P 17 Free lancing as stop gap arrangement

P  17

A small innings at Southern Agrifurane ,Mundiambakkam,Villipuram

Mr ARRajagopal,ED SPIC  offered me a job assignment contract for 3 months to shoulder the responsibility of completing the left out engg. by M/S Power Gas Corporation, prepare the specs. for balance instruments &identify the requisite pipe fittings/tube fittings/valves/compression fittings etc.
I was given free hand to travel to Madras and Bombay, contact the respective traders and source the materials. As I have been involved in IPCL/MRL/MFL construction earlier,the traders recognised me and offered complete cooperation, fair rates and quick delivery. To ensure quality, I personally carried out the necessary tests/inspection and cleared them for dispatch.
Typical of any project, the project could not be completed within 3 months and my term was extended by another 3 months. The inter- dependence of other discipline delayed the front clearance for instrumentation. Initially Mr Navaneethan was the process and plant manager for that furfural plant project. Furfural is an extraction in a reactor from the bagasse collected from sugar factory. Furfural is widely used in hydrocarbon processing refinery. It has the same characteristic as methanol.
Considering its process hazards and challenges in involved technology, SPIC management identified an experienced refinery operations person- Mr Swamy, ex GM, IOC as Works Manager. Mr Swamy
with his back ground experience/expertise took control of the plant start-up operations. Me, being the sole instrument engineer in the set-up, used to directly interface with Mr Swamy in loop checking, system tests and initial trials etc.
Here I would like to mention" Mr Swamy has joined SAIL only to ensure my career settlement"!
One day, when we were deliberating about my future path &career settlement, he voluntarily expressed that his ex-colleague Mr KS Vaidyanathan has joined HPCL, Visag as GM Projects  and he is looking for an instrument manager for projects. He took the initiative of writing to KSV about me &recommended.
Mr Swamy died in the plant due to an accident during the plant start-up operations.

I attended HPCL  Visag.  interview in April'81 competing with 6 other more experienced professionals that too coming from PSU. I was not sure whether the interview committee will consider me- having only 10+ years experience for a position of"D" cadre manager in public sector undertaking !There was a full fledged interview panel headed by Mr K Krishnamurthy, that time Director-Production, 2  GMs, 2 DGMs,HR/Accounts rep. During the course of interview, one of the DGM Mr G Jaya Rao asked the question about measuring the air velocity and flow in an air-condition duct. My reaction and response was spontaneous saying PITOT TUBE. The whole committee applauded and immediately announced that I am selected.
That break made me as Manager-Instrumentation from client side for a 3 MMT/Annum crude processing refinery project at HPCL,Visag.-a public sector undertaking.  That project was called VREP, a part of capacity enhancement by Govt. of India for all oil processing companies.That time only PSUs had the right to put up refineries  in India.

 Career in visag. was a different challenge, which I enjoyed thoroughly and got enriched experience.

                                                                                         Visag. innings continue........

Key Aspects :- Faith 

P 16 E Germany Toyo Job Contd.

P  16

E.Germany Toyo job Contd.
Recognizing my experience and potential ,Mr Nakamura asked me to take the lead in work planning and job allocation including to Japanese engineers.As it used to be too cold even in the month of May/June, my working staff used to finish off the day's assignment by 11 AM itself and take shelter in humidified porta cabin until evening to catch the bus back to camp.They were so efficient that even Japanese used to wonder.My staff work quality and team effect was so good that Mr Nakamura appreciated them time&again.
On Saturday afternoon Toyo used to run shuttle bus for all to go to West Berlin to spend the week end. The distance was 48 Kms passing through NAZI camp.The bus used to stop at East end before the Berlin wall .All used to check in five star hotel costing only 28 E marks.Have hot shower &then leave for West Berlin through the gate- every time getting the passport stamped. People enjoy evening in different world and come back to east based hotel in late night and enjoy 5 star benefits; next day morning after breakfast go back to West Berlin to do Sunday shopping. Ensure to be back in hotel by 3PM to board the bus back to camp. This was the mechanical life we experienced.
Though everybody had about thousand E mark in hand, one cannot purchase as they feel like since everything was ration.
One memorable incident make me happy even today!Once we ran out of stock of cutting wheels and I requested  Mr Kabori to source them from West Berlin market to meet the urgent requirement. But he retorted saying" Ramasan, Chotho(HOLD),JAL plane arriving afternoon; please wait until then.Only Japanese material to be utilised in this project." For info. even the toilet tissue are to be imported from Japan only.That showed their National Spirit!
In the camp I enjoyed my stay.I had the comfort of Kannan,Vanch&Madhu  taking care of my food. Also the other staff used to share their eatables with us. But personally I had huge problem both physical and psychological.The windy cold climate did not suit me  and family separation added the misery.Leaving wife and 4 year old son at Madras had knock on effect on me.At one stage even Mr Nakamura felt bad about my health condition and suggested that I should leave the site handing over charge to Kannan (Alkan).  After talking M/S Nagamatsu and Nakamura I made arrangement to travel back to India. In the airport, though I had 1000E marks in pocket, I could not pay for excess luggage and left some clothes there and put the money in airport coffer.Came back to India empty handed.

On returning to India, as forecastm different story was awaiting!since M/S JK Shivdasani and Shyam Sundar left Alkan and started their own firm, M/S Ameer and CSSNarayan suspected my motive of coming back.They insisted that either I should return back to EGermany at my expense or leave the company forthwith. I chose to leave and hand drafted my resignation letter; when I requested CSSN to help me in typing that, he said manuscript copy will do and relieved me immediately. He planned to with hold my PF accumulations. So without a penny  and no job in hand I travelled back to Madras with my father by train.
Next day when I tried to contact Mr CP Srinivasan for help, pleasant surprise was awaiting. It seems SPIC  was looking for my where about ! Mr AR Rajagopal , ED-Spic was looking for some instrument engineer with project experience for completing the furfural plant at Villipuram, half finished and left by M/S PowerGas Corporation. Rest is another chapter...........

Key Aspects:- Incident analysis, Planning&scheduling, Recognition, Ups& down

P 15 miserable first trip abroad

P  15

E Germany job with Toyo deputed by Alkan

Having waited eagerly for 8 long years(after Qatar trip cancellation)my first trip abroad, even during travel  was nightmare!
M/s Alkan did not carry out full study of the local conditions/climate &Governmental regulations at GDR(East Germany) and every thing went wrong for the company as well as people. In my case even the overseas posting emoluments was wrong!When GDR Govt. &Toyo engg. indicated that each employee posted there will get a daily allowance of 28E Marks/day, the company converted it as 28X4.5=Rs 126/day(that time Deutche Mark was rated at Rs 4.5) but they did not realise that E mark is not exchangeable at all!! Moreover they booked my travel ticket in Polish airlines via.Beirut. Not realising that GDR is cold country even in April, they gave me only half sleeve sweater.

I left Mumbai,India in the early hours of 4th April 1980 Mumbai-Prague flight. The aircraft halted at Beirut for refuelling and passengers were asked to get down and move to underpass walkway.There I had the horrible sight of intruders firing AK 47 rifle in dead night. one can imagine what would have been my feeling that too first time foreign travel! somehow on boarding back the aircraft landed in Prague 15 Mts. before scheduled time. I heard announcement of my name to hurry up to catch the connecting flight to Shonefield(that time only airport in E Germany) which I followed. On landing
I had the shock of waiting in open atmosphere that too  wearing only half sleeve sweater!Since mine was visa on landing, the local police authorities prevented me entering the airport premises.At that time SriLankan immigrants were entering Europe illegally which made them suspect every Asian.I waited in the open shivering nearly for two hours or so. At last Toyo driver John arrived(Indian from Delhi) and then they called me. The formalities took only two minutes. John took me for lunch in airport cafeteria. There I had to choose a dish between pork and beef and no other choice.I chose beef streak with French fries. Then he drove me to the camp where all expatriate staff reside.He took me to Toyo Kannan's residence.That being Friday afternoon I have been instructed that I should not venture even to move out of building until Monday morning.I was told that without work permit badge nobody can move around even in the camp.So literally I was on house arrest for 2 days;but Kannan and Nair took care of me and made me feel at home.
On Monday I traveled with Kannan and went to report to Mr Nagamatsu,Toyo's administrative manager at site. On receiving me Mr Nagamatsu was surprised to see me with only a half sleeve sweater! out of humanity, he instructed Kannan to issue me full set of warm wear and PPE.He asked me to communicate to my office Alkan in Bombay that the balance team should be equipped appropriately before travel.I did carry out the same by telex but no effect, since Mr CSS Narayan was end by himself and did not bother.
I had a team of 22 including me.AR&2 engineers(Kannan&Vanchi)+1 administrative officer(Madhu)
+18 workmen-mix of fitters/welder/ electrician/ khalasi(riggers). Our scope of work was limited to field instrumentation only covering stand post fabrication,erection, instrument mounting with protection hoods,impulse piping/tubing, copper tubing for control valves, junction box mounting and cable termination at field end and testing them.The main cable tray erection, cable pulling, DCS system installation and rack termination was under scope of an Yugoslavian contractor.All these were under overall supervision of Mr Nakamura,Toyo manager. he had 2 Japanese engineers- Kabori and Sugiyama and they were asked to take directions from me.
                                                                                                                  Contd.......

Key Aspects:- Human relations, Incident analysis, Leadership, Ups&down