Blue Litmus
Moving Again!
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In a few weeks, I shall be absorbed as permanent employee. In other words, the beginning of the end of college life lies just two weeks into the future. The general interpretation of such a situation as I have gathered from fellow trainees is that we have two weeks to have the fun that we’ve had this far. After this, corporate life will destroy free spirit, free thinking, and free holidays. I’m lucky I don’t share the viewpoint completely – free thinking and free leave will most definitely be put an end to; but considering the probability (about 70%) that I shall be posted in virgin territory, a place I’ve never heard of let alone seen, free spirit may keep me going for a few more months.
The place is called Rudrapur, 60 km South-East of Nainital, Uttarakhand. Some people I’ve spoken to, paint a very habitable picture of the little town and that has greatly affected my mental state. I now look forward to being absorbed, packed up and dispatched to the countryside.
Recall the watermelon juices I’ve written about last month. They were diabolical and lethal as I’ve learned after being more than just under the weather for close to two weeks.
A rule has been created – Never risk fruit juices out here in Madras, unless you are fond of falling violently ill.
And oh!! I still managed to sketch something, its up on Photographites. Ciao!
Only The Boring Get Bored
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Moved from Alwar, Rajasthan to Alwarpet, Madras. It took the usual 40 hours aboard our superfast trains. I shared the cabin with a family of three that boasted of a military background. They didn’t need to explain, for I was able to gather that little nugget of information on witnessing two soldiers arranging their luggage. For a background like that, they were pitiably insecure. I watched them as they tied up all their baggage with chains one would normally use to contain and pacify wild elephants from Tanzania. The gentleman was kind enough to ask me if I wanted mine secured while help was available. That was an offer I politely declined citing perfectly valid reasons like the obvious fact that I wished to disembark with my belongings when we reached Madras. Some people just don’t get the humor. This gentleman was one of them. He looked the other way as though I had only said a plain ‘No.’
The journey was eventless. I assumed my place on the top berth and was fast absorbing the James Hadley Chase I had brought with me before nodding off. I was reminded about where I was only next morning when I was woken up by the carriage attendant for breakfast. The three below were already munching off the last few bits of their omelettes in absolute silence. Singularly boring chums. By mid day I was through with reading and began texting some friends, helped myself to an ice cream or two, and listened to some music.
The train reached Madras Central surprisingly early. The authorities were taken so much by surprise that they deliberately halted the train just a few hundred meters from the platform until it was delayed by ten minutes. This is standard practice for trains that keep good time.
I now am wide awake at 0520 hrs to catch the bus to factory where I’m engaged in reducing effort in the shop-floor. Updating trolleys for the lines so that the associates don’t find it too arduous a task to operate a group of machines that load by themselves, machine, and unload the finished components. Funny what? My superior tells me that it really isn’t a waste of time so I keep at it.
Before I forget, I did find the names of the birds of Alwar. Search them on Google Images when you can.
Black Drongo
Nilgiri wood pigeon
Nothern Lapwing
Intermediate egret
Blyth’s reed warbler
Red-vented bulbul
Koel
Goose
I’m still looking for the names of some more that I had spotted. I am considering a book.
Pillion Eye View
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Minivan to Mysore
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We were to wake up at 4 am. Let me repeat that for the casual reader who’s skimming through the lines– 4 a.m. Mysore is about 165 km from where I am and to be in time to Automotive Axles required us to start early. For the first hour and a half, no one knew which way we were going. At 0830 hrs when the stomachs started making the demands, we halted at Janpadaloka for a quick breakfast. Great food. The pig-out session lasted a mere 30 minutes.
Automotive Axles is not in Mysore, we were 5 km short of the land. We’d been tricked. So this blessed place called Hunsur was quite an eyesore and not Mysore. They make axles, a component you’d have a lot of respect for should you consider travelling in usually packed-to-capacity public transport. Packed to capacity may be an understatement, the buses are regularly seen leaning to one side (God help us!). We had the most despicable lunch there. The worst factory food ever.
Next stop- JK Tyres. If you like cars, buses, trucks, and absolutely love the safety these have to offer, I request you not to visit a tyre factory. You are sure to lose your confidence. A most depressing place. Dark, smelly, unbelievably hot, claustrophobic, and everything else you’d associate with a poorly kept work environment. As one colleague exclaimed – “Yeh to pakka baniya company hai.”
We were only glad to leave. On the way back is Srirangapatna, a name that rings a bell if you ever watched Doordarshan in the 90s. I’ll tell you why. 3 rivers meet at this point (I didn’t bother knowing which). There was also a large but obscure monument or garden of sort with a huge doorway that looked like an imitation Mughal fort. Some of the chaps started to walk towards it and I enquired with a colleague who stood closest to me as to what the place was about. What follows is the dialogue as spoken:
Me: “What is this place and where are those guys going?”
Colleague: “I think they do some horse-breeding in there.”
You must appreciate the chap’s imagination, now why didn’t I think of that? The place looked every bit the sort that would inspire an enthusiast of horse husbandry. A few minutes later, I discovered that it was the tomb of Tipu Sultan. No offense to his persona or his feat but what a way to preserve a tomb huh. Disgrace. Now you know why I mentioned Doordarshan; they used to telecast the Tipu Sultan story.
We returned to Hosur at 11 pm after a couple of blunders by the man at the wheel. It took him half an hour to realise that we were as a matter of fact circum-ambulating Electronic City. Anybody can get lost-agreed, but these guys are in the travel business for crying out loud!
Out Bound Training next ..uhm.. I’ll post that in a week?
Bhandara is a Personal Favorite!
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I was on a training excursion if I could call it that, for over 2 weeks last month. The places we covered were Ennore, which is North of Madras, Bhandara (near Nagpur, Maharashtra), and Mysore. While Ennore and Bhandara were plant training exercises that lasted more than 2 weeks, Mysore was a combined industrial visit. Let us begin.
Ennore is about 20 km north of Madras but needs to be accessed only from Madras. We reached Madras in a very comfortable bus arranged by the company. The distance of 300 odd kilometers was covered in 5 hours, most of which was spent sleeping. We were put up in a hotel in Parry’s, a dubious, multi-storeyed, commercial slum situated near the Madras Central Railway Station. Though the surroundings were shabby, the hotel in itself was quite habitable, and considering we were gonna be out 14 hours of the day, we didn’t really get bothered or have the time to be bothered by the surroundings. The daily excursion to the Ennore Plant felt more like a picnic. We were sent there to work on non-critical machines for a hands-on experience just in case there is a need, when the associates call for a strike. The weather in Madras is abominable, and it was not very hard to realise that it was the heat that was killing us. September 23rd was good riddance, we were on our way to Nagpur.
The Trivandrum-Korba Express halts in Madras for less than half hour between 2250 and 2315 hours. We were delighted as we boarded our air-conditioned cabins, all of us trainees together in a coach. We slept soon after. Scheduled to reach Nagpur the next day at 1630 hrs, we reached at 1730, the usual fare in India. A pre-arranged bus was to meet us there and ferry us to Bhandara. Bhandara is 65 kilometers East of Nagpur, in Vidarbha district, a name that rings a bell with farmer-suicides. However, Bhandara has not had a problem of suicides. Bhandara town is spread over 3800 sq Km; the weather system is moderate; the average literacy rate is 80.3%, that is higher than the national average of 59.3%; land rates, housing rentals are very very cheap; primary occupation is agriculture– almost every conceivable vegetable is grown here making Bhandara self-reliant in food; wheat, bajra, paddy, pulses are chief crops; the built-up area of residences, lodges, etc can be covered on foot. Most people travel on bicycles here. There were more bicycle shops than pharmacies within a mile. The accommodation in Bhandara was a lot more comfortable and much more spacious. The drinking water tasted funny and we learnt later from the inhabitants that it is heavier. Deuterium!?! We decided to guzzle down Aquafina instead. Adarsh Lodge looked creepy from the outside but was very hospitable. Run by a couple of old bags who looked like Maratha War Veterans. The best part about the whole thing was the food. The folks in Bhandara go full-on with groundnut oil. Everything has oil in it. Simply superb dishes were waiting to be gorged on and gorge we did. Four of us hogged at the dinner table and were full to the throat. What surprised us even more was that it cost us less than 250 smackers in total. The stuff that we ate- at least 16 butter-rotis, egg-bhurji, malai kofta, dal-fry, vegetables-do-pyaaza, paneer butter masala, and a round of lassi. Awesome what!
The food took our minds off the real crux of the trip– the plant training. Bhandara gearbox plant works from 0630 hrs to 1430 hrs. The plant is about 14 km from Bhandara town and it takes about 30 minutes to get there. The timings were so amazing, we got back at 1500 hrs and had the whole evening to us. Just the right conditions for food hogging. Yours truly weighs 70 kilograms now, which is just right for his height (6′ 0″). I used to be 67 kilograms. There is a 6 hour daily power load shedding but hell, one can’t have everything. We went on a sightseeing trip on the 2nd of October. We saw 3 places- Ramtek, Ramdham, and Khindsi. While Ramtek was just a temple on a hill, the elevation gave a breathtaking view. I will upload snaps asap. Its too good put in to words. Ramdham turned ou to be a town just like Bhandara, only with a religious past something to do with Lord Rama. We had lunch there, cheap as usual. Khindsi is a fabulous lake, picturesque to the T. We went paddle boating, and watched the sun set behind the hills, simply magnificent. Snaps are coming.
October 4 was finally the time to leave and we were all so disappointed that we had to– so soon after falling in love with the place. Some of us have decided that we will put our career interests on the side table for a while, opt for Production and take the first train to Bhandara. After all, what great mountains are you gonna scale in Marketing or Product Development, when the whole idea of life is to live it. The new bottomline is hard to ignore.
I’ll save Mysore for another time.
