Surya's Road To Own Wedding

The protagonist in this story has asked me not to mention any real names when I told him that I am going to write about him, make him famous!

Since every story must have names for characters, I will give alternate names or occupational titles, etc. etc. Don't ask me who are etc., etc... my lips are sealed on that issue, alright!?

The main character of this story is 'Surya', short for 'Surya Narayana Venkatachalapati Raju'. He had been born, brought up and schooled from primary school to post graduate college all in southern India.

Surya had graduated at the top of his class with an M.Tech degree with high scores in Chemistry at a young age of 23, from a University located at Ananthpur in Rayala-seema region.

Rayala-seema is arid area with hillocks around and wild shrubbery growing everywhere. Rayala-seema is not considered cultivable land as it is full of small boulders with no lakes or streams nearby to grow rice or raagi, the staple food for people of Andhra. Most made their livelihood there engaging in trade and commerce type of activities. The region also boasted a few temples, churches and mosques.

Surya had been picked for a challenging assignment at a research laboratory located near Dehradun in northern India. His appointment letter was a telegram that said,

'Join duty as soon as possible, preferably this week. You have been given two advanced increments in your salary scale; all your colleagues are also joining this week at Dehradun. You and your team have to go through orientation and security clearance for this quasi-central government job.

(signed) Deputy Secretary, Applied Science and Technology Department, Government of India.

But Surya could barely follow Hindi, Urdu, Garhwali, Punjabi, Nepali or Bengali... the spoken languages of people he had to work with in his first work assignment. Moreover, the month he had to join was October and all his friends and family had told him that October to March was quite cold with intermittent rains in Dehradun for someone born and brought up all his/her life in Andhra Pradesh state that too in the hot Rayala seema (rocky region) of Andhra.

But the pay and perks in the grade-1 class-1, quasi-government post with title: Senior Scientific Officer (SSO) were quite attractive. SSO base pay itself was 2-1/2 times more than the Fellowship he had also secured at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, to pursue a PhD program in Chemical Engineering-Technology... in early 60s.

The anecdotes posted here are about the ordeals faced by Surya mainly because of his lack of working knowledge of northern Indian languages and culture. He was not comfortable communicating his needs in a new place in the first few months of his work at Dehradun, located at the foot hills of the Himalayas.

Doon Valley is situated in western ranges of the Garhwal hills that make up the lower Himalayan range.

The pristine Doon Valley lies between two sacred rivers of India- Ganga and Yamuna.

SURYA ORDEAL TO FIND TEMPORARY HOUSE AT DEHRADUN

Surya had not been assigned government accommodation in Dehradun because his actual work was to begin at 'Moh.kam.pur' where residential quarters for officers and staff were still under construction. They would be ready in a month. Residential quarters were within walking distance of Labs coming up at Moh.kam.pur village located 10 kilometers away from Dehradun on the road to 'Sahasra-dhara' (thousand-streams,) a nice forest area, full of shiny rocky outcrops over a sandy river bed with clear and cool water rivulets that flowed majestically around the rocks, practically all round the year.

The entire Sahasra-Dhara was inside a forest area well maintained by the Forest Research Institute, also located in Dehradun suburbs.

Sahasra-dhara (thousand-streams) rivulets flowed down from Mussorrie hill that stood 2006 meters (6,500 ft.) high from sea level.

Mussorrie is the queen of hill stations hardly 25 km away from Dehradun city.

Other famous places in or near Dehradun are the mammoth headquarters building and residential campus of the 'Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC,)' 'Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP) located 10 km away from Dehradun City on the Dehradun-Sahasradhara route at Mohakampur village, 'Doon Public School' at Mussorrie (actually, a private school for rich kids... nothing public about it,) and The Indian Military Academy (IMA) also at Mussorrie from where Indian Military Officers graduated to join armed forces of India.

Surya had nick named 'Moh.kam.pur' as 'passion.work.town', since the work he had to do there was his passion and the name of that town could be just that... when translated into English!

In early 60s, Mohkampur was a laid-back village, hidden inside acres and acres of well-maintained tea plantations.

Upon arrival in Dehradun Surya had to rent a room in a shabby downtown area in a small hotel near Ghanta ghar (clock tower.) Since it was only for 1-month Surya was not worried. The hotel owner had said he would assign 'Bahadur', a good cook from the Garwal region who would work every day in a kitchen attached to the hotel to cook food for people like Surya and take care of all their needs.

A bus would take Surya to Mohkampur every morning from Ghanta Ghar. This was a temporary arrangement made by the Research Institute that was coming up at Mohkampur. The bus service however... was a public bus service that many people used to go to Mohkampur village and Sahasradhara forest area.