1980-85

1980 – 85

In Jul 80 I got my transfer order to Gauhati, as you recall I had refused to join at Bangaingaon in 76. Now I had no option, and normally I do not approach people even though the GM of the refinery was a great friend of mine. First I went on pre transfer for 15 days fixed a house in their refinery colony on the bank of Brahmaputra, and then came back to take my family. By then Anita was admitted to Miranda House for B Sc and was in the hostel. Therefore I sent the luggage by truck, and traveled by the same car around 2500 Km and 4 night halts via siliguri and a border road without a name in the map inside lush tea gardens. On this remote stretch I found one patnaik of vet corps, whom I gave a lift. Another scary route was in west Bengal itself after farakka barrage, with floodwater on both sides.

The work was of revamping the cooling water system with cooling towers, expansion of the existing power plant, and a new Naptha splitter. In addition new ones replaced the old tankages. The work was interesting, but in the beginning there was complete stoppage of work due to the agitation, the agitation being directed against Bengalis in the beginning and against all outsiders.

In dec 80 there was an open advertisement for the post of Chief Const Supdt, and our association took up the matter with management, who agreed to consider the internal candidates also in a ration of 1:1. I was the only one selected from inside and the outsider never joined. This was the last victory of the officer’s association, where I was the founder, 3^rd and 5^th  President with a strength of 750. 

I made friends and went on shikar trip to the foothills on Arunachal . The chap was one Baruah, with a security officer. I shot one Mithun, a huge animal and was wounded. The villagers were so happy that they can get the animal next day. The most interesting part is on a small hill of 1000 ft, which I climbed and shot three birds known as badaghuan, a huge size kabuttar. On the downhill we were treated with a cake dried on the roof, which when soaked in water becomes beer. The name I forgot, but was delicious.

Assam being a disturbed area I used to Meghalaya- Garo hills, but not many animals were found. The very object is the thrill of searching for the animal eyes in the darkness, and the anxious waiting for someone to come up. After killing I do get satisfaction, but sadness also sets in. Therefore you find most of the conservationists of animals are former shikaris.

Work started in full swing, and during rains, I used to collect a lot of wild mushrooms, which assamese do not take. The I started with Tambul, in absence of Indian pan. Even though my mother used to take pan I was not addicted till I reached Mathura. There I got two friends who initiated to this bad habbit, which I still continue except for a brief period.

After a gap of about two years they started targeting assamese collaborators mainly those promoted IAS chaps. There was a bomb blast near my neighbor. At this time a circular came for a UPSC selection for Bureau of Public Enterprises, and I was selected the only one from public sector. The other Mr Kalra was from Min of Transport, and my boss was from CPWD.




In one bihu festival my temp garage and all my packing boxes were burnt, and I shifted to a decent house at Narikal basti from the refinery colony. The refinery gave me some long time friends like srinivasan. My old friend Lt Col Sunderason was posted to the marine unit, and we went for a cruise in the river brahmaputra. Then another friend from mathura Nagaraj was also posted at Bangaingaon, who used to frequent gauhati. The old boss after retirement also came down there.

During these days I was deep into astrology, and I was asked about the above selection, and my reply was after calculation 25 Mar 83. Then the date passed, and by Apr 1^st I got a call from GM that I am selected and the date of signature of Dy secy was 25 Mar. Then came a long correspondence of deputation terms. The second question was when. My reply was 20 Aug, and I left for New Delhi on the same day. With one of my deputies Bhateja, we used a lot of calls from dead souls known as planchets, and some came true.

My elder daughter got admission at Dibrugarh medical college in central quota, on marks basis, which was not possible in my home state because of so called entrance exam. She left Miranda House B Sc in botany halfway. The younger one got admission in Army school, which was the only one open in whole of assam except silcher. On completion she got admission in the famous cotton college in B Sc Botany, thinking that I will put her in IFS, but she changed to physics. Later she  left B Sc altogether and went to Lucknow for a newly opened architecture course.

I became very contented since my vicarious satisfaction was fulfilled, since I wanted to become a doctor and after engineering be an architect. Assam also gave me a promotion, selection in government of India as a joint advisor.

I joined on 1 sep 83, and took a rented house at Paschim Vihar at Rs 800 rent the reimbursement being only Rs 400. Later I shifted to Kidwai Nagar (West) a DII flat with a rent of Rs 135. Even though I had a car in GoI there was no conveyance allowance like in public sectors and that is why most of the time I used to go by chartered bus and DTC buses. My office used to be CGO Complex Block near JN Stadium a mere 3 km from the official residence.

The allotment of the house was because deputationists get a preference over regular employees, and I accidentally met the ex Chief Secy of Assam, who was the Housing Secy in GoI.My coming to New Delhi is a story itself. At this time of the Assam agitation was in full swing and the targets were Bengalis first then rest of Indian. But later their anger was on IAS officers who were from Assam Civil Service. There was a killing of a son of one and a bomb blast in another in our basti. These two set me on a path of moving out of the place.

I was selected by UPSC from among 15 called for the interview, and the favourite of my boss was not, and therefore the delay in my joining. The interview was in Dec 82, and my wife asked an astro question whose reply was 25 Mar 83, and when my boss telephoned from Delhi on 1 Apr (Fools day) I asked him if the letter is signed on 25 Mar. He thought that I have contacts at Delhi. Next after a long lapse of time she asked when are we leaving Gauhati and my reply was 20 Aug, which happened.

As usual I came by car, but this time with a driver and took the route of upper India, via Lucknow. It took four days and on the way stayed in a remote Dak Bungalow, with no door latches frayed carpets and nowhere near any town. It was scary but good stay. Lucknow we stayed in a small hotel and went to see my younger daughter. Ultimately when we landed at my brothers place the truck had arrived and dumped the luggage in some godown. We had to re transport them to a house taken on rent at Rs 800 at Paschim Vihar a remote place in those days standard. House was a DDA flat 2 bed room at the top floor, the landlord was really a gentleman.

I explored the ways and means to go to the office situated at Block 14 in CGO Complex near JN Stadium on the 5^th floor. First time I went by car and found there are chartered buses from our locality ie Jwalamukhi. The bus was mainly with a lot of official from RAW, who do not speak about their department but the secret nature of their work. The only problem was that I had to leave 5 min to 5 to catch the bus, and that brought in a letter from the Dy Secy for early departure. The letter was later was however withdrawn. Just like the steel plant in the later half I carried a tiffin box followed by Mungfali with friends.

One of the Jt Advisor who was from Min of Transport Mr Kalra, who had worked at Africa and my Advisor was Mr Ratnam, a fine gentleman to the boots. The work was nice and quite different. By dint of the position I was holding I became member of various committees. One is ISI, which later was named as BS. The other was a member secretary of a team to investigate how a project is completed within the time frame. They are Kudremukh Iron Ore Project and other Salem Steel. The other active member was one Mazumdar CMD of Hospital Consultancy, with whom I made two trips to Bangalore, Mangalore and the Project site. The other was a tour with the Advisor to Nalco at Angul and Damanjodi in helicopter. The heli pilot one from Army’s artillery came back once due to visibility. He had to do the maintenance at Damajodi after landing.

After my motor cycle days the first car accident took place with me driving, and my wife broke her leg. By that time we had shifted from Pashim Vihar to Kidwai Nagar West 212, which was allotted to me at a rent of Rs 135 plus Rs 5 for a garage later. It had a servant qr and there was no problem on the domestic front.

One memorable day Mr Ratnam came near my door and asked for by age and vanished. Later I found that I was selected for a Colombo Plan course, in which I fitted in, the other was overage. The passport was made in a couple of days.I left for a 10 weeks course on prj management course at Slough in England. The institute was Urwick Management Centre, which was later taken over by Price Waterhouse. We were in the 4^th batch consisting of different nationalities like one ach from Nigeria, Madagascar,Pakistan, Bangaladesh, Papua New Guinea and about 4 from India.

The timing of chapters are not in sequence.