In search of a forgotten friend
LONGING FOR THE RE UNION OF A FORGOTTEN FRIEND
It was in the year 1976. I was working in the construction site of National Fertilizers Ltd, Panipat. Aban constructions was awarded with the underground piping work for the fertilizer plant in which I was working as the site accountant, co ordinating work of around 100 technicians, engineers and administrative staff. Rented quarters were provided to us. Some senior staff were grouped together depending on their aesthetics whereas labourers like welders and fabricators have grouped separately choosing their houses very near to the workspot for convenience of attending at short notice. The administrative staff ,engineers and supervisors are provided with transport by the company and therefore they selected locality near the town 15 to 20 km away from the site.
We had our house near model town of Panipat a very decent locality of mostly Arya punjabi families.
The house owner was a senior manager in SBI living with wife and two sons. We were given a two bedroom adjacent house in which our site engineer and cashier shared the house. The young healthy athletic six footer engineer Vaidyanathan born and brought up in a Brahmin family had cosmopolitan up bringing in North India where he completed his mechanical engineering degree. A man with lots of knowledge about the music, art and film was very much interested to sing aloud in the room but his coarse voice was not pleasant to hear and therefor no body encouraged him to continue. His in depth knowledge of the lyrics, the meaning of it and the situation in the film was good enough to listen to him if you are a fan of art. I was attracted to Hindi and Urdu filmi songs of yester years because of him. Though a Brahmin was very fond of non vegetarian food gives good company to colleagues while partying or get together.
On a Sunday afternoon we had lunch prepared at home and decided to go for a movie in the National theatre. An old movie 'baiju bawra' a musical hit of yesteryears was running in the cinema house.
After a heavy lunch, we planned to walk to the theatre to ease the stomach and we walked straight to reach destination soon, avoiding the criss cross roads. We saw the' Arya mandir' on the way and after a few metres we came across the 'Dyal singh Piyav' a free drinking water tap provided by a philanthropist, then came 'SBI' Panipat branch. Only 30 more minutes to start the movie, we doubled our pace of walking. To our surprise we came across a second Arya Mandir, we were under the impression a place famous for mandirs must have constructed another mandir for the benefit of believers. Alas there is another Dyal singh piyav a few meters away. We were fooled by the Town planners of Panipat. The roads in model town are circular and therefore we will be seeing more and more these building till we stop walking. Burst into uncontrollable laugh, we called an auto and reached theatre within 10 minutes.
Next day in the site office all our staff members had a field day and all those fellows who heard about our adventure enjoyed it and learned a lesson not to travel in straight line. The office life was an extension of home life as the site in charge and boss was my buddy S Vaidyanathan and therefore working with him was a pleasure. Though friendly with all co workers, he was a task master very much liked by the project co ordinator EIL and the customer NFL. Sometimes official communication from EIL/ NFL are expected to reach our site office where the site in charge was expected to receive the communication. In short time I have practiced his simple signature on paper which he has found out. That day before going out for some purchase to the city, informed me to receive the communication if any from client to receive by signing the memo. He then corrected 'put your signature' ' I have informed the client office authorising you to receive the memos'.
After the office time at our quarters we used to spent the time reading books, discussing movies or singing songs. Old melodies of Mukesh sung by me is liked by our group and I have not discouraged their encouragement. Those were the happy days in my life.
My stay in Panipat was short lived as I was asked to come back to Chennai office. Some misunderstanding with some old spies who thought to be faithful to the MD had in fact reported about some misdeeds upsetting my relationship with the MD and company. Vaidyanathan proved his skills in engineering and got better job elsewhere and I lost contact with him after leaving the Panipat site. He was truly big hearted to his size and I really missed his friendship and advice at times of crises. Even now after 40 years when ever I hear Hindi/ Urdu shayari I remember him and I dedicate my little bit of Hindi liking to him... Shall we be able to meet again, somewhere.
On a Sunday afternoon we had lunch prepared at home and decided to go for a movie in the National theatre. An old movie 'baiju bawra' a musical hit of yesteryears was running in the cinema house.
After a heavy lunch, we planned to walk to the theatre to ease the stomach and we walked straight to reach destination soon, avoiding the criss cross roads. We saw the' Arya mandir' on the way and after a few metres we came across the 'Dyal singh Piyav' a free drinking water tap provided by a philanthropist, then came 'SBI' Panipat branch. Only 30 more minutes to start the movie, we doubled our pace of walking. To our surprise we came across a second Arya Mandir, we were under the impression a place famous for mandirs must have constructed another mandir for the benefit of believers. Alas there is another Dyal singh piyav a few meters away. We were fooled by the Town planners of Panipat. The roads in model town are circular and therefore we will be seeing more and more these building till we stop walking. Burst into uncontrollable laugh, we called an auto and reached theatre within 10 minutes.
Next day in the site office all our staff members had a field day and all those fellows who heard about our adventure enjoyed it and learned a lesson not to travel in straight line. The office life was an extension of home life as the site in charge and boss was my buddy S Vaidyanathan and therefore working with him was a pleasure. Though friendly with all co workers, he was a task master very much liked by the project co ordinator EIL and the customer NFL. Sometimes official communication from EIL/ NFL are expected to reach our site office where the site in charge was expected to receive the communication. In short time I have practiced his simple signature on paper which he has found out. That day before going out for some purchase to the city, informed me to receive the communication if any from client to receive by signing the memo. He then corrected 'put your signature' ' I have informed the client office authorising you to receive the memos'.
After the office time at our quarters we used to spent the time reading books, discussing movies or singing songs. Old melodies of Mukesh sung by me is liked by our group and I have not discouraged their encouragement. Those were the happy days in my life.
My stay in Panipat was short lived as I was asked to come back to Chennai office. Some misunderstanding with some old spies who thought to be faithful to the MD had in fact reported about some misdeeds upsetting my relationship with the MD and company. Vaidyanathan proved his skills in engineering and got better job elsewhere and I lost contact with him after leaving the Panipat site. He was truly big hearted to his size and I really missed his friendship and advice at times of crises. Even now after 40 years when ever I hear Hindi/ Urdu shayari I remember him and I dedicate my little bit of Hindi liking to him... Shall we be able to meet again, somewhere.
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