Time passes, water flows, memories linger

Ihave a close connection with the Sirhind Canal and its branches. This canal – the lifeline of Punjab’s Malwa – was inaugurated by the then viceroy, Lord Ripon, at Ropar in the presence of the rulers of the erstwhile Phulkian states on November 24, 1882.

I was born at my native Ch ak Bhai Ka village, which is on the banks of the canal’s Bathinda branch. I have fond memories of the flour mill run by its water at the fall at our bridge. Alas! The mill is no more but a micro-power plant has come up at the bridge, with which I have no emotional attachment.

I lived at Rampur, which is on the main Sirhind Canal from 1947 to 1949. Every day, I cycled along the canal road and the railway line to school at Jaspalon. The taste of the cool water of the hand pump at the canal bank and the ‘jamuns’ plucked from the trees along the canal roads still lingers in my mouth. The memory of the picnics around the sun-dial on the lawn of the rest house at Rampur is etched in my mind. Alas! The rest house too has been demolished.

Another indelible memory is of hill men on winter mornings smoking hookah sitting on rafts of logs they brought downstream to Doraha, which was known for its wood market.

My mother’s native village Hassanpur is on Kotla branch and my wife’s Dhamot village is on the Patiala branch. I have intimate association with these places too.

I now live in a suburb of Ludhiana along the Sidhwan branch. My grandfather saw the water released in Bathinda branch in 1884. I saw the water released in Sidhwan branch in 1954. Time passes, water flows, memories linger.

Ray Griffith, an American, lived in Lalton but cycled to teach English at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. He captured the scene on the canal road in a poem titled, The Sidhwan Canal. The poem has vivid vignettes: Three young men rushing on a motorbike, a family of four travelling on a bicycle, a boy bathing buffaloes in the canal, women picking cotton in the fields along the canal, two old men sitting on the bridge watching passersby listlessly, a squirrel scurrying across the road, vultures devouring a carcass, weaver birds singing in swinging nests on the swaying branches. As the sun sets, all sounds cease and the movements stop but the canal flows calmly.

On a visit to my village, Ray lamented that few use canal roads for the joy of cycling. I invited him to a bicycle tour along the canal roads. We did so from February 10 to 27, 1975. We started from Nangal, cycled down to Ropar, then to Doraha, then along the Bathinda branch till the tail-end at Raike, then along the Sirhind feeder upstream and finally along the Sidhwan branch to Ludhiana. On the way we stayed in rest houses, gurdwaras, with relatives or even strangers. Alas! Many canal roads have been macadamized and are unsafe for bicycling. Rest houses have been auctioned, a great heritage loss.

My land and the cremation ground are adjacent to the canal in my village. I have told my son that when I die, after burning my body in the cremation ground, the ashes may be buried under the tree on our land. I wish to maintain my connection with the canal even after death.

MY GRANDFATHER SAW THE WATER RELEASED IN BATHINDA BRANCH IN 1884. I SAW THE SAME IN SIDHWAN IN 1954. I WISH TO MAINTAIN MY CONNECTION WITH THE CANAL EVEN AFTER DEATH