Dear Friends,
On February 1st evening, I was gratified upon gifting my new book PANJAB to Mr Aurobinda Behera, retd Chief Secretary, Odisha.
When Roll of Honour released at my friend Sujit Mahapatra’s Bakul library in Bhubaneshwar in 2012, Mr Behera had walked up to me to ask if my parents had lived in Rourkela. Then he told me, in 1984, he was ADM Rourkela. At noon on 31st October, upon noticing vulgar graffiti and sloganeering, he had decided to shift the Sikhs to the Gurdwara. Police vehicles were deployed for the task. Hundreds of families were evacuated.
That is how my parents and thousands of Sikhs were saved. I do not wish such circumstances on anyone. But by simply following protocol, by doing the right thing, doing what a civil servant would do, Mr Behera became my hero. In the past few years Mr Behera has called me from time to time asking me about the progress of PANJAB.
I am forever obliged. Salute!
Tags: 1984, anti-Sikh pogrom, civil servant, Odisha, Rourkela