Part II: Ups and downs of life:
Childhood is a dream. Youth is a reality. All waters are untested. All options are blind. The shielded life with the family rings bye bye. Future looks like a dream. There are all types of ups and downs, wherever you go and whatever you do. War in west had ended. War in the east was fast coming to a close. British were thoroughly mauled during the war and were trying to find some ways and means to retain some sort of power in India, while shaking off most of the involvement. That was the time in July 1945, when I joined the irrigation department of United Provinces as a student engineer in Tube well division of Bulandshahr. It was very satisfying to find that most of the officers had a considerable regard for the fresher from Thomason College Roorkee and freely assigned all types of tasks needing sustained study and application, to the engineer student.
Subsequently, holding the office of a sub-divisional officer in the rank of assistant engineer at Banda, Bareilly, Mohammadpur and Pathri, Jaunpur, Banaras, Ballia and Kanpur and Executive Engineer at Bareilly, during a comparatively short duration of five years, was a tremendous learning experience. All types of places, all types of people and all types of work, with all the ups and downs of life, were building blocks of the budding career.
Following chapters discuss these in more detail: