1960-65

1960-65

In ’61 my services were placed at the disposal of electricity dept and a long period of deputation started. I married at Mundali and after 3 days my wife left for keonjhar, and on being relieved went to give the joining report at Puri. The chief engineer said the post has been transferred to irrigation dept, and then I went to the secretariat and got another posting order, and joined at Chainpal near Talcher.

The job was investigation of a water supply scheme on river nandira by making a small dam involving theodolite, plane table and leveling. I had 3 overseers and six khalasis to help and was living in a swiss cottage tent with separate tents for toilet kitchen with my wife on the bank of the river. There was a small official qrs where we used to go once a week, and to the nearest town Angul for marketing and pictures. For bath the khalasis used to dig a pit in the dry bed when sparkling clean water used to be there. There was a small forest around and a village nearby. Here I met one old trivandrum friend with his wife and it was a friendly little colony, but the exec engineer was little difficult and distant.

Here I opted for roads and buildings dept for better places of postings but an old request of deputation to the eng school was acted upon, and my services was lent to the industry dept for posting at cuttack. Due to some internal pressure I was however posted at jharsuguda a small business town. By that time my work was also over. I took a small house on rent and took my wife there. She was not very happy since her dreams of a big bungalow with servants and jeeps were not fulfilled. For transport I purchased a 350 bullet with her money from rourkela, and brought it by road. On the way the engine seized, and it was evening in a lonely road, and luck would have it a sardar truck appeared from nowhere. With his help I reached my place late. My father in law visited the place but did not take food, as was the custom in those days. We had a few friends and there was a servant boy to help in cooking.

Meanwhile one regional engineering college was being set up at rourkela, and they were in need of a lecturer in civil eng with ncc background, and I was the only one with these combinations. So I was deputed as lecturer, and looked after the ncc co and became superintendent of the hostel. As was the procedure half of the boys were from other states, and there used to be tension, but the secretary of the board was our family friend, and I got one servant to cook. The place was at the local ITI with a brand new police colony, and I had the bullet to move around. The job was very interesting and my name was sent for commission in the ncc rifles, without precommission training and it has to pass through army hq, since I was already in army. This involved relinquishing the army commission with effect from the date of ncc commission. This is the beginning of a series of resignations in my life, as was series of deputations from the parent department.

  

My pay and allowances was Rs 860 a princely sum with income tax deduction of only Rs 50, petrol price at 50 paise or so a litre. In addition I was a head examiner of eng schools and examiner in the college. We used to be invited to the functions held in German Club and the attached Max Mueller Bhawan, where lovely german girls used to work.

In 62 Chinese war broke out and I used to make all the staff to do drill, and in the staff race for running I used to stand first. In the morning NCC parade, daytime one lecture and a drawing class, and the evenings the affairs of the hostel used to keep me busy. On an open advertisement, I was selected as Asst Prof in a newly created Drawing dept, when my first daughter Anita was born.

In 63, I was promoted to the rank of Exec Engineer in my parent dept and was deputed to Mining corpn first and then changed to Construction corpn at Bhubaneswar, and had to leave the college with heavy heart.

I was posted at the HO for about 3 months, and since my sister was at USA, we enjoyed staying in her house and using her car and the company of neighbors. It was a small co, which was given a task of building all the major and minor bridges of Expressway from Daitary mines to Paradip port. At that time Biju was the Chief Minister and he decided to break the monopoly of 2 to 3 bridge builders of India viz Gammons, Hindustan and a smaller Shah construction. I shifted to a place known as Chainpal on the bank of a canal in a rented house. The site was a km or two for a bridge over Birupa and the other sites were minor bridges and one bridge on Badagenguti within 5 km in the doab of the two rivers. I constructed temp accommodation on the bank of the river with water and electricity.

Meanwhile I had a second daughter born at Cuttack very cute and beautiful. I brought my family to this temp abode, which had three rooms and provided with servants and cooks officially. My neighbor was a chap from Bangalore, who had come over from Gammons. The work of sinking of wells started in full swing and food and climate was good. I used to go to Cuttack and Bhubaneswar officially, so my wife was very happy.

One well did not sink for some time so I decided to do a limited blasting. We were connecting the detonators with the blaster for a test and the electrician connected the wires ahead of time and there was a small blast. My right side including one eye got the sand and copper particles, and the electrician got it in both eyes. We shifted to the medical college hospital and got out after a couple of days, but the other chap got cataract in both the eyes. This was a lesson for future not to take unnecessary risk. Our corpn did not help in any way, but I hired a lawyer who happened to be the father of my colleague Ajit Roy of Akhuapada days. He took a princely sum of Rs 500 for bribing the police not to register a case. My boss Rajeswar Rao asked me to take leave so that no damage suit could be instituted against the company.

For paradip port, we opened a large stone quarry at Haridaspur having one primary and about 10 secondary crushers. The main aim was to provide 10 ton stone boulders for the breakwater of the port. About 200 trucks hired from Punjab were daily plying with one truck carrying one stone piece. After about a year, I shifted with family to a pucca house built by me on the foothills. This had a dry stone compound wall and a small swimming pool built with one side jutting the mountain face.

During the stay here one of my asst engineers subas pati, was to go to Bhutmundi for some inauguration, and I had a premonition of some disaster. I asked him not to go and asked my wife to persuade thr his wife, but he did go and died in a jeep accident.

The activities of this job slowed down and I was asked to shift the above place for a prestigious Mahanadi bridge on the same expressway. I kept my family at the in laws place, and shifted to site and built a beautiful house, which in the terms of my boss Rao looked like a cinema hall. Here one Biren Patnaik, who was my guru and mentor was the real boss, and I was to do the job at site with the consultant’s representative.

I really learnt the art of bridge construction here. We enjoyed life with frequent parties bird shootings, with good food and comfortable stay. Till this time I did not have a personal car, when the jeep had breakdown had to travel to cuttack by truck. Every visitor who happens to go to see paradip will drop in there and take me a guide. I also became an expert of bridges and the port in the process.

Our consultants were MN Dastur & Co for the bridge, STUP (India) for prestressing in Fressinet system and launching of the girders. For Prestressing one chap with a name Vellaudin vellu for short and for launching one Kaptekar with a beautiful wife stayed at the site, and we had a small colony life …