By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 6 Jan: The Booknerds Society gathered, today, for the launch of ‘ONGC – The Untold Story’, written by senior journalist Raj Kanwar. The book recalls the stepping stones of ONGC, the difficulties faced by the company, and the valuable efforts put in by the founder, KD Malaviya. It is filled with intriguing anecdotes and unknown facts about the changing shades of ONGC and how it affected the city’s economy. The moderator for the evening was DG Ashok Kumar.
Raj Kanwar then talked about how the book came about. He mentioned that he has been reading and writing for years and this book essentially was an amalgamation of the many articles authored by him, especially on the history of ONGC. He also cited the reason – that articles didn’t have a lasting effect and, thus, to make it memorable he condensed the story in the form of a book.
Ashok Kumar asked him about the change this city had undergone after Dehradun was chosen to be the ONGC Headquarters. He replied that Dehradun at that time was in a bad shape, unemployment was high and there was not much development either. After 1956, when ONGC was established Dehradun’s economy changed overnight. He was asked why Dehradun, in particular, was chosen to be ONGC’s headquarters. He informed the audience that there were various reasons apart from the city being Jawaharlal Nehru’s and Malviya’s favourite destination. Delhi being overcrowded was also one of the reasons. He mentioned that, in the book, an entire chapter was dedicated to this particular question. The discussion went on with ‘uss zamane ki baat hai’ vibe.
Ending the session with a question-answer session, Kanwar – being a veteran journalist – shared many unknown facts and stories of this city.
