Sweet and sour

Living in the Capital of my state had its own charm. Having stayed in small towns and villages till now Bhubaneswar was a modern city. I used to go to New Delhi and to Calcutta but it was for work, so for my family and me this began a new phase in our lives. I took over from Shivaprasad not only his job but his house and telephone too! Work wise it was a great period.

Here all of my daughters lived with me. By now two were going to school. The eldest one Anita (had been living with my in- laws) used to go by cycle. The second one was dropped at the school, which was nearby. The funny thing was both went to different schools and had different uniforms and this was a pattern they followed throughout; not only that, they were of complete different nature - one was an extrovert and the other an introvert!

During this period my last daughter with no proper name died, while I was on tour to Delhi. By the time I returned, my cousin Dhiren had supervised the burial in the Kuakhai river bank. My in laws stayed for a couple of days for the formalities. There was a Christian Mausi as neighbor who was of great solace to my wife. This was the first death after one of my brother died when I was very young. It filled me with a great sense of remorse and futility of life. After this my attachment to the family also increased, and I became a friend to my daughters, much to the chagrin of my mother.

Official trips were very frequent now-I used to go on long trips to Sunabeda and Phulbani on company business. Trips to Calcutta were also interesting and in those days I was entitled to Air or AC I class travel and could stay in a hotel up to Rs 30, a princely sum! The Grand used to charge Rs 35, Great Eastern Rs 30 and Spencer’s only Rs 25 per day. The greatest rise was in Park with Rs 70! I used to travel to Silchar and Gauhati in Assam for tendering a bridge on Barak, and on the way stay at Calcutta. My brother in law was in Burma Shell and I used to visit him on the last day and see one picture and one cabaret on Park Street.

In 1970 I purchased a new Ambassador car for Rs 20,000 (Till now I had a second hand one) Green in color. It was meant for a minister whose ministry was dissolved! This remained with me for seventeen years; the no was ORU 362(The earlier one ORJ 345). This car took me all over India-  Calcutta and Vizag, Kathmandu, Srinagar, Jaipur, Mathura, Gauhati and finally it went to Bombay by train and I sold it at Nagothane in Maharashtra.

At that time both petrol and aviation fuel were Rs 1.20 per liter, and flying aeroplanes appeared to be cheaper and safer than car! Therefore I wrote to Nagpur Flying club to purchase one A5 aircraft for Rs 5000, unfortunately it was sold to some maharaja. After I passed all the exams and got my PPL in 1972 I was elected to be a member of the flying club with Biju Patnaik as president. Incidentally he got his CPL in the year I was born, and his name was found on a board at Delhi flying club. During this period I was elected as Joint Secretary of Public sector officer’s association because of which I got transferred to Talcher in 72….

I met Biju Patnaik as Chief Minister and Chairman of governing body of REC in 1962, where I was teaching then at Bhutmundi when I was building a bridge and again at Ferrochrome plant when I was building a plant. This time I met him at the flying club and then as Joint Secretary of the association. He asked me how I had managed so many different roles.

The lure of Rourkela steel plant had drawn three of my eight brothers, and I decided to go for it. The interview was at Calcutta, and the DGM an IAS officer was a sportsman. My technical interview was  taken by the Chief Engineer who was incidentally an electrical engineer. The interview was mainly on my flying experience. I was selected as Zonal Engineer of a newly created structural inspection group, with a promise that I be made a Superintendent  Engineer after three years, which never happened due to change in guard.

We were in the construction department doing inspection, which was not ethical. In 1975 it came under the plant and my designation was changed to General Foreman, a very lowly designation. During this time emergency was declared and production went up, consequently we got a bonus of Rs 500 a month, which at that time was substantial. Then there was a rise of petrol price from Rs 1.20 per liter to Rs 2.40 almost double. This resulted in pooling of cars which was strictly against rules.

My quarter was B-8 in sector 3, a three bedroom sprawling house with lawns, servant quarters, and three air conditioners. The floors had been polished with wax by the previous German expatriate. This sector was a small one having no market of its own, but it was very near the biggest market of sector 4. I also joined the Max-Muller Bhawan and studied German and passed GI, but was out of town for the next one. There I read all the books available in subjects like anthropology, geography and even the Vedas. This was the first heavy reading I did after the Trivandrum public library. I also tried to get into masters degree in the Engineering College but my chief would not permit. Was it because I could not persuade him or myself I do not know!

I also tried to open a branch of flying club at Rourkela, but the response was poor. The job was interesting but boring after a couple of years. We used to prepare volumes of inspection reports, but no rectification work was taken up by construction department. Finally we were given staff for rectification departmentally. My area was steel and fertilizer plants and I was often called to the captive mines, and the technical contribution for the first inspection team was remarkable, and till date no major mishaps have taken place.

These six to seven years were tumultuous both emotionally and physically. There were lots of exciting new things happening with pockets of sadness. There were a lot of achievements and a few failures but like life it was sweet and sour and I learnt to appreciate the sweetness due to the intermittent sourness…

The Learning Curve (1965-1970)

In college we learn a lot of theories, basically to pass examinations. We do have a lot of examples to try and imagine and focus on mythical problems but the best teacher is life itself. Each and every problem and challenge in life teaches you much more than books ever can for each challenge is a unique question which actually has only one answer there may be options buts each options leads you on to another unique set of options.

The sinking of the wells was done in the shape of steel caissons, floated into position and filled with concrete. The rest of the operation was by conventional methods. The concrete was done from floating barges with cranes, concrete mixers and material ferried from the bank. With my limited experience, I found that the wells were tilting beyond the permissible limits, which could never be rectified. So we found a method of counter balancing and building the well cap. Next was cracking of wells, and we attributed to the revised draft bridge code, and got away with it. As a rectification we put a RCC ring around the wells to prevent further cracking. Then we found by constructing from both ends there was a large gap, due to defective survey done by the department. For this we built a small span, and got extra payment for the extra length.

The last but not the least was that due to tilting of the wells, the alignment of the bridge was not a straight line, and we provided a slight curvature. My brother who was an electrical engineer used to tease me that the bridge will collapse, but till date it is standing safe and sound.

The work was new to me but we successfully cast the 70 tonnes beam, pre-stressed and launched them on the piers already cast.

During this period there was a gardener, who used to have visions, and predicted that I would stay in Bhutmundi for two years and ten months, and lo and behold! This happened. I was posted to Jajpur Road to build a Ferro Chrome plant of IDC. The consultants were WS Atkins, and there was one Roy as their rep, the owners having MVCL Rao my batch mate. There was a Keralite GM, who had come from Germany. Being an electrical engineer, he gave me full authority in construction of both RCC and steel structures.

We stayed in a small house but in a permanent colony about a Kilometer from the town and 3 Km from the railway station.  There were few forms of entertainment here so the great events were the monthly shikar with a doctor friend of mine, once we sighted a panther in the forest (Which was a source of conversation for many weeks!).

For the Shikar we took along a school teacher whose father was the Shikari (Hunter) of Sukinda Raja. He had a double-barreled gun and a rifle, which I took. The searchlight showed two panthers; I trekked all the way into the forest. One of the panthers came in a circle keeping safe distance onto the road. I took a kneeling position to take a definite kill, but the schoolteacher took the rifle from me and shot. I had to give in as the rifle belonged to him. He naturally missed by a foot, and I could see the bullet hitting the ground. I promised to buy a gun then and there. We made several trips but came back with a rabbit or two!

One more exciting happening - A serious railway accident occurred just a little away from our quarters, there was a lot of comings and goings; I remember that our servant vanished after this incident (most probably after taking the loot from the dead bodies!) I also bought my first car (a second hand one from my Uncle who cheated me by replacing the tires!)Then my third daughter was born here, who died at an early age.

The Ferrochrome plant was an achievement for me in industrial structures, consisting of steel and RCC foundations including coal handling, rotary kilns and power stations. There were Swedish experts, including one with a beautiful wife staying in the guesthouse. The food was excellent the guesthouse, I stayed there when my family was not there. There was a manager who took care of me.

In 1969 I took over Taldanda Canal Bridge for the railway’s Paradip line in addition to my job. I used to stay in a rented guesthouse while at Cuttack, and the work was interesting if not challenging. In this also one foundation was rejected by the railways, since we couldn’t de-water fully, and a new foundation with changed span was built. The achievement of getting all deviations accepted in expressway was not possible with the rigid railways engineers.

Then I got posted as headquarters Project Engineer at Bhubaneswar, and immediately I enrolled at the Flying club and fulfilled my long cherished desire. Here I got an office job, and was at the Airport which was 5 km from my residence at Madhusudhan Nagar. I was at the club at 6 am every day for one year, except when I was on tour!  I did my solo in 12 hours and completed 60 mandatory hours in one year.

My job here involved the central store, procurement and small projects not having Project managers- Paradip port monoliths, industrial buildings at Cuttack, transmission tower foundations at Narsingpur and a day school at Phulbani. This Job involved going on tours of one week in a month. Tours meant shikar on the way, I mostly managed to get birds and small animals. But Life was good with its small pleasures and excitements. It was the actual learning period in my life It got over before I really appreciated the fact!

It is a wonderful period to look back on and cherish the ups and downs of that period.

The Wheel Turns! (1995-2000)

I was hale and hearty yet I would be turning 58 at the end of August and the rules decreed that I retire! I never felt less like retiring. But I wanted a Delhi posting and I was posted in Gurgaon! So from April to August of ‘95 I was commuting to Gurgaon. There was very little work, except attending some meetings with Principal Information Officer for starting the new centre, but nothing materialized. I was getting a little frustrated.

In August I got a call from Chairman of IOC, who wanted me to meet Mr. Arun Mehra of CE Construction. I reluctantly went and was offered a post of General Manager for a Polyester Fiber Plant at Bharuch, Gujarat. A first AC ticket was delivered at my house. I did not have much choice! Meanwhile I went to Cuttack to sell my last piece of land on the bank of Mahanadi at Tulsipur. An era in my life was over. A new one, full of changes was beginning.

I joined the new job at Rs 22500/- and took a beautiful guest house at Bharuch. There was a Contessa car with AC, I was assigned a driver, a cook and a very good Project Manager and an Engineer. Vivek Mehra the brother of Arun Mehra became my friend and we used to go for Shikar in nearby forests. My wife also joined me for some time and we had a wonderful time.

 Soon an advertisement for a job at Malaysia enticed me to attend an interview at Bombay. Kuala Lumpur the capital was where I moved to and I shared a beautiful apartment with two others. Even though they promised family accommodation at the time of interview nothing was offered. I had to cook food, clean utensils and clean clothes for the first time in my life. At the beginning it was a new experience and I did enjoy it but soon the whole thing began to pall.  

After a couple of months I requested for a transfer to another project in the same company and was posted to Kota Kinabalu, a city on the foothills of the highest mountain Kinabalu. This was an interesting place; it has insect eating plants and a monkey with red bulb as a nose, which the locals called an Englishman! The location is a thousand miles from mainland in the state of Sarawak. In between lays Brunei and an independent sultanate and below is Kalimtan, which belongs to Indonesia. The island is known as Borneo, the home of old pirates. This state had an English Raja in the olden days. He was a pirate. He handed over the territory to British on his death.

I shared an apartment with two other people; it was like going back to college hostel! The site was a business hotel with hollow pipes on reclaimed land, known as South China Sea, which is so calm that pirates take refuse. The Philippines is just across, about 50 miles, and all our technical staff was Phillipinoes. The Project Manager was an Australian assisted by the usual Chinese staff, and a few Indians. I became friendly with a Chinko, a mixture of Chinese and an indigenous tribe, who showed me the biggest international kite flying show. Some things which make it memorable were - I met and went to the house of my dearest friend LD Wadhwa’s daughter, whom we knew from childhood days. Another was- I lost my jacket at the apartment when I left after a couple of months to KK.

The last fifteen days I stayed at KK to clear my income tax close the bank account and got a ticket via Singapore. I also got a new job of Project Manager for a new kind of job, of renovating an old lake. Due to work permit problems, I had to come back to India!

Back at Delhi I had a lot of free time to roam around all the parks by foot and applying for different jobs. One was very interesting- it was at East Africa, with an aeroplane and cars at my disposal to travel to three different sites! Next was an offer at Gauhati refinery with a contractor.

There was an advertisement for a job without the name of the company that too at Karolbagh. I did go for the interview but unfortunately left the car key inside the car! I was able to open it with the help of a wooden scale. This job was convenient as the office was close to home at Vikaspuri. I could walk to office. It was an interesting job and my visit to the site was only once a week. Here I served only for six months, because of cash flow problem of the contractor. I got only 5 months pay after a lot of difficulty. So back again to job search!

In 1998 I got a call from Arun Mehra to join his company at New Delhi. Working with my old employer was interesting, except for the fact that I had to travel to Bhatinda frequently to oversee a building job. Here I designed a pile foundation which had a lot of profit margin. There were a lot of office works. This lasted for above one year but I was asked to proceed to site and stay. As I had no intention of leaving Delhi I resigned for the second time.

A state of frequent changes began after this- I got an offer of Chief Planning Engineer for AP State Highways, but on joining the Executive Director at site wanted me to stay at site, which was in the interior so I left. Then I was offered the post Of Executive Director at Raninagar for a Coca Cola Factory where I worked for about a month and was back at Delhi. The owner then took me to Bangalore to client’s Head Office and left me back at Raninagar again. This was another interesting phase of my life and the work was very interesting, but climate was unsuitable so I left after about a month.

Arun Mehra’s third time offer came for the post of Director (Projects) for a project at Tamilnadu, with HQ at Delhi. It was North-South corridor of National Highways in collaboration with SMJ of Indonesia, where I was appointed as Project Director. It was a beautiful road known as Thoppur Ghat project on NH 7. This was a long stay for over a year and then back to the drawing board!

A phase of frequent change and travel are the highlights of this period of my life. It was at time frustrating but I enjoyed each and every job that I had the privilege to hold. Now I could pick and choose my assignments as I did not have any inhibiting factors in my life.

Change has always been a constant factor in my life and the process of looking for change rather than change looking for me was exciting and fulfilling. I continue to do so even now…

Nebulous Future.

ideasofindian.blogspot.com

An Astrologer is called the interpreter and an Astronomer is said to be the predictor. I have tried learning both.  Astrology has taken up more of my time as it allows you to co-relate the cosmic patterns with the human fate on earth. The mystery of what the future holds has always been an awe inspiring phenomena. If we go down history lane all civilizations have believed and relied on this subject. It is not a perfect scientific or mathematical subject as in this two plus two is not always four! The astrological predictions depends on so many parameters that it is easy to make mistakes. The mistakes need not be mathematical it could be how you interpret it.

When the subject first interested me, an acquaintance who was the deputy chief engineer came to my house for consultation. Though he had the seniority and was knowledgeable I knew that he had lost earlier interviews for the post of Chief as he stammered. With my little expertise I predicted that he would soon be promote and he got it soon after! The confidence this episode gave him resulted in a kind of miracle- he was cured of his stammering! I earned my first fan and this also made me more interested in the subject and I continued to sharpen my acumen. Later my sister who was fighting a court case wrote to me and I wrote back saying that she would get two promotions within a year. It happened! But she refused to acknowledge my prediction! One of my DE said that he does not believe in astrology nevertheless he showed me his birth chart. I told him that he was born in 1942 Oct 10 since I knew at that date there were five planets at a place. He was impressed but did not pursue in knowing more...

 With my small success all my family members started believing in my predictions. We were posted at Gauhati when there was a lot of political turmoil going on so my wife wanted to move away from it. I got a chance when I was called for an interview by the UPSC  in December 1982 but nothing was coming forth. My wife, very restlessly asked me for an answer and I calculated and found a date 25 Mar 83but still nothing came! On 1 April I received the information of my selection, out of curiosity I asked my boss whether the appointment letter was dated 25 Mar, and it was! And he thought I knew about this from some other source!

 Years later, when my younger daughter was to have her first baby, her father in law  wanted to know when the baby would be born- Her reply to that was- the doctors are saying after a week but that I was saying the next morning. At mid night my older daughter, who was a doctor and son in law took her to AIIMS but I slept peacefully and told them to inform me next morning at my office. From that day on my samudi became my fan.

Over the next thirty years I compiled a volume with all the horoscopes of my innumerable brothers, sisters and their children along with my in laws extended family.  Most prediction of jobs, marriages, children did come true, (there were a few wrong ones too) my interest in the subject deepened and I enhanced it by reading different schools of astrology and tried to integrate many of them into my predictions.

After 25 years I came back to my birth state; my siblings had started growing old and thus there was a preoccupation with death and this made me predict many deaths, may be then God decided that I should not be doing this and this invaluable book was stolen in 2010 along with my clothes in a suitcase at Delhi airport. I decided to stop predictions but I continue to study the subject. I believe if more than 75% predictions are correct it is okay. My fans believe in all my predictions more than me! This subject led me into a very interesting and fascinating period in my life- interacting with various kinds of people.

When you are young your father takes decision and then you decide by yourself but need guidance, which in the olden days used to come from a guru, who is well versed in astrology. I never found a guru therefore I advise myself through this subject. This gives me confidence in life and gives me the psychological advantage especially when I attend interviews as I know whether I will be successful or not!

Sky is not the Limit

Man has always been fascinated with flying. All the great epics whether it’s the Ramayana or the Odysseus mention episodes with flying vehicles. Maybe they existed or it was the imagination of the writer to be able to do what no man has been able to do is a tricky subject! Every little child looks up at the sky and desires to fly like the bird. Now of course we take flying for granted and the romance associated with it has dwindled.

 When I was growing up it captured my imagination and during my college days I wanted to become a pilot. The staid principal was of the opinion that either you become an engineer or a pilot but following both inclinations was an impossible task! This only whetted my appetite for it, for Man is a contrary creature! College timings were not conducive to this indulgence of mine as studies took up the whole day and the airport was 15 Km away.

I suppose when you desire something with your whole heart the Universe (The secret!) helps you to fulfill it. Years later I was posted at Bhubaneswar which had a flying club for three years. I needed one year to complete my training and license. Oh! those days still fill me with excitement! I single mindedly pursued this with a devotion I had never had for anything. I went early in the morning without any breakfast for my lessons and went to office at 9 am. My Chief instructor was Capt. Chatterji. As he liked my aptitude and punctuality he allowed me to go on solo flight in less than 10 hrs of flying. To get a private pilot license you need 20 hours solo and a total of 60 hours of flying; added to this I did one extra night flying.

To join the club I had to pass an oral test and a medical test. I was issued a student pilots license, which allows you to fly under the supervision of an instructor. After PPL you are allowed to carry a passenger, but were not allowed to take up commercial jobs. This was meant for owners of aircrafts in the olden days.

The training day started at 6 am when the wind is still and the sky is clear. Initially the chief and at other times the instructor flew with you and when you are ready you are allowed circuit and landing which takes about 6 min. The tower gives you visual signals- green to take off and again green to land, when no commercial flights are on. Initially it looks easy and you take off and land mechanically. The real event is the first solo, which the chief allows without warning! He gets off on the middle of the runway and asks you to take off! Suddenly you find the other seat is vacant and you are the master with no other help forthcoming.  

After I completed three perfect landings the Chief gave me a break of seven days. This is to check whether you have learned properly. On eighth day he gave me a kind of check not holding the controls, and allowed me in the sky for an hour so that I could complete the Puri –Konark- Bhubaneswar triangle and get into landing pattern and land. This way I had to build up my mandatory 20 hours solo.

Simultaneously I had to sit for an exam conducted by DGCA.  It was the first time I sat for an objective test- for me it was new though now days most schools follow it. The pass percentage was 75%.The subjects were Meteorology, Aircraft specific, and Flying in general. The feeling of satisfaction when I cleared it in my first attempt is unparalleled!

A log book duly certified by the aerodrome and the club is maintained throughout the training period. The log book with a flight test record along with the pass certificate for the exam is sent to DGCA for the issue of the license.

 Pushpak was the first plane I trained in and flew. It had a Rolls Royce engine made of steel frame with a cloth cover.  It had two seats side by side with two controls and a throttle which was in the centre. The next plane I flew was the Tiger Moth. I had to pass another exam specific to this aircraft. This was the craft on which all the English and Indian pilots were trained. It is like a motor bike with two seats in tandem; it has no roof or brakes! The control stick was really a stick unlike other half circle steering wheel type.  For braking, the tail rubs on ground and comes to a halt. You have to wear goggles and helmet to fly, as it is open to sky.

With this aircraft we once went for a cross country flight. We flew over the bed of Mahanadi to Narsingpur for about 60 miles and back. It was very cold at an altitude of 3000 ft and so we went lower. The wide blue river and the green forest on its banks looked magnificent. I remember that to communicate with the co pilot you used a speaking tube! On the way back I found that the fuel level was low. There is an emergency tank, where you have to pump using a manual pump; unfortunately this is a reverse pump i.e. pumps while pulling, so nothing happened, and we had to do an emergency landing on the grass in the airport.

My first passengers after successfully getting the license were my wife, two daughters and a friend of theirs whom I took separately on different days. While flying over Nandankanan I was showing my wife the animal enclosures rope way etc, but she was worried about our daughters who were waiting at the airport. Her thought was if we both die in an accident, what would happen to them!

I was a flying executive member along with Raja of Ranpur and Biju Patnaik who was the chairman for two terms, and at the club we used to hear stories of Ranpur’s exploits. This was an exciting and wonderful world, very different from my day to day work. It introduced me to a set of sophisticated people who enjoyed life in a different way.

In the early eighties I got posted at Gauhati. In my Official capacity I had to go to the airport to receive and send off visiting officers from our Head quarters.  I took this opportunity to indulge in flying! The Chief instructor was also the owner of an aircraft which was gifted to him by the Maharaja of Darbhanga. He had a wife from Mauritius. The Instructor was a young Muslim. Along with him I took off for a cross country flight to an airport 90 miles west, landed, got it certified by the aerodrome officer and came back to Gauhati. This fulfilled my requirement of cross country flight and my license was open now.

Before landing we saw number of monkeys on the airstrip, which was abandoned after World War- II. I asked the instructor to stand guard and went to the office for endorsement. The airport officer offered me biscuits, which I declined, since he had only two left! The nearest market was several miles away and there used to be two commercial flights a week. The journey was perfect with the mighty Brahmaputra with its lush green banks below.

After this I was transferred to the capital of the country and I joined the Safdurjung Delhi Flying Club. The club, I noticed had a board with the name of Biju Patnaik having passed in 1936 both as a pilot and an engineer. (I remembered my old college principal!)

Renewal of license every year was a ritual with the Chief and his Assistant. The respect that I used to get at Bhubaneswar or Gauhati was missing here. The embassy chaps with all their money were preferred to my government appointment!

The circuit and landing was a routine exercise. The flyover on the landing path and the Rashtrapati Bhawan were the only restriction. Here I used to meet various categories of pilots and flew the Cessna which is the third category. If you qualify for four aircrafts and 750 hrs of flying you get an open license meaning it is not specific to the aircraft. Unfortunately I could not do this. But Sanjay Gandhi did this and died with our chief instructor at the same airport!

With my license I used to request the pilot of commercial flights to sit on the co- pilot seat both in India, Iran and England. The license lapsed when I went to Iran for couple of years, where they do not recognize our license and thus ended my flying carrier of over 20 years.

Flying your own plane is an experience by itself; doing something like the birds is exhilarating! The achievement of my dream of flying taught me that nothing is impossible if you put your heart and soul into it. For even the sky is not the limit.