MY PANIPAT COMING  

           Needless to say that it took very many efforts for me to learn shorthand like an old parrot after my retirement from Army, and compete with younger generation for getting a suitable office job in public sector. I had to burn midnight oil everyday practicing shorthand nearly six months keeping in view the immediate requirement of   re-employment in order to secure the future of my two  small school going children.

         Since there was no suitable office job for me without the knowledge of shorthand,  I had to take shorthand lessons  and be fully prepared before applying for the job in a public sector company.  When I saw that I had acquired sufficient shorthand knowledge, I wanted to try my luck independently twice in the preliminary tests at NFL Bhatinda but  could not make it. 

         But I did  not lose heart and plunged into learning and practicing shorthand with more conviction. Kuldip Sahrawat, my  army mate who was already re-employed in  NFL Panipat, had all along been pressing me hard to come to Panipat. On the assurance of my friend Kuldip, I moved from Jalandhar Cantt to Panipat with bag and baggage even before getting job in NFL Panipat.

        After great deal of talks, discussions and manipulations behind the doors, at NFL Panipat office, I was allowed by the NFL Management to sit for three tests at a time same day i.e. shorthand dictation, theory and typing speed test.  Though, I was under pressure due to these tests, I gathered all my dare and passed all the three at the NFL Corporate Office, New Delhi. I was, then offered temporary job of a trainee junior steno that too, pending ‘No Objection Certificate’ from  the State Employment Exchange, Chandigarh to the effect that if they have or not, on their panel, any shorthand knowing Ex-Serviceman in waiting. Reply came – they do not have. On this, I was made permanent. I served in NFL Panipat for fifteen years and retired as a Personal Assistant to DGM (Materials), on 31 May 2002. 

       It was only possible due to the efforts of Kuldip and his wife Amita Sahrawat, who first accommodated me in their family and gave me moral support heart and soul. Presently, they are living in New Zealand with their younger son Arun.  In Jun 1986, I was employed in NFL Panipat and lived in a company quarter in NFL Township. After retirement, however, I was most likely to settle permanently at Pathankot where I have a residential plot in Abrol Nagar but due to certain unavoidable reasons and circumstances I still continue to live at Panipat in my own house.