“My father was a soldier, a fauji. Till date, I wonder why he always slept on a flat gadda. But that’s why I consider myself to be a fauji like him too - even in school, I was the class monitor! Perhaps, that’s why my fate led me to a guard’s job.” said Mrs Bhagwati as she offered me a seat near the heater, and began with her adventurous life story.
She had a shop nearby, and her search for a part-time job at night led her to IIT. She went on, “My story is very interesting, because of my faith in God. I came to IITs main gate in the evening and asked the guards if they knew where the security control room was. They made me sit at the main gate and told me to call my person of contact there. After waiting for a while and a brief interrogation from the guard, I told him about my search for a job, to which he said, “Go to Ranjan sir in the Control room and tell him that Sanjay sir has sent you, and be as confident as possible”. So, I talked to Ranjan sir - mentioning very proudly that I’m a soldier’s daughter - and they told me that Sanjay would be notified of my selection. Now, I had no clue who this Sanjay sir was, but the next morning I went anyway and I think I aced the interview and rushed back to work. While I was going back to work, near Bharti Building a man crossed over the road and suddenly asked me, “Are you the woman from Katwaria who used my name to get an interview with the control room?”. I was quite startled but happy to finally meet Sanjay. I apologized and thankfully, he was very kind about it! Since then, I’ve loved being a guard. The respect I get inside IIT doesn’t make me want to leave. At the start, my in-laws told me that working as a guard is futile - you can focus on increasing the business of the shop, that will pay more but I don’t do this job purely for money.” A moment later, she asked me if she can add something for all the women, and said, “I just want to take this moment to say to every woman that please be careful when you’re thinking of marrying someone. Don’t give up your property, your wealth, and most of all - please don’t give up your fierce independence just for a man.” - Bhagwati, Himadri night guard