Today's Pain, Tomorrow's Gain! The Unsung Heroes Behind this Sign.

“Today’s Pain, Tomorrow’s Gain”; I'm sure a lot of us have been, are and will be way into the future, witnesses of this common sign in various parts of the city. As a Metropolis, change and development are constant. While we only look at the inconveniences caused by this constant development, we pay little attention to the real people who sweat through soaring temperatures, get drenched in pouring rain and shiver through winter nights striving to make our cities better to live in; “The Labourer”

I could make this a discourse about how corrupt officials make money and squatters delay projects and the government is a silent bystander while citizens pay the price, but today I'm going to address these great people, the unsung heroes of “DEVELOPMENT”

This Flyover that has been in the making for the past few years and has been plagued with scandal of corruption, land acquisition problems and a debt riddled Government trying to keep this vital project on course.  In recent months though, having missed several completion deadlines, the work on this Flyover Project has picked up a pace that could put some of our super-fast trains to shame.

As I visit my family home every week in Park Circus and remember the boulevard lined with trees back in the days, I'm overwhelmed by this ghastly sight of mud, concrete and steel. It’s growing like a fungus and yet somewhere deep inside it also gives me joy. Looking out of the balcony on the 4^th floor, I can see the girders of the carriageway now having reached our building. The pace seems to be a Section a week. It’s a great pastime to watch the behemoth sections of steel being hoisted and the construction workers like little worker ants going about their business at heights of 40 feet off the ground, tightening bolts, welding steel et all.

Frightening as it may be, these workers move with such nonchalance from one beam to another. I'm glad though that protection and safety have come a long way since my childhood and it’s a relief to see them with their helmets and safety harnesses at all times while making some death defying movements on those Steel Girders.

I noticed that most of the labour on the project seemed to be from Punjab and other parts of the country and believe, that is one of the reasons for such great performance in the completion of this project; no “cha” and “adda” happening on this Flyover Project.

Wanting a better look at things, I went up to the terrace and got a much wider and holistic perspective of how this was coming together and thought I’d document some of the progress.

So while potholes and apathy and money laundering scams plague our city, all is not lost, “The Unsung Heroes” are doing their bit for us, even though it’s not their city.