Rajghat

Jatinder Sethi was born in Lyallpur, now Faisalabad, in pre-Independence India. He finished his M.A. (English) from Delhi University in 1956, and went off to London to study Advertising in 1958. He passed his Membership Exam of The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (M.I.P.A) in1965, and joined Rallis India in Bombay. Later, for over 20 years, he worked for the advertising agency Ogilvy &amp\; Mather. Now retired, he helps his son in his ad agency in Delhi.

An Eye-Witness Account of the Funeral Procession of Mahatma Gandhi
January 31 1948 - from Birla House to Rajghat, New Delhi
By a 16- year old Refugee Boy from Lyallpur

Flashback

My name is Jatinder Nath Sethi, born in November 1931, youngest child among six brothers and two sisters, all born in Lyallpur, now in Pakistan. I was in the 10^th class in Arya School, Mai -Di-Jhugi, when the country got divided into India and Pakistan.

Till then, if I recall correctly, we never had any religious animosity between Hindus and Muslims. In fact, our closest friends were Muslim families. Not only that, but both religious communities together were involved in the freedom movement, though as a kid I didn't much understand it. I remember clearly the huge crowd that came out to greet Nehru when he, on a white horse, visited Dussera Grounds in Lyallpur. The freedom movement was at its height.

Shenoi, a civil engineer and MBA, rose to the rank of Deputy Director-General of Works in the Indian Defence Service of Engineers. He has also been a member of HUDCO’s advisory board and of the planning team for Navi Mumbai. After retirement he has been helping NGOs in employment-oriented training, writing articles related to all aspects of housing, urban settlements, infrastructure, project and facility management and advising several companies on these issues. His email id is mpvshanoi@gmail.com.

The year was 1956. I had graduated in Civil Engineering in 1955 from National Institute of Engineering, Mysore. I wanted to appear in the Combined Engineering Services Exams, which recruited engineers for Central Government departments like Railways, Central Public Works Department, Military Engineer Services, Telecom services, etc. The Exams were conducted by the Union Public Service Commission, India. All young Engineering graduates who were ambitious aimed at appearing in this selection examination, which was considered prestigious. If you got selected, you would have a steady career. Moreover, Government was the largest construction agency in those days.