The Stalwart - Engineers Day Remembrance

It was well beyond midnight, during the British era in India. A train was travelling to its destination with a howl in the silence of the night. A man was sleeping with his head on the side window of the train. Suddenly, he woke up from his sleep.

He jumped from his seat an pulled the chain hanging just over his head. The train stopped immediately. The employees and other passengers in the train rushed to the compartment to know what had happened.

They were angry on this man. All surrounded the man and asked the reason behind chain pulling. The man told them that there was a crack in the railway tracks, a few metres ahead. The people did not believe him. The man asked them to go and check for themselves.The railway workers got down to the track to examine it. And yes, they found a crack in the track.

The man told them that he heard the sound from the track while sleeping and it changed at some place. The vibrating sound changed too heavily which the man recognized that it was due to the crack in the railway line.

Do you know who was the man who saved many lives on that day ? It was none other than the best engineer that India ever produced, Bharat Ratna Sir Mokshagundam Visvervaraya. This man is responsible for the building of India's irrigation structure and was instrumental in taming Hyderabad floods of 1908 for decades.

15 September is celebrated as Engineer's day in his memory.

“Remember, your work may be only to sweep a railway crossing, but it is your duty to keep it so clean that no other crossing in the world is as clean as yours.”