tubes damaged, or water pressure too low to reach your kitchen, in case of any problem, “call our water-staff Tsering Norbu at 98160 52898 anytime any day,” read a public circular floated by the Health Department last year.
And call they did, by droves, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “It seemed like his phone never stopped ringing,” recalls Kesang Tsering, of the Health Department.
“His was a tough job,” Tsering adds.
“Instead of nine to five, his standard working hours were from dawn to dusk.”
Norbu’s job started at 4 in the morning, the time he released water from the main reservoir to all the households, and ended at 11 at night, when he stands guard against those who pilfer water from the reservoirs and common taps.
Throughout the day, he would attend to scores of phone calls, which complain of all the various problems related to running water.
“He was at everyone’s beck and call at a moment’s notice,” recalls Norbu’s better half, Tenzin Norzom, 27, also the janitor of the Election Commission of CTA.
“Even the Tibetan New Year was usually a working day for him,” she adds between sobs.
“Despite the odd working hours, which disrupted his family and social life, he never complained,” recalls Phurbu Tsering, a senior Tibetan civil servant, under whose supervision Norbu has worked for two years.
“He had the knack to get the job done, whatever the assignment. And when things go beyond him, he would simply say, ‘Sorry, I can’t.”
Tsering Norbu joined the Health Department in June 1997. Since then he has been Gangkyi’s “water man”. After a prolong battle with stomach cancer, he finally breathed his last on 26 December, at the age of 45. He is survived bv his wife Tenzin Norzom, and three children, Tenzin Yangkyi, 6, Tenzin Sherab, 4, and Tenzin Choeyang, 1.
(www.tibet.net is the official website of the Central Tibetan Administration.)