Ferede village “Home Stay” ( the Ghost story – Part 6th) …

( Recap –  My this strolling drive, downward from the lawn of ” Ferede village Home Stay” took me to a Victorian bungalow, that belonged to an English man. He sent his servant to get me along with, to his bungalow. There we had some home brew and got engaged in some interesting  conversation. In fact, the English man initiated a story, that made me spell bound. Still the story was incomplete.)

Though I had noticed the fact awkwardly, when English man asked the servant to collect postal papers. Besides, an another thing, I found no existing signs, that made it certain whether bungalow was equipped with electricity connection. The reality was, there I found no electricity pole installed as such. But all these facts did not strike me at that time seriously. All these things I recalled properly when I came out of the hang over of the liquor next morning. I remembered clearly, there  during the whole the span of time I was in a mesmerized condition. No doubt, it is also true, what ever the English man spoke, I crystal clearly remembered that by heart. Every word narrated by English man got stored into my memory bank placidly.

                                                         English man resumed the story 

“Oh yes! Now I can connect the story back to the point.” The English man Mr. Frederick Viole said, his head swaying slightly now. He continued, “I again begin with the story of Civil Engineer friend of my father. In the fond memory of the untimely demised daughter child, the couple had begun to work upon a charitable project. In those far-off- days, there ( he again pointed towards the direction of road that approached here from Metropolitan city) was no proper facility of drinking water and irrigation for natives. The Civil Engineer planned to send the river water from this adjacent river to that part. This water was so so uncontaminated and pure. That could be used for both the purposes i e as potable and irrigation as well. For that purpose, he had conceived a project in his mind. You know, he was a Civil engineer.”

He paused a little. In the same fashion, as often, when people are prone to narrate a long story and try to synchronize the threads of the story. Again he began, ” At the beginning the project seemed an impossible and arduous one. From the point view of level of streaming water. The level of river bed was too down. But being an ardent engineer, he knew to find the solution. So at the initial stage he called on my father to discuss the project.”

English man, again took a rest. Then sipped a mouthful and resumed,” Although my father was merely an overseer. But you know, overseers are supposed to remain working on field duty. So an overseer might be helpful to sort out the problem and find some solution. No doubt the Civil Engineer might have had main idea in the mind. Both they decided, firstly to build a boulders’ dam, at a point much distant away from my this place. That dam had to work as reservoir as well helped to raise the water level to the needed point. They both accomplished that mission and still it’s in working condition and supplies the water to the canal.”

                                                                              Story mesmerized me

Spell bound, I was listening the story. He proceeded with the story, ” The prototype of a “boulder dam” is very simple, it’s built with the help of boulders, soil and other materials collected from the basin of the river. It works perfectly. In fact, in those days all the small dams were constructed as such. It works on the mechanism, when water level increases to the desired level, it overflows like a water fall. But in case of incessant torrential rain, when river inundates it often gets damaged in rainy season. When rainy season is over and water recesses to its normal flow, you can build it again in a short period of time. The materials like heavy boulders and soil easily available abundantly there. It’s a hilly river, never you find lack of boulders and other materials here.

This entire detail was anew to me. I was a denizen from a metropolitan city. How could I know about this all? English man continued, ” On this side of the dam, when suitable elevation of the dam was achieved, a canal construction began to be initiated. A canal was dug and reinforced materials prevalent at that time was used in the construction.  You know, till that time cement was not introduced in this region in making of such construction.. The materials used in the construction of canals were cut stones out of boulders, those were fixed with the mortar of lime powder with sand and double sieved coerce sand. The lime powder abundantly found in this region. That materials used made the canal survive for more than one hundred years. Still the same construction is intact and the same major aqua duct is fully operational to this day.”

The entire description was amazing to me. I had heard about the application of mortar made of lime powder and sand mixture in construction, it was in vogue in old time. Now a days cement had replaced it. Today, the story of strength and longevity of the old material construction was being proven through this story. The English man again picked the thread of the story.  ” The swing cradle visible from here, this side tower of that swing cradle stood across the same canal. But as per the the architecture of engineering ground mapping, as the canal level prescribed had to pass through, another hurdle surfaced up. Though, that that too sorted out, despite its being impossible at the beginning.” ( End of the story Part – 6th ) Penned by — Vinay Pharasi …..