Sacked watchman of Hotel Leela dies

MID-DAY (OCT 2001)

By Skimmy Gupta

"I have lost my brother, but my brother told me that one day God would teach them a lesson, and that day is not far off," said a grief-stricken Lakshman (35), elder brother of Rajendra Mahale, who died yesterday at Cooper Hospital, Andheri.

Mahale was admitted to the hospital with 100 per cent burns on Friday night after burning himself on the grounds of the Hotel Leela, to protest his being fired as a watchman from there.

Tears rolling down his cheeks, Lakshman added, "Big people of a big hotel killed my brother who just wanted to be their servant and just wanted to earn his living. What was my brother's fault? Even they don't know. I have his partly burnt wallet, which still has his lunch coupons of Hotel Leela. That shows how much he loved his job."

Mahale was fired from his job four months ago, on June 27. "I will burn the coupons on his pyre," Lakshman said. "He surely taught them a lesson in his own way, showing them how insensitive some people can be in this world. I tell everyone that big people don't have big hearts, and one should go for any other job in the world than work with such selfish and cruel people."

After fighting for his life for 50 hours in the hospital, Rajendra breathed his last at 10.30 pm in the male surgical ward of Cooper Hospital.

Doctors said that his eyes completely shut yesterday morning and his pulse was slow. Rajendra, a resident of Room No 14, Gupta Chawl, Powai, set himself ablaze within 30-35 ft of the main gate of Hotel Leela. He was inside the hotel's premises, near the service gate. He had been a watchman there for seven years.