FIJI: Old Timer Still Going Strong

Prem Narayan is a watchman doing the night shift at the age of 70

SUVA, Fiji (The Fiji Times), April 24, 2007:

FOR many people, reaching 70 would be a time to slow down and spend time with the family. But that is not the case for Prem Narayan of Natabua outside Lautoka. Mr Narayan is a watchman at the YP Reddy office in the sugar city.

He says being a watchman at the prime old age of 70 has given him another lease of life. He enjoys what he does and would not exchange it for anything in the world.
He said even though his five children and wife have asked him a number of times to retire, his only reply is "this is what keeps me alive and going".

Mr Narayan only went as far as Class Four at Sabeto Indian School before dropping out to help his father on their sugarcane farm.

"There were seven brother and seven sisters and with my father being the sole breadwinner in the household, it was very hard to send all 14 of us to school," he said. "Travelling to school each day meant that we had to have money and that was something my father did not have. Our father struggled to put food on the table and send us to school. Apart from that, he had other commitments as well as obligations to attend to. So me and my brothers decided to help our father out in the farm."

"A normal day of going to school would mean crossing a river and two creeks and we had to walk for quite a distance. It was a hard life and comparing what we went through to the luxuries that children of today enjoy, there is a very big difference."

Mr Narayan has worked a six-day shift from 5.30pm to 7am for the past 30 years and has not missed a day at work.

He said since leaving his parent's farm at Sabeto, he and his family have lived at the Natabua housing estate.

"Life is what you make of it and if we do not make the right choice, we will have to pay the price in the end," he said. "Apart from working as a watchman, I also spend time in my garden planting flowers and vegetables.

"I plant vegetables such as lemon, mango, oranges, pawpaw, custard apple, dhania, long bean and baigani (egg plant). That is my other life and I love doing it. When I knock-off from work I go home and change and get straight into the garden work."

As for the risk or threat of thugs vandalising or hitting' the place he watched, Mr Narayan said his work came first.

Concerns from his wife and children that the work he was doing might be dangerous for his health and age, Mr Narayan said so far he has had no reason to feel afraid, especially after three decades on the job.

It is the kind of answer one would get from someone who lived life the hard way.

And at 70 years of age, Mr Narayan has to be the oldest watchman doing what they call the graveyard shift.

By Ana Niumataiwali
Copyright © 2007, Fiji Times Limited. All Rights Reserved.