Sometimes in life, you hear from someone a story from his childhood without him knowing the kind of role you played in the making of the story.

During a recent visit to a site, almost 20 years after the glorious project days, while passing around the beautiful fountain in front of the township gate of NTPC's Talcher Kaniha Project in Odisha, the driver of the car narrated his childhood memory of an incident. The incident has become a story of the past. People involved in that fateful incident are now faithful old employees of the company. Although many people might have forgotten the story, there are others like our driver, whose words triggered open a floodgate of vivid memories. We smiled at each other while showing our Identity (ID) cards to the security guards for entry to the township on our way to the Guest House. I closed my eyes and the old incident replayed like a movie in front of me.

It was the fall of 2002. I was at Talcher-Kaniha, Orissa and was working as a Control & Instrumentation (C&I) engineer at the 6X500 MW coal based super thermal power plant of NTPC. The day ahead was either a Sunday or some holiday. I clearly remember the quiet time that I had planned that evening and the day following with my family. Aroma of Mughlai chicken filled the house while I was busy playing with my three-year-old daughter. It was about half-past seven in the evening.