Narrative inquiry is a form of research methodology in which experiences of life are shared by narrating stories. It is to rediscover the social patterns by listening to the stories of the participants and gathering information from them (Clandinin). In a sense, it is a case study form of research in which the researcher uses raw data from real people in the form of discussion, listening and interpreting it. The central idea of the inquiry can be any question whose answers are investigated. The investigation can be carried out by reasoning many subtle topics such as: how events shape a person’s life. How does an action trigger another action? Or how do humans become meaning-generating beings? Narratives are socially situated and so they have a context, understanding the context revealed behind the story scenes.

Adroitness in interpretation is the way in attempting to discover the meaning of the narratives. A form of triangulation is made by going through three very subjective views on one single event or idea ((Xolocotzin Eligio). Narrative inquiry when situated in a critical paradigm, is very useful to highlight how social structures, systems and practices shape situations and marginalization and constraint within the larger social setup. This type of narrative inquiry is informed by critical social theories that attend to issues of power and the dialectic or the back-and-forth relationship between individuals and society. The individual’s narrative was propagated in the research investigation and valued at the social, cultural and historical levels.

As for my research inquiry, I collated the narratives of security guards to unveil their views of their job description and how they discern the idea of security in generic terms. The purpose of security guards is to provide security to individuals, institutions and generally to society, what security measures do they have? and what facilities are they provided for themselves? 

To conduct the inquiry, I visited Govt. College of Technology, Railway Road, Lahore with the help of a professor who was already teaching there. I tried to develop a questionnaire that helped me in accessing the stories and ideas of the security guards. I asked such questions in one way or another: What led you to become a guard? What would you prefer: a day duty or a night duty? As a security guard, what bodily challenges do you face? What sort of behaviour do you find of staff with you? What do you think about the security of your own life in this job: people do the job for security, but your job demands the risk of your life how do you see this? What do you observe, and how do you take those things happening around you such as fraud, moral and immoral activities, and staff observing proper timings? What is your perception of society? Something else you want to share?

That day it was raining heavily and the guards went into their sheds or some other places for protection from the rain. The college had enormous space, and as soon as the rain had stopped, we saw a guard who was striding near the gate. The professor introduced me to the guard as a research scholar who had come to take a short interview about a security-related job. The guard’s name was Mustafa, he was middle-aged and had a dark complexion and a brooding round face. Rifle at the side of the shoulders. After the introduction, I asked several questions from my questionnaire asking him what led him to become a security guard. Which he abruptly claimed, there were contingent circumstances, it was his father who after his retirement adjusted him in his place, and probably it was his mind too to get adjusted as soon as possible, and with a little education, it was wonderful for him to get adjusted permanently. I inquired him about the nature of the job which is to secure the life of others on behalf of his own life, how does he see this angle? He was exceptionally relaxed on this question, he simply shrugged and claimed “This is what this job requires from me, but I am very much safe and sound within this job, as in 8 years of job I have never encountered any serious threat to my life. Staff is cooperative as well as students and I am very satisfied in this job” While talking to him he revealed to me the fact that his concept of the security guard is less around the threatening nature of this security job but that he was satisfied that he was having a permanent job, for him the permanent nature of the job was the best feature of his job as it provided financial security to his family and himself also.

We then met two more security guards the next day. The weather was cloudy; the two old security guards were sitting near the gate of the institute. At some distance to them, they had lit burning coals, so they had prepared for themselves a tolerable environment in the winter season. Mushtaq is now 65 years old and still under matric, yet he had a good security guard career in the Army, after retirement, he joined as a security guard at a laboratory and now, he is working in the institute with a company. According to him the life of the security guard he had spent at the army and the CM Laboratory was his golden days, as the facilities provided were outstanding. Now the company with which he is working is not even meeting his necessary duty needs. They have neither been given uniforms nor other privileges. At this age he is still working to provide life sustenance to his family, his children are grown up yet they do not have any permanent jobs. Talking to him about any mishandling of some event, he negates any such event in his life.

Mohammad Yaqoob was the third security guard. He was also only primarily educated. His father was a farmer and after working on farms he got an opportunity to work as a security guard which he preferred at that time. Now he is receiving a pension from two jobs, he is army retired and also retired from an organization. This is the third place he is working with a company. He also had a good experience in his life. And just a few events when some persons misbehaved with him which was also due to that person’s contentious nature. He also gave the advice that “one should be very hard working to make earning”. Talking to him about what bodily problems he faces he replied “There are no serious bodily ailments, just seasonal infections. He also said his overall view of society is good. For him, people who are nurtured by a good family always have a humble approach towards people. He also has not encountered any security threat in his job, security, as a concept was for him, was easy availability of daily sustenance in life.

While talking to their security officer, he talked about the concept of security guard job that all of these security guards are hired to mark surveillance, check the identities of people, patrol, and constrain unnecessary gathering of the students. Since the students were boys only, they also had to keep a keen eye on the boys indulging in immoral activities and to keep informed the higher officials of any suspected activities. Talking about the security guards’ own security concerns, the security officer explained that according to the nature of security, the security guards are hired. Young, physically fit and active guards are hired at very sensitive places and are given a high level of physical training, while in institutes, as the security measures are not very high there are less stringent policies for the hiring of the guards. Other than this officers and other staff also help them monetarily so, security guards feel themselves quite satisfied in this job.

All of these three narratives of these three security guards were quite similar. They all have precarious lives with minimal availability of educational and monetary resources. For them to be a security guard was just an opportunity to get a secure job with minimal educational background. They cherish their job as they enjoy their uniforms as people had to listen to them to be allowed to get entrance. The concept of security of all these three guards was limited to the concept of their job security and less related to the moral and political side. The paucity of sustainability in daily life lets them choose a job that is capricious in the sense of security for their own lives.

Security is a contested concept (Buzan). For each working at different levels a society interprets their meaning of security. At the very basic level, the state of being secure is the right of every individual to be a subject of a state. At the international level, human security is perceived as a power exercised by individuals who can make choices safely and freely—and they can be relatively confident that the opportunities they have today are not lost tomorrow (United Nations Development Program)
The concept of security on the part of companies, institutes and organizations is to avoid threats to life to their employees and to disallow any irrelevant person to enter the premises of the institutes. These security practices are justifiable within the state where rules and regulations for security allow a company, institute or organization to create a post of security guards. The security guards’ concept of security is limited to their idea of being secure in terms of job providences and only follow mechanically their description of the job.