English Literature – Articles ☆ From oil wells to WhatsApp wells—what a glorious journey! ☆ S Ranjeet Singh Uppal ☆

Life has been extraordinarily kind to me.

I am a mechanical engineer with a postgraduate diploma in petroleum technology. After a long and fulfilling career, I retired from ONGC as General Manager (Production). The oilfields gave me far more than a livelihood. They gave me dignity, friendships, countless stories, and a life richer than the dreams of the young man who first stepped into them. 

I belong to a traditional Sikh family that crossed over from West Punjab during Partition, carrying little more than courage, faith and hope. Waheguru smiled upon us. I received a good education, loving upbringing and, if I may say so, was a fairly bright student.

There was also a brief period when I was the prettiest girl in school.

It happened during a school play. Blessed with long flowing hair, I was chosen to play the heroine. Draped in costume and complete make-up, I walked home after the performance… only to discover a small procession of admiring boys following me all the way. Some illusions deserve to remain unbroken.

Every morning begins with a ritual dearer to me than meditation. I prepare tea for my wife—only Wagh Bakri will do. I repeat the ceremony in the evening as well. Some people chase world peace. I simply ensure the tea is brewed exactly the way she likes it. Experience has taught me that domestic harmony often begins in a teapot.

I visit the Gurudwara regularly and try to share whatever little Waheguru has blessed me with. I had, I confess, several marriage proposals in my younger days, but destiny had already written my name beside the finest companion I could have wished for. Some investments yield lifelong dividends.

Speaking of investments, a few wise property decisions transformed our modest beginnings into a comfortable retirement, with a handful of apartments and shops in Navi Mumbai. I even dreamt of opening a Patanjali store after retirement. Alas, Baba Ramdev had reached my neighbourhood before I could.

Every morning I walk with a cheerful band of senior citizens. We sit beside a pond where I lovingly feed the fishes. It is said that feeding fish at dawn is a noble deed that earns blessings.

By evening, however, another school of fish voluntarily appears—golden, crisp and delicious—on my dinner plate. Doctors assure me it is good for health. Who am I to argue with either the scriptures or the specialists? Miracles come in many forms.

One of life’s greatest blessings has been friendship. My childhood companions remain exactly that—companions. We still laugh over adolescent crushes, youthful escapades and harmless mischief with complete frankness. We know enough about one another to write biographies, but wisely settle for gentle leg-pulling instead.

If only we could all gather once again in Ranjhi, Jabalpur, where our stories first learnt to walk. I suspect the old lanes still remember our footsteps and occasionally whisper our names to the evening breeze.

In my younger days, I devoured books—from Gulshan Nanda to Premchand. These days, I have accepted a distinguished professorship at the University of WhatsApp.

My classes begin before sunrise and continue well past bedtime. Every worthy piece of knowledge, wisdom, humour, warning, blessing, medical breakthrough, historical revelation, patriotic message and motivational quote is carefully examined by me before being generously redistributed to society.

Whether the recipients graduate happily or silently mute me is entirely their academic decision.

At this glorious stage of life, I have reached a comforting conclusion.

I am practically omniscient. Whatever anyone forwards to me, I already know it.

I am almost omnipotent. There is hardly anything that cannot be solved with confidence, common sense and a suitable WhatsApp forward.

And thanks to AI, social media and live streaming, I have become delightfully omnipresent. A good morning message from me can greet people in several time zones before I have finished my second cup of tea.

Life, I have discovered, is not measured by the oil we extracted from the earth, but by the laughter we leave behind, the friendships we preserve, the tea we brew with love, the fish we feed, the fish we eat, and the messages we keep forwarding in the noble belief that humanity simply cannot manage without them.

Waheguru!