Untold Saga Part 2

After reading my last blog Untold Saga my father narrated me one more story of my Grandfather. He said that after returning from Pakistan to India, My Grandfather took a break for some time, due to the partitions issues and the chaos created, his parents and family didn’t want him to leave home. It was after long three years that things settled down a bit and he joined The Bakhra Canal project as a Supervisor, This canal was constructed from River Sutlej through Nangal dam and the water from the dam also reaches parts of Rajasthan. Its construction was taken up first after Independence, for the welfare & development of the people of Northern India. The construction of this project was started in the year 1948 and was completed in 1963.

He was a very loyal and hard-working man. It was his sheer hard work and dedication that got him felicitated by the then Prime minister Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru. He was awarded with Silver coins kept in a green colour velvet bag which my grandmother had treasured.

Bhakra-Nangal Project: A view of the Nangal Hydel Canal 1952

After this project my Grandfather got transferred to Sukhna Lake project, which is currently a very beautiful lake that lies in the foothills of Shivalik range & inside Chandigarh adding scenic beauty. The unique thing about Sukhna Lake is that it is a man-made lake. My grandfather was posted there as a supervisor from early 60’s till he took his last breath in 1968…..

It was also there where a very interesting incident happened somewhere between 1960-’63. There used to be a guard working under my grandfather whose duty was to look after the water drain gates. Once, an executive engineer came to the site for inspection. He was about to enter the drain gate area for checking where the guard did stop him, not allowing the Engineer and other officials to enter that area. Well, that was his job. He was told not to allow anyone to enter that area and he was just being loyal to his job. Any ways, officials tried to convince him to let them enter as the person standing there was a big officer and he might have to face the consequences of not letting them in. Any other person hearing this would have allowed to enter for the sake of his job, but this guard struck to his decision and said he will not allow anyone to enter in any case without the permission of Pandit ji (my grandfather, people in his workplace used to address him as Pandit ji). Well this was his loyalty for his job, for his boss that fear of losing his job didn’t deter him from his loyalty towards his job.

Then executive engineer had to send his car to bring my grandfather to the site. It was only after grandpa’s order that the guard allowed to enter the drain gate area.

Then all the other officials there were concerned that executive engineer might get angry after this incident. On the contrary engineer got mighty impressed with the loyalty of the guard and rewarded him with Rs 50; it was a huge amount considering that the guard at that time was paid Rs 55 as salary for whole month. Loyalty pays.

Sukhna Lake, Chandigarh

Thank you for reading ❤️

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Feature Image Courtesy: Google
©Anjali Sharma, Positive Side Of The Coin