TICK TOCK TICK TOCK

Monday, February 5, 2018

What a pleasant surprise this morning, when I came into the office and signed on to FaceBook and received a text message from Dinesh Sharma.  I first met Dinesh in 2010, when we traveled to India for our firs DREAM TEAM DAM BUILD - we had a great crew and none of us really had any conception of what we would be doing.  Among the native workers, a young man stood out - dressed in white "pajama" bottoms and a white shirt and a short scarf around his neck, he stood as straight as an arrow.  It was obvious that he had some authority.  Later, I found out his name is DINESH and he is the son of the overseer of our dam building project - Goverdan, a gentleman about my same age.

That first day, when we are beginning to assemble our members into a sort of "chain gang" of line of passing full basins of sand or concrete mix down the line from where it was being mixed and then sending the empty basins back up for refilling, Dinesh seemed to be concerned that either we were not moving at a fast enough pace and/or that we were to pass the basins back up.  I had a different idea - simply fling the empties like over sized frisbies.  Dinesh wanted us to gently "toss" them up the hill.  Not wishing to waste any time by "tossing" them up the hill, one at a time, I tossed several that were nested inside one another, which landed at his feet.  Well, the ensuing splatter of leftover concrete mix showered his white "trousers" with specs of dark gray mix (masala), making quite a speckled pattern!  Dinesh was not pleased but when all settle down, we were actually able to learn to toss the basins, full or empties, to one another, without spilling or spattering, and adopted this efficient pattern that year and following years.



Back to the message this morning...  Dinesh was sending a selfie, with the dam construction project in the background - where we will be working one week from tomorrow. The site is in the area near UDAIPUR - the City of Lakes in the state of Rajasthan.  If you think back to when Sean Connery played JAMES BOND - the film OCTOPUSSY was filmed on the lake and the castle there.  We might tour the area, but that is a bit of a distance from where we will be constructing this - our largest dam - about 350' across!  Below you should be able to click on one of the links for a short film, taken by Dinesh, of the project.  Ever since that first dam build in 2010, Dinesh and his brother Makhan and his cousin Banwari and the dad - Goverdan, have been like family to me and I look forward to spending time with all of them again.  

As  you follow our journey and our progress, please take time to leave a comment or a question and somehow we will attempt to get back to you with answers.  Also, please feel free to share our link https://rotarydreamteamindia2018.blogspot.com  with friends and family and Rotary Clubs in your area.