บท 25: Village near the Orphanage

The project regarding the settlement of a village that will surround the future Orphanage was in full swing by the second week.

Seeing that the masons were yet to leave for their respective projects, I tasked them to help me in completing the village as much as possible.

The reason for their delay was the week long celebration for my birthday. The week-long celebration was the current priority of my father and therefore he had ordered the masons to first familiarize themselves with their entourage for the projects before they left to start the construction in various parts of the kingdom.

This provided me with eight times the workforce than my roadways project, to complete the village.

Seeing that they were already familiar in working with cement and coal-tar, I had less to unnecessarily explain.

The first few days were spent evaluating the entire area that was to be utilized for the construction of the village. I personally was involved in making detailed plans regarding the first planned village of the kingdom. We marked the pathways where cement roads would be made, followed by dividing areas into residential and commercial usage.

Because of cement, we were now free from the shackle of not being able to make strong multi-floored houses for residential purposes. Considering that I was determined to make this a safe haven for orphans and widows from all over the kingdom, I would require an absurdly large amount of land if I was to construct single floor thatch houses.

That was out of the question and therefore I was going to construct the first residential complexes of India. For the first phase at least, I was planning to construct apartment complexes comprising of five floors each, with each floor having two 2BHK apartments. These will be the most basic of buildings with no amenities or modern mechanics, which will no doubt be very easy to construct.

There will also be no cause for me to construct unique buildings for every new complex in fear of competition or profit, so once I make a single blueprint for construction and help in instructing the completion of one building, the rest can be done by the experienced masons and the workers.

The first project to start in the village were the roads. Because of the familiarity, one mason took the workers and artisans in his group and began with the project. Most of the roads inside the village were to be made using coal-tar and small sections of importance were to be later completed with cement. The small sections included the future market place area and the residential complex society.

By the end of the first week, I finished the blueprint for the complexes. Because of the simple requirements, I finished it very rapidly.

While I was completing the blueprint, I had asked the various artisans to mass produce the things that will be required for the project. The things that will be required in bulk will be metal rods, cement, soil and crushed rocks.

The blacksmiths were tasked with producing long and slim metal rods which will be used in laying the foundations of the complexes. I would have preferred to use steel as it was lighter, stronger and more durable, but this era had yet to see the invention of steel, at least in India. Even if the world outside had discovered steel, they had still not developed the method to produce it cost-effectively and in mass.

A story for another time altogether.

For the task at hand, I used the next basic alternative I could get my hands on. Unlike the roadways project, which will be in view of everyone, this village will be hidden from the general public and foreigners for a long time.

The reason for this was because all the citizens of this village would either be orphans or widows. This meant that there was no one in the outside world who would try and search for them. The other reason was because I planned to convert this entire area into a self-sufficient force, so that the people here would not be forced to deal with the rest of the society till they themselves feel ready and once they are ready, they will have the necessary skills and knowledge to make a place for themselves among the same society. If all else fails, this will remain a home for them to return to knowing that they will be safe and accepted.

I had to personally guide the masons to understand the steps involved in laying down of the foundation with the help of rods and cement. The ease through which the cement slurry sets evenly to lay a sturdy foundation was an eye-opening experience for all those present around me.

The use of metal roads and cement was a revolution.

The other factor of importance in the building of the complex was the large workforce. In modern era the building took so long to construct, not because the method is hard but because of the additional factors associated with the project.

The additional factors include the innovation in design, the number of workers employed, modern amenities like plumbing and electrical, parks, pools etc. that are required to attract the customers. The workforce in itself is compromised upon. The builders can afford for the project to stretch for a year or two but how will he afford the employment of an additional thousand workers decreasing their own profits.

The laws and regulation also make it hard to employ workers with minimum pay and no benefits regarding their health and safety. All this leads to the builders employing fewer workers for the project.

I had no such issues in the construction of my village.

I had a workforce of almost eight thousand workers that were willing to work day and night on my command. I had no need to take any permits from any government. I did not need to construct plumbing and electrical considering the lack of such technology. I had no need to immediately construct parks and pools to appease the people coming here to stay.

All this accumulated in a fast-progressing project and the fastest built village in history till date.

By the time the first guests arrived for my birthday celebrations, the orphans and widows who were residing in my manor outside the capital, were transported into the new village that was still under construction.

Even if the entire village was not finished, three apartment buildings were completely constructed, which were enough to settle the gathered orphans and widows.

The accommodations were divided in the following manner. Each 2BHK apartment was to house ten people. Two widows and eight children, with four children being under the care of one widow for now. Widows who were below the ages of sixteen will also be considered as children in this village. The elder widows themselves can let go of their identity as widows and chose a name based on their own likes.

This distribution allowed the number of people to be housed in the constructed complexes to be three hundred.