We shifted our residence to 17 Vallabha Aghraharm, Triplicane Madras 600005. Here I would like to touch about our new address & its surroundings. The funniest thing- though the street is named as Aghrharam that too in Madras city, there were only a few brahmin families! The houses in that road were occupied by Muslims,  Christian,Mudaliars , Chettiars, Telugu speaking Naidus & several North Indians- Gujarathi & Marwaris. But there were no caste difference issues; but daily street fights due to corporation water taps occupancy as well as big queue. Coming to our house in particular, it was a store type-  8 ground level houses adjoining each other inside a compound. Here also, in the beginning, they were tiled roofing only and no electric power. So monsoon rain wrath was very much there. so the occupants used only power lamps  with kerosene. But we were fortunate to have a one hundred year old neem tree just in front of our house. That served us as the best air conditioner to overcome Madras summer.

In the beginning, the whole store was owned by a muslim & he used to visit once in a month only for collecting the rent dues from all tenants. Even that store also had cosmopolitan tenants. In beginning our neighbors were:

M/S   Prakash rao & Rajam mami    Telugu Christians

          Mahalinga Iyer & Rajalakshmi

         Srinivasa Iyer  & Kamalam

         Astrologer Ramanathan       Telugu bachelor

         Pudu Veetukaramma  & P' ORR& Sons Mudaliar

         Kuppamma& Kurup                 Malayali with Tamil mix

 In that DPP rao did not have any child & Astrolger was a bachelor. The rest had  children- some were  grown up and the majority were of my age group.

Durai & Dilli  were of working age. Kuppu & Vijayan- children of Kuppamma/Kurup had also helped the society in washing household utensils  for all the houses & earned. Mr Mahalinga iyer & Srinivasa  iyer children listing - Mani, Pattu, Vara, Savithri, Kumar, Nagarajan, Kalyanam & Vasanthi. In my house in 1951 only me & my elder sister Viji; my younger brother Ramani was born in Oct. 1955 only. As this was a small store type layout, there was no space for small children to play around. But luckily, Mr Mahalinga iyer's mother, very old lady ( patti) used to take all the children  to a nearby temple-Thiruvatteeswaran temple , 3 streets away in the evening around 5.30PM  and engage all children with telling stories about Hindu culture & spiritual aspects of life. That is how I grew up as a child until the age of 7 years. Additionally I used to stand in the queue in early mornings at Gopal milk depot  to collect the freshly  milked cow or buffalo milk for our home. In those days there was no pocket milk system in the country.

As the space and lighting at home was the issue, Mrs Prakash rao encouraged me to carry out my studies and home work at their house.  The daily compulsory routine used to be 7 to 9 PM. As a discipline, when the  clock chimes at  9 o' clock, my duty was to pick some cereal from the jar and feed the sparrows in the cage  and return to my home. After that only I shall be served dinner by my mother. This routine & discipline system only has molded my nature. This continued until my younger brother Ramani  was born; later he became their pet child and their relationship went to the extent of he  carrying out their last rites as well as inheriting their property.

My early schooling. In the early 1950s, there was no Montessori or kindergarten schooling system prevailed. It so happened  that our area corporator Mr PM Dowlatram  sponsored  a school  for primary education and named it as Hindustan Hiteishi Mandal; to start with, it had only first standard in the first year. My parents admitted me in that school. My headmistress  was Ms Saraswathi and my teacher was Ms Vijayalakshmi. There were about 25 children both boys& girls in the class. As the years passed subsequent standards were opened and students promoted on merits. Like that they could open upto 3rd standard only; financial & space constraints were the cause for the limitation. As I was the brightest student among all students I was given double promotion- promoted from 3rd standard to 5th standard directly ! So in life I have never attended 4th standard! They called my parents and advised them to seek admission for 5th standard in Hindu Bala Patasala, which school had only upto 5th standard. So I got shifted to that school only for my 5th standard. Here I would like to mention that the famous ghatam vidwan Sh Vinayakaram was my classmate in 5th standard.

 Guhalayam living

In Aiyanavaram we lived in Guhalayam, a large housing complex having 21 individual ground level only houses, all rental. In those days, Madras city did not have much electricity and all houses in Guhalayam were without any electric power ! Also since the city did not become a full corporation by then , there was no municipal water and all houses were depending on only a common well for water. The houses were of tiled roof and monsoon fury usually drench the interiors. As a child I used to see my mother placing metal buckets to catch those water . ( Plastic age did not start by then; so only metal buckets were in use). As a small kid I was unaware of what is happening in newly independent India. The only thing I am aware of was  the poor living conditions, weekly rations for rice and kerosene.

As things were not clear to anyone, people from all 21 houses used to mingle freely. As poverty was the order of the day, nobody thought of any luxury. The growing children used to assemble at the center where there was a large grown up peepal tree and play around, mostly pebble games. As I was very small and not active, they used to tease me often and my sister used to threaten them to leave me alone.

In those days, there was no  other scope for entertainment like cinema/drama as entertainment and people were confined to Guhalayam only. Elderly ladies used to join together for swami poojas and the children used to relish the prasadams.

When I became 3 1/2 years old i.e by the end of first quarter of 1951, considering the tedious and tiresome cycling distance involved to reach office& back  for my father  ( Aiyanavaram to Chepauk & back), we shifted our residence from Aiyanavaram to Triplicane in 1951.

AR 1947-69

 My birth

I A.Ramanathan was born on 5th December 1947 at Vathalakundu (now known as Batlagundu) in Tamil nadu (then Madras State).

That was my maternal grandfather  Prof.Krishna Sharma's house, where all his grand children were born. I happened to be the eighth among my siblings and cousins to be born in that same delivery room of that house. My time of birth was 10.16 hours on a Friday morning.

Typical of my grandfather, he had no patience to hear anything from my paternal grand parents and even before my father arrived to see his child(son), the old man went ahead in my namakaranam (child christening) under the name  Mahadevan. His reasoning was that I was born on the day, the lord at Vaikkam in Kerala annual festival day. So that became my  name for doing all rituals in life. But my paternal grand parents had the wish to name me as Ramanathan, since my father visited Rameswaram when my mother was pregnant carrying me- and that is the Lord's name- Ramanatha Swamy (Lord Shiva). Fortunately, there was no misunderstanding between families and mutually settled as follows:

Ramanathan as official name for all government/ school/ birth certificate etc.

Mahadevan  only for all Hindu rituals including pithru tharpanam!

That is strictly abided all time to come.

My mother brought me to Guhalayam when I was 4 months old. I have my elder sister Viji , who is 4 years elder to me. So in a small home in Guhalayam the family of 4 settled down.

P 130 Feedback&Suggestions

P 130


Feedback&Suggestions



Dear Friends

Just sharing .It is exactly two years (31st March 2018) since I retired from active service.

After perusing my blog 'aruwhy.blogspot.com'  narrating my industrial experience( 1969-2018)
some of my well wishers&close friends have given the following feedback :

My blog covers the flow of  multi-discipline experience that too in varied fields & invaluable data
of challenges handled over this period spanning 49 years as well as highlighting various incidents
which were Ups &Downs in the whole career.

They suggest to Index the Key Attributes with cross linking the corresponding pages ( date wise)
for  easy direct access of  vast information in the blog concerning that attribute. That will highlight the takeaways to the reader.

Broad areas can be classified into - Technical in nature, Codes& Standards, My lack of experience/exposure, Critical challenges, Incident analysis, Human Relation issues, Leadership,
Recognition, Team Building, Delegation, Planning& Scheduling ...

The main objective of this indexing is to attract the attention &direct the readers for taking clues from these vast experience data shared/ lessons learnt & try to adopt themselves to suit their individual situation demands.

I am attempting to incorporate their valuable inputs . If any reader has some more additional suggestions, please revert back to my mail address ramanathan12.5@gmail.com;

Dr.A.Ramanathan
Dt.31st March,2020.
The main objective of this Indexing  is to attract the attention &direct the readers for taking clues from these life time experience shared/ lessons learnt &try to adopt themselves as per their 

P 129 Experience of 2017-18

P 129

Experience of 2017-18

As I have attained the age of 70 years, the management retained my services in special fixed time employment and asked me to continue in projects. Since I have already handed over the specific HSE responsibility, looking at my capability in Technical Audit, they have assigned me the specific task of carrying out the study of compliance to Insurance coverage and initiate Risk Analysis studies for all running plants as well as new projects/revamp measures.

As this assignment was new to me but at the same time ,very much in-line with my overall experience , I grabbed that opportunity and enjoyed. The assignment was too big for any individual to handle independently! So we decided to engage the services of international specialist consultants for several tasks. As Mr.RRBalakrishnan was already a specialist consultant to Reliance in insurance matters especially in interpreting the terms of cover, assisting Reliance/Insurance companies in putting the terms of coverage with clarity, I took his help in initiating my task and developing the scope document for respective complex insurance coverage study- terms and conditions update.
So my initiation was effective and served the insurance team for policy renewal of IPCL sites, GSPTCL port and Reliance Malaysia PTA and Polyester plants.

For Risk Study of Jamnagar complex, we split the task into two. When it came to Marine related
tasks, we combined all the ports in India where Reliance has got some interest (be it Reliance owned  or hired or only using their infrastructure to handle sea freighted parcels) and contracted to one UK party, a Bureau Veritas group company and completed the study. When it came to plant and tank farm area,every one was weary to undertake the large risk study of this magnitude. Only M/S Baker Risk of USA  was coming forward to undertake the task that too only a small portion as pilot study and wanted to establish the system for undertaking full analysis study. As their indicated cost was too high ,that also did not fruitify. So that task did not take off at all until I left the services.

When it came to IPCL plants insurance policy renewal,as all the three complex are combined in a single policy, the insurance consortium- M/S GIC and NIC  looked for Inspection study of the site
conditions, the set process and operating procedures, maintenance practices  etc. by any reputed 3rd party consultant. While searching , they identified M/S AMI , Bangalore and assigned the job under Mr Kini, a professional insurance assessment specialist.This company is an international set-up with France HQ..

When coming to execute this assignment ordered by Insurance consortium, Mr Kini was looking for a coordinator from Reliance  for carrying out the detailed study of each complex. As my services were available then, the insurance department of RIL requested me to undertake this task. So that assignment came as full fledged project task to me,  as the concerned field  personnel were not volunteering to share the data. Even the members and lead from our insurance group were not coming out with  data to assess the history of events for the inspector to assess and record. So literally we have to extract the inputs from all concerned. But when it came as final audit report, every one was claiming to take credit! The National Insurance Consortium appreciated the final report  and thanked me individually.

Having completed this task successfully by Nov/Dec.2017, I was asked to carry out the similar requirement for Reliance Malaysia plants-PTA and Polyester, but only remotely! When I studied their conditions about field arrangement and inspection procedure etc. I was not at all happy and convinced; but there were many restrictions and full justice could not be done. By the time it was Feb.'18 and my job assignment period was coming to end. and called it a day by end March.'18.

KeyAspect:- Attitude,  Incident analysis, Initiative, Opportunity, Recognition, Transfer 

P 128 Outside office Activity in 2016

P 128

PESO Conference & Exhibition-2016

In Feb.'16, that time CCE Dr.Kamal thought of conducting  an international conference on
Excellence in Hydrocarbon  Safety.. As such an assembly was carried out 10 years back under
Sh.Anbunathan at Kochi,Dr.Kamal envisaged to conduct this event at Jaipur, as that city faced
a major accident of tank terminal in 2010 . He wanted that incident to be thoroughly discussed and
analyzed by industry members participation. Moreover, since he hail from Jaipur, he thought he can have local support &co-operation in conducting such a large program.

As efficient subordinate, Dr.Kamal  identified Sh.D K Gupta , Dy.CCE to be the chief coordinator to conduct the entire program. DKG being social in nature and resourceful in Society, issued a notification to all oil processing industries of India asking  the respective management to nominate their key stake holders both from refinery operations/maintenance/ safety and marketing set-ups.

As DKG knew the pulse of the situation, he chose S/Sh Sanjay  & Rajiv Chohan as functional co-ordinators  and Dr Dixit of PESO  department for reviewing and short listing technical articles authored by various industry experts. The beauty was, to start with , it was estimated that a max. of 400 people will only attend this 2 day conference at Jaipur on 21/22 nd July'16. Actually there were about 800 people turned up. Rather, at one stage, the organizing team was afraid how we are going to manage the show!

To start with, both Dr  Kamal &DKG conducted periodic meeting at all PSU companies HQ and
RCP(Reliance). We were afraid whether sufficient fund will accumulate to conduct this mega program at Jaipur ; but since the attendance number has far exceeded the original thinking, the organizers could arrange a gala dinner with grand dance/music program on first day evening.
To honor and respect the retired CCEs , they were given special invitation to attend this program
and each one of them were rewarded. Only Dr H Mukherjee could not attend as he was abroad.


The total conference was a huge success. Almost all companies chairman/MDs/Directors were present. Each one of them shared their career experience in oil industry operations and challenges faced. All the oil companies and some system manufacturers put their stall in the exhibition to display their products/development/achievement etc. Souvenir was published covering all the technical paper presented during these two days.

Both the days there were technical papers presented not only by personnel from India but also
by international experts on the subject of safety. People shared their experience and there were threadbare discussions on Root cause Analysis and Near Miss Incidents . Experts from oil industries , Inspection agencies&Hazop Analysis specialists particiapted in Round table Conference  and many
points- food for thought emerged for  Corporate Social Responsibility on Safety.

Rather time  was short for the Closing ceremony. All the members who contributed both in terms of Technical and Organisation administration  were presented with momentoes
As majority present were so impressed and found such gathering is useful for knowledge sharing,
a short debate cropped up- what should be the frequency for conducting such mega event? Finally it was arrived that the interval should be around 3 years
                                                                                                                Contd.........
Key Aspect :-  Delegation, Faith, Human relations

P 127 Cross Sensitivity of CO sensors

P 127

Cross-Sensitivity of CO sensors

Though all the vendors have declared that there is a technical issue of cross sensitivity problem in electro-chemical sensor type,neither the supplier nor the purchaser team were aware of the involved issue while committing the order for both fixed as well as portables.

In field, while unloading the Propylene/Ethylene into Process chiller compressors in PX IV plant, safety team as a precaution  hand carried a set of 4X portable gas detectors. To everybody's shock, the detectors picked up the hydrocarbon vapor presence in atmosphere as if CO is present in high value and raised alarm. Panic situation set in and they contacted me at RCP stating the detectors are defective and take up the issue with M/S MSA. Personally I had my doubt, whether the coke getting loaded in the hopper in  Gasification complex would have really generated CO vapors in atmosphere! At the same time, considering the inter-distance of approx 700 Mts, whether such a possibility of CO travelling came in question.
So on SOS basis, I took up the issue with Mr Gustavo to study the issue. He reverted that the issue has arisen due to the functional characteristics of electro chemical sensor only  and the detectors are not defective. Having heard that from him, I went into looking for the same issue in Honeywell supplied fixed CO detector in PX plant area. To my shock, those sensors also revealed the same characteristics. Since those fixed devices were handled by Core instrumentation group, I shared the issue with Dr. B R Mehta. That made both of us to take up with both the parties-Honeywell and MSA and made them to study/help Reliance in finding a workable resolution.

Technical Point:  As we have Coke gasification complex and Syn.gas travelling all across refineries/C2 complex, tracking sensitive colorless/odourless toxic CO  that too in PPM is a must. That strenuous condition ruled out usage of Infrared type sensor type for CO presence sensing in atmosphere.As it is IR sensor can sense only in % value that too with sensitivity of 10000 ppm only; whereas OSHA's recommendation is only max 50 PPM sensitivity for human being.
To validate our doubt, we referred the matter to M/S Shell Global Solutions and queried them. They responded that they do not have electro chemical type sensors at all for CO sensing! Moreover, no where else in the world, there is a combination of refinery with a petro-chemical plant and coke gasification complex all integrated in one facility! So Reliance is unique and complicated. So we took up with both the vendors to undertake a fundamental research to  arrest/restrict of this hydrocarbon vapors getting converted into CO and misrepresent/create nuisance value alarm in a petrochemical complex. The research is still on when I retired from service.We have to  wait&watch.It appears that direction-ally the progress is positive. Otherwise we may end up with wolf story!

Key Aspect :- Incident analysis,  Lack of experience, Technical issue