Surprising Events (contd.)

 17. Maa bulawa ! While working in HPCL, there was an employee benefit of availing LTC anywhere in India once in 4 years.  Under that scheme I utilised my trip to Kashmir with my family ( wife and 2 sons). That was in Aug.1984, the time the Kashmir unrest was beginning to take place. On my second day stay in Srinagar , a curfew was imposed and all the outside visitors were asked to vacate Srinagar immediately. When we rushed to the airport to catch a flight to Delhi, the airline authorities could not accommodate our travel to Delhi but suggested to move to Jammu for safety. After landing at Jammu, since I did not have enough liquid cash in hand I did not know how to sustain then. Those days there was no credit or debit card system prevailed ; people managed safety only with the prepaid postal orders! When I approached the airport manager for enquiries, as if God's agent Mr Zutshi  helped us by issuing a wait listed dummy ticketing and cancel them for converting the PO to cash. Then he suggested us to go to Maa Vaishnavi Devi temple at Katara. There, an unknown stranger Mr Gupta took us to the top in the night climbing the hill and in the early hours of morning some other unknown Telugu army jawans helped in getting the Devi darshan ! That was a literal Maa bulawa only.    Year 1984

18.Positive Turn in Life.  Accidental meeting of Sh K Krishnamurthy, former HPCL chairman at Hyderabad airport has changed my life ! His enquiring about my welfare and suggesting career change etc. are still a dream for me. Added to that, Bhuvana  advising that "both KK and his wife Mrs Nagarathinam are our well wishers and we should follow their guidance "can never be forgotten ! That accidental meeting only made me come to Reliance ! Though I had several reservations at the back of my mind to start with, time flew just like that and I served Reliance for 32 long years and enjoyed my profession.   Year 1986

19. While serving Reliance for this long, I had several surprise shocks, most of them ending in benefits only. Rather I can proudly state I am also the one who contributed to its growth and benefited - courtesy Sh Mukesh D Ambani, chairman of RIL. Let us look into some of the happenings !

20.  Maternity warden  During my innings at Patalganga- carrying out instrumentation construction work for Paraxylene plant. one day Sh Dhirubhai Ambani  paid a visit to the site. He and Sh K K Malhotra, Chief executive were standing below a pipe rack and discussing something; when I happened to cross them avoiding the disturbance KKM called me by name to introduce me to that time chairman. Can somebody guess the chairman's reaction? 'Who does not know him; he is our maternity warden"! KKM was puzzled and could not understand the context for his uttering. Then the chairman explained that Ramanathan  shall be there wherever  any problem  exists to resolve any issue similar to the maternity warden's presence during a child delivery. We all laughed then to relish his comment.   Year 1988

21.Leave no stone unturned.  While executing the Ethylene terminal at Hazira site, we landed in mess due to improper heat treatment of fabricated elbows  done with M312 SS by M/S Rathnamani contracted by M/s L&T. While doing the completed lines for the cryogenic service hydrotesting, each and every joint cracked and could not hold the test pressure! Reliance & L&T on war footing carried out field welding of both lateral( longitude) and circumferential joints 100% and did complete X ray on war footing. Even then the inspection group insisted for the source of the raw billet stock ( from which the original pipe and the fittings were fabricated); but,since M/S Rangamani had wound up the business due to some tax raids, M/S L&T could not trace the original source of the material and its heat number. That was forcing us to resource the complete material and re-lay- meaning acost of Rs 6 crores (then in 1991) and waiting period for fresh material production  in factory and delay in the fresh field work. That option was not acceptable to all concerned. Then Mr AM Naik , L&T chairman took that challenge as his personal task and attempted to trace the heat number and its corresponding Test certificate with all steel mills in the country. Luckily, in a short time he could identify that . It was from M/S SAIL Salem and that company cooperated in tracing its history and shared the copy of the original test certificate. Everyone was relieved of the tension and commissioning took place in April 1991 smoothly.       Year 1991

22. Opinion Engineering .While executing the world largest petroleum refinery at Jamnagar (phI DTA) there were several involuntary propositions thinking that they are saving cost as well as ease the execution. Here I would like to cite 2 such cases : 1) Recommending to put 2X 84" diameter Cooling water piping in the pipe rack bottom tier instead of laying them underground ! The reasoning & justification was- in the Jamnagar site, the ground is of rocky soil and a lot of efforts are needed to dig the trench. The funny thing is that the suggested person himself was a qualified civil/structural engineer that too had a lot of field construction expertise. He completely overlooked the issue of the thrust load factor on the pipe rack. Similarly in another incident  at the marine terminal, some one questioned the need and necessity for the provision of cross over bridge/s on a 4 M wide rain water drain. They thought they are saving the cost to the company, forgetting the requisite safety. Unfortunately all of them were very seniors and boss level executives.  Over ruling and managing then itself was a big task to the project management function. Added to misery, M/S Bechtel being the engineering consultant was looking for my  interference in settling these and issue clearances. Though these are literal challenges I enjoyed settling them rightly.   Year 1997

23. Daylight robbery. For some narine related issue I was on an official visit to Hamburg, Germany. After completing that task I was supposed to fly to Zurich for the Cryogenic off gas compressor  inspection at the Sulzer factory in Zurich. To meet that objective I reached Hamburg airport and went to the check-in counter. I handed over my ticket and passport to the airline assistant and stood there waiting for my boarding pass. After finishing when I looked down to pick up my briefcase it was missing! It had a lot of  foreign exchange in cash as well as  traveller cheques and everything was lost. It forced me to lodge the complaint with the police and cancel my journey to Zurich. Luckily my travel agent at Mumbai acted fast and arranged the replacement of all lost money immediately  through their local branch but instead of going to Switzerland I returned to Mumbai direct- Airlines was considerate to reroute my ticket and arranged. Still I am not able to imagine how the robber would have managed to lift that briefcase placed near my legs!    Year 1998

24. Challenge of internal lining for sea water service. I thought that by following specially developed paint spray coating we can achieve efficient throughput instead of the conventional cement lining. The coating material was the same that was utilized in the underground tunnel in English Channel for the train service between London to Paris in France. But in Jamnagar we ended in a mess due to the holiday generated during the application and no thorough manual  inspection in 3X42" piping could arrest the leak whenever the lines were commissioned with the sea water to the refinery. Nobody was able to understand the issue.The only fear  for all was it is already 11th hour and how to overcome? Sh MDA thought over the issue and called his classmate  Sh Raju Narayanan,who specialized in corrosion technology and settled down in London. Raju landed at the site on 17th Dec 1999 at noon.  I received him and started taking him to the marine terminal where the sea water intake provision commence. Raju being an expert in metallurgy that too corrosion noticed the inherent issue 50M front itself and said ' what mistake M/S Bechtel has committed ?'  There itself explained the issue- it was a question of cathode of steel pipe in conjunction with the anode of nobel metal of isolation valve stem !  The sea water initiates perfect conduction  and that is the crux of the issue. Immediately  he came out with a solution of incorporating Zinc anodes at every manhole across the 16Kms X3 lines and resolved the issue. Unfortunately I could not be physically present at site during implementation since that was the day my mother died and I rushed to Madras; rather Raju was the person who consoled me after hearing that bad news and saw me off from the guest house. That implementation holds good and the installation is working fine all along.        Year 1999.

                                                                                       Contd.....

Surprising Events (contd.)

 12.  Immemorial LIC loop check after relieving at Alkan. In Jan.1971, after relieving and hand over of all tools to store keeper at Baroda site, Mr K Sethuraman that time Operations Manager of IPCL demanded with my boss Mr B Sankaranarayanan- how can you relieve Mr Ramanathan ? I want him now for carrying out one LIC loop check ! BS looked at me and I looked at him.  When I expressed that I am still to pack my clothes at Hotel Staywell, he responded- don't bother on that; I shall ask Mr Sardhana to carry it out and I shall get the tools in my name& you go to the field to help Mr Sethuraman. As even my technician Rajesh had gone by that time, Mr Sethuraman acted as my helper to conduct that loop test by 18.45 hours on that day. To acknowledge my professional commitment, he drove me direct to Baroda station and hosted the dinner on that day at the station canteen.  KS, BS & his family members as well as Sardhana saw me off boarding Dehradun express to Bombay (Mumbai now). This I can never forget  in my life. Year 1971

13.  Sh. SV Rajagopal suggested an ice cream party to the technicians.  While I was the Assistant Training Officer (Instrumentation) I used to give training exercise to my technicians- with the Manufacturer's catalogue & Parts assembly drawings,  calibrate first, then disassemble & reassemble the field instruments, calibrate them again. This exercise was to ensure that there was no nonlinearity introduced and experience the trade. SVR , the chief manager - Instrumentation appreciated this process of learning and jokingly told that SPIC is not poor but at the same time no technician should leave any washer or O ring as spare part while carrying out these exercises; if anybody by fault generate any part/s, he should pay a fine of Re1/- for a part to the ice cream kitty pool. But at a later date he hosted an ice cream party for all the technicians to appreciate their learning efforts. Year 1973

14. Trump motorcycle accident . As my ex-boss BS was leaving M/S Alkan and moving to M/S EIL,New Delhi from Tuticorin ( SPIC site) I wanted to see him off. Courtesy demanded that and I attempted to make that trip using my Trump motor cycle at about 19.15 hours from SPIC township. Unfortunately, on an en route flyover I lost the balance as there was a lorry with bright light crossing over. Luckily I fell on the right; had it been to my left, I would not be here ( live) now to pen this. Fortunately my friend Sh Pandian, an IOC petrol bunk owner who  arrived there in a few minutes rescued me and admitted me in Sacred Heart hospital and reported to Spic management next day. Later only I realised that it was a major accident  and my collar bone fractured. It took several months for cure  and my friends in SPIC mocked me as Coat hanger ! Year 1974

15. After serving in Spic for 5 1/2 years since there was no scope to get transferred to Instrument department, I looked for a change. Accidentally Alkan Chief Mr G A Ameer called & asked me to take over the management of Baroda region. Though I went back to Baroda only to look after the Instrumentation implementation of IPCL Naphtha cracker - GOP consisting of cracker & BBH, recognizing my company and my managerial capabilities, IPCL/EIL  gave us several piping and insulation contracts in Offsite, ACF, ACN etc. During execution of one cross country 6" naphtha feed line that too above ground on sleepers the question of hydrotest under hot Sun cropped up. As it was around 11 am that day, due to heat radiation the line test pressure was not holding . Myself and my supervisor Mr Sekhar told the EIL inspector that we shall postpone the test and take up in the evening when it becomes cool. But he was adamant and instructed us to switch on the booster pump ! The result was that we were left with a snake  as the pipe pressure crossed the upper limit of its design pressure. Typical public sector blame game raised- who will bear the cost of the material replacement? IPCL/EIL begged Alkan management  NOT to expose them and requested to bear some nominal cost to show in the accounts book.

16. Miserable first abroad assignment  After the cancellation of an earlier Qatar trip with M/S L&T in 1972 I was longing for a foreign assignment. In late '79 M/S Toyo Engineering Japan identified me specifically and asked M/S Alkan to deploy me first followed by a few engineers and 24 workmen. In those days, as people were not conversant with the international conditions as well as acute cold weather warm clothes requirements etc. Alkan management fixed a random salary + considering the local living allowance as fully convertible, sourced a cheap ticket with Polish Airlines and sent me only with a half sleeve sweater. At that time the administration manager  was thinking that he knew the entire world and committed these blunders.   At each step I faced misery. 

a) The flight had a refuelling halt at Beirut. So all the passengers were asked to alight from the plane and wait in a bunker. That city had the terrorist menace then itself and the army personnel were firing continuously with AK47 in front of the waiting passengers. One can imagine the plight of the waiting passengers 

 b) At Prague, as the flight has reached before the schedule, the airlines personnel asked to board the immediate plane to Schoenefeld  in East Germany. Being not aware of the local regulations then, I also thought I could reach earlier than scheduled and boarded that plane. That was the misery.  On reaching Schoenefeld airport, the immigration authorities refused to let me in since mine was visa on arrival. Imagine a person wearing only a half sleeved sweater in snow falling open air. That airport authorities were strict because of unauthorised Sri Lankan immigrants ramping up. So I was forced to stand in open for nearly two hours. 

  c) But the driver Sh John  turned up as per schedule carrying my visa. So the entry formalities ended fast and as it was already lunch time he took me to the airport canteen. We thought we might get some bread, fruits and egg omelette; but we could get only beef steak. As we had no alternative options we took that by force. 

 d)As that day was Friday I was advised to stay put inside house only until  Mr Kannan of Toyo could arrange my work permit pass on Monday morning. On seeing me in a half sleeve sweater, Toyo's administrative director Mr Nagamatsu scolded me and Alkan management and instructed Mr Kannan to arrange issuing one full set of warm clothes. Then he instructed me to convey the requirements to my management for the team members following.  But the typical administration set up in Alkan they ignored that call. So my responsibility was enhanced at the site. From the allowable local Mark currency available I sourced those warm dress requirements for all the team members. 

e) There only we learnt what the communist government meant. Each and every thing in stores was controlled and no one can purchase in excess. I happened to come across one vet sad case- A nine year old boy  unknowingly wrapped a fish pocket in a newspaper which had the photo of the then Secretary General of GDR. Somebody has reported that to police  stating that the boy had not given due respect to their leader. The boy was punished with death and he was shot dead in public.

f) As for my health concern I could not bear that biting cold and family separation played too much. Though my leadership quality was excellent and appreciated by Mr Nakamura, Chief Instrument engineer of Toyo at site, he only recommended that I should return back immediately and I came back handing over the charge to my trusted deputy Mr S Kannan         

                                                                Contd.

Surprising Events

 Memorable  Instances in my life

Somehow I have come across several freak happenings in life  which resulted in some positive outcomes & sometimes very dangerous in nature. They were all memorable  and kept me reminded often! Here I shall attempt to list them down in the order of their occurrence  and elaborate.

1. Hoodwinking an innocent boy -  As described I was taken for a ride by hoodwinking stating it is better to carry the cash in a wrapped paper cover instead  of carrying it loose; by that pack with stone pebbles and steal that amount. - My homecoming from Shanmukha laundry  picking up ironed clothes in 1955.

2.A funny utterance ignorantly-  Friend Ms Bharathi Naidu, while going to her school in the morning used to say " Poi Sastanu " instead of Poi Ostanu ! Though her mother tongue was Telugu, she was not able to understand the implied meaning in what she was uttering daily even after we ( Tamilian who could understand Telugu ) explain and attempt to correct her.  Ostanu mean Return whereas Sastanu mean Die.

3. While I was an 11 year child, my paternal uncle Mr Sethupathi  desired that  all children should learn swimming  and he instructed one of his office assistant Mr Dorai to teach us in the village well. That person used to tie  the dried pumpkin with each child and push us into the well. As I did not have an ABC idea of floating in water I sank ! Mr Dorai being an expert noticed my misery  and dragged me out. Then he complained to my uncle and recommended I should not participate anymore.  Year 1958

4. Famous NCC 'B' certificate examination. While studying  PUC in Loyola College, I was active and gave the NCC 'B' Certificate examination. Everything was going alright and we were relaxing in an open ground.That time also we had the given rifle in hand. When the officer called us for reassembling I raised my left hand asking my classmate Sh Ebaneiser to help me by lifting me. Accidentally as his grip became loose  I fell flat and fractured my left wrist. That was Feb.month and we had a fear of whether I can give my public examination in April ? Somehow I managed to attend the exams and scored only an II class in PUC- Year 1963.

5. MIT Admission- a case of unknowingly enquiring the admission data in a public corridor to the person who himself was responsible for that task ! The rest is history.  Year 1966.

6. Getting introduced to strangers who later became either as colleagues in employment  or associates- M/S Ravikumar, Babu Varghese and MR Shankar at the Woodlands Hotel, Kalamassery during my training at FACT,Alwaye, Year 1968

7. Being swept away in the flowing stream at Kolathur.  When few of our classmates visited our friend        R Narayanan's village Kolathur, he took us to the village  flowing water stream for swimming & bathing. As the water is my favorite friend, I was literally swept with the stream ! Narayanan only caught me and saved then. Unknowingly when I uttered that I have forgotten swimming they all laughed! Year 1968

8. Getting introduced to Mr Anbunathan at Railway canteen, Mettur dam. As bachelors, all working engineers be it Chemplast or Malco or Mettur Chemicals, everyone used the station railway canteen for their food requirements. As he also happened to start his career at Chemplast on the same day as I started my career at Malco, we got introduced there.  In the later part of life that came handy as he functioned as The Chief Controller of Explosives,Nagpur ,a statutory authority. During my entire Reliance job, I was solely responsible for CCE clearances for all Reliance manufacturing locations. Rather we became family friends.   The whole department used to respect me for my professional  clarity on the requirements & integrity. At one stage I became their ex-officio consultant for their technical queries. Year 1969

9. Off time On- call duty at Malco. As my two foremen were out of town< I was called to attend the problem on TIC (Temperature Indicating Controller) in Red Alumina Autoclave. While working on it due to lack of hands on professional experience I ended up with a handful of Hg ( Mercury). Only my fitter Sh Kathirvelu rescued me by bringing the spare instrument from the shop. But later we came to know that there was a  design fault in that instrument in manufacturing itself !       Year 1970

10. Joining M/s Taylor Instrument Co. This is one of the notable freak happening in my life. Sometime in August 1970 I was on short leave  and came to Madras. One day my classmate Sh Ragothamachar came home and said that he is on the way to M/S Taylor for his job interview. I also accompanied him as I had some tasks in British Council library, neighbourhood building at Mount Road. When I was sitting in the visitor sofa, Mr L C Venkatrangan, Sr sales engineer in Taylor and 16th batch DMIT said hullo and enquired about me. Even before completing my response, he went to Mr RD Sharma's cabin- Branch Manager and appraised him to interview me also. The result - I got selected and not Ragoth ! Though I felt personally bad, that was a raise for me.     Year 1970

11. Emergency short deputation to FACT,Cochin Ambalamedu site. As there was a jeep accident at the job site, Taylor Delhi (HQ) management requested RDS to depute me for 3 days of emergency responsibility as all the site supervisors were admitted in hospital. That 3 day became 8 months  as most of them had serious injuries. Mr CP Srinivasan  took care of all my requirements including sourcing dresses and put me in hotel Meera Mahal in Thirupanithura. I enjoyed the stay and took complete responsibility of the site; rather at the end the management of the client went to the extent of offering me a job for a permanent position; but I did not take it.  Year 1970-71.

                                                                     :-   Continued

Factory Training

 Industry Training ( II & III year in MIT)

As mentioned earlier, as part of the curriculum, six months of industrial training was part of the course syllabus.  Out of that  I underwent 6 weeks of training at Calcutta at the end of the first year. During my II & III year at MIT  I seized the opportunity to undertake that training in established manufacturing locations. Somehow by that time itself, my taste was towards  the petroleum & petrochemical complex and my luck favoured me. I had my training in 

      1) FACT ,Alwaye  

      2) Neyveli Lignite Corporation, Neyveli

      3) Madras Refinery Ltd, Manali, Chennai   

Let me share my learnings at each place.

During my II year first semester vacation I had the opportunity to undergo my training at FACT,Alwaye. That plant is located at the outskirts of Cochin city in a place called Alwaye, run by Kerala government under cooperative scheme. That plant is manufacturing   Ammonia & Urea  from raw naphtha drawn from Cochin refinery. There we were 6 classmates who undertook training  and we were lucky enough to have Mr P R Srinivasan, DMIT 5th batch  as our supervisor and guide. At that time he was the HOD of Instrumentation in that complex. As a matter of principle he devised  a training schedule especially for the students coming from MIT & ensured that it has to be adopted as well as followed by each and everyone. During our training we had the opportunity to understand the routine maintenance inspection procedure as we were taken around the plant areas by their experienced technicians. In those days, as that was the transition state- mechanical to pneumatic systems, not much modern instruments existed there. But the technicians going around the plant areas  to monitor + change/ placing a new circular chart for the parameters like flow& pressure measurements was  a sight to see ! As students since we could not see these actual instruments in MIT class rooms, we felt it was great.

But more than the training, the labour union issues  at that plant were more challenging.  The union secretary was one Mr Sivaraman, an electrician by trade. The prevailing atmosphere was- if Sivaraman blew a whistle, even their MD Sh M K K Nair had to come out of his cabin  to listen to the union demands and settle. We did witness some such scenarios.  

As for the stay, we took rooms in Hotel Woodlands, Kalamassery.  That hotel was falling on the highway between Cochin & Thrissur and  a few kilometers from the plant site. That hotel was famous for accommodating  bachelor engineers and trainees that come to FACT. Bus journey between Kalamassery to the plant site & back was an experience by itself.    

Next, during the II year end i.e after the completion of IV semester in MIT, a few of our classmates had the opportunity to undergo training at Neyveli Lignite Corporation, Neyveli. This complex rather a big town by itself had the lignite mining, fertilizer complex  and a large power generation facility.   There we reported for training to Mr Raghavachari. He was the HOD Instrumentation in NLC. Here it is important to mention that  Mr Raghavachari  was the HOD-Instrument Technology in MIT before moving to Neyveli. So he was well aware of the MIT syllabus and the requirements of training for Instrumentation engineer trainees.   In Neyveli we were deputed to the fertilizer complex and the power generation facilities. To our fortune, at all places there were senior DMITs  who were volunteering to guide and demonstrate the juniors in all aspects of the plant instrumentation. They used to explain the concept of the open and closed loops and their functional objectives. They did demonstrate the importance of periodic calibration for the field instruments using Wallace & Tiernan standard gauge, mercury manometers, Dead weight testers etc. Muffled furnace for the temperature sensors like thermocouple/RTD etc.  

These seniors' presence  and involvement benefited us much.

During my III year first semester holidays, a few of my batchmates had the opportunity to take training in that time upcoming Madras Refinery project  at Manali, Chennai. That was the first project executed by M/S Engineers India ltd under the guidance of M/S Bechtel Ltd. a world renowned project execution consultant especially in hydrocarbon refining. As that was in the project implementation state, we had the advantage in witnessing the multicore cable pulling,underground multi tube pulling, cable termination, copper tubing end connection, check-outs in marshalling racks, panel termination in various control rooms, calibration checks and loop checks etc.

Mr Nambirayan , Mr Srinivasan & Mr Ramasubramaniam (another senior DMIT) were the personnel who guided us throughout that training period at MRL.  

After completing my final semester at MIT ( VI th semester at the end of the third year) to keep myself actively engaged  I undertook some training in a small firm Viz. M/S Venus Moulders at T Nagar itself. They were carrying out PVC material based injection moulding modules for large end users. This company was involved in developing design drawings for the moulds as well as  fabricating finished modules using injection moulds. This I was carrying out until I moved to M/S Malco, Mettur Dam - my first job assignment in Oct. 1969.                                                                                                           

My MIT days (contd)

 MIT II &III year

An important incident that took place in the final practical examination of III year.

During the final semester Control Engineering practicals examination, we have been asked to write the theoretical aspect of the experiment first before actually undertaking the practical aspects. That day the question was - Define the Time Constant. On that the entire class  was very clear and confident and thorough about its definition- be it in writing or its graphical representation.

When it came to my classmate Sh TN Somasundaram, the institute topper whose marks were a record which was not broken until the DMIT system was in vogue, was given '0' by our lecturer Mr WC Chitra. The explanation given by that lecturer was that Soma missed out to put 'to' , though his graphical representation reflected it right. The real background to the case was that Soma never bothered to treat him with respect and he wanted to take  the revenge on that score. He was looking for an opportunity to teach Soma  a lesson by disqualifying him from getting honours grade in DMIT ( In MIT , one loses his honours gradation if he happen to  undergo a re-examination in any paper). But when Sh Chitra read out the marks of all students including Sh.Somasundaram, the whole class  including Prof.Sharma who was present then could not believe that. The whole class got shocked  and questioned- how can it be? Mr Chitra attempted to explain; the whole class in an unanimous voice protested then and threatened to walk out. At that moment Prof.Sharma intervened  and overruled Mr Chitra's decision. Prof. gave a cent percent to Soma as his graphical narration of Time Constant  reflected it right.

At the end of the course Somasundaram scored an overall 86% aggregate in DMIT,an honours grade , which was not broken by anybody until the DMIT system was in vogue. 

Having seen a lot  about the subject matters & examinations etc.  let us move to look into the other aspects of MIT life. As the institute strength was only 300 students out of which about 20% day scholars, except the first year students all others were allotted single room occupancy in the hostel. Those days not many girl students were there- in our time there was only Ms Vasantha, 17th batch Electronics  and she was a day scholar. There were overall 3 hostels ; one vegetarian and non vegetarian mess for all students. Practically speaking that non-vegetarian mess was non existent. The mess was contracted to one Mr Nambiar, a Keralite The mess was practically managed by  M/S Narayanan, Raghavan & Padmanabhan and the mess secretary for all three years (1966-69) was our classmate Sh R Narayanan. RN had the say and complete control of the mess running at any given time.

When it comes to serving the tea/coffee and snacks during intervals, it was the responsibility of Sh Padmanabhan for Inst.Technology faculty. Sh.Padmanabhan was so involved with his duty & responsibility he remembered each student's T No. , shall not require one's utterance and he shall note what each one has taken.

Our mess was so good that even students from neighbouring colleges- Madras Christian college,Tambaram &AM Jain college Pallavaram used to crave for entry in our mess. Many of them used to come as guests to our hostelites and enjoy the food whenever feasible.                                                                                               Here it is important to mention one thing. An Actual Story

Our lecturer Sh Sambamoorthy was a gentleman  and somewhat a timid soul.  One Tuesday when he was conducting the morning last hour class before lunch break, one of our classmates Sh USS Murthy raised his hand.  The lecturer thought that the student had some doubt. He asked the student 'what?' Syam responded     'Sir, it is urgent that you end the class  immediately  and let us go for  lunch' The lecturer got surprised and asked why it is urgent? Syam responded- Sir,Today is Tuesday and they serve special morkhozhambhu with vegetable bondos floating along with ethapazham ( kerala banana) chips. We can't afford to miss them by not taking them in the first batch as they have to be eaten hot.  Taken aback the speechless lecturer waved  his hand  and said 'let us go'. After that day, the morkhozhambhu exchanges became a regular feature on every Tuesday.

Other Pastime & entertainments

As we came to our second year in MIT, most of us felt relaxed and took our leisure time granted. Our classmate Anne Arunachalam's  room became the centre point for playing rummy with playing cards 18 hours in a day. At any given time, at least  4 players used to be present playing cards. During any major festival time, instead of rummy they used to play 3 cards with barest minimum stake. During one such occasion a real challenge took place.  Two players had 3 A & 3K and they went on competing with each other.  The rest have scooted and waited for them to close.  The challenge went on for hours which made others lose their patience. After 3 hours or so the witnesses  interfered and forced them to open. Anne had 3As and Auto Satyanarayana had 3Ks; the accrued amount was Rs 1100/- !                                                        That was the closed indoor entertainment we used to relish. Other than the cards group, many used to go to Vetri theatre in Pallavaram for night movies. It was a perfect Tent Kottai rather than calling a theatre.After the night show at 2.30 am, they used to walk back all the way to the hostel.

When we were in III year, Sh Senthamil Arasu of 20th batch IT, himself a good singer & later DD Tamil newsreader took the entertainment secretary's responsibility. He had organized the music programmes of M/S Balamurali Krishna, a famous Carnatic musician  & SP Balasubramaniam, that time upcoming cine musician. SPB & Arasu were close friends and for that sake SPB did not charge any amount for that program in MIT.

Added to these, under the leadership of  Sh. R Narayanan , our classmates did a village folk skit- named it    " Theru Koothu" ( street entertainment) which became famous in that circle. Even the neighbouring colleges were asking us to conduct that programme in their premises which we could not oblige due to paucity of time.

My MIT days (contd)

  Events & the course developments

 During the three year course, we came across several new exposures mixed with challenges .

1. With Books Examination                                                                                                                                    This was a peculiar experience to the students. When the professor announced that there shall be "with books" examination, we all thought  that this must be one way of encouraging students with motivation & give them high grades, But it was not to be !

When the professor announced the listing of the books in advance and allowed students to hand carry them into the examination hall everyone was thrilled and excited. Considering that involved cost for sourcing the recommended books we procured only limited sets and had understanding that the whole class shall share by rotational exchanges in the exam. All the students had the belief  that our classmate Sh T N Somasundaram shall take the lead  being the meritorious student  ( His overall aggregate was 86.4% and his record was not broken as long as DMIT system was in vogue). The understanding was that he shall mark the answers in one copy of the book  and circulate to reach the entire class.  But surprisingly the asked question was so twisted that even he could not locate the chapter/page where the answer to that question was lying! After half an hour or so, we all resigned to fate and attempted to write  some answer on our own without referring to any book/s. Everyone followed the general concept to the context  and wrote. The joke was- even the professor who drafted that question paper could not really locate the pertinent answer in those books! He expressed blank. The end result- no student has failed since everyone attempted to write some answers what they thought was right. There the task of paper correction for the professor became tedious as there were no standard answers and several versions in place. We all enjoyed the miserable scenario.

2. Viva Voce examination                                                                                                                                     The main objective was to test the orientation of each student for an interactive session where the entire class with most of the teaching staff present in a hall. The importance was to seek  an objective type of response for the asked questions. Keeping that in mind, several students prepare some questions in advance and assign them to several of the classmates for questioning during the session. They shall ensure to take their seats scattered so that a feeling of questions emerging from all directions arose. Some of the staff members were aware of these dramas but in the interest of welfare of the students  they used to ignore/overlook that aspect. Here I would like to share some examples:                                                                 a) When the HOD asked  Mr Ramachandran ( Koks) asked him why there was that long pause in response time to his question ? The professor was expecting that Koks shall answer it as 'second order lag" But Koks had different ideas.  He came out with an ingenious response.  As he was sitting in the last bench of the class, his response was - "Sir, it can be due  to the effect of the velocity of sound". The whole clause including the professor applauded him.

    b) As part of these viva voce, every student has to describe the functioning of any one instrument. As none of us have seen any instrument during the curriculum, it was left to our imagination. One of my classmates chose the Rain meter  as his presentation and took a photo from a book.  He took the help of another one to draw that in a portable black board and took help from others to transport to the hall. By mistake they placed the picture upside down and nobody noticed that folly. The session was over; then the one who copied it from the book questioned him. You know, what was his response? His reply _ "Nobody in this hall except me knows how a rain meter functions and none of us have seen that". So what I presented is final

  c) We had one classmate who was champion in counter questioning.  He was the one who shall never respond directly to any question asked. Rather on the same subject he used to put counters to the person who asked him that question.  By that time the originator might have lost in thinking to answer him!

 The original objective of the department to conduct these sort of viva voce was to train  & orient the students  to attend interviews as well as face large audience  on the technical aspects of Instrument Technology.

My MIT Days (contd)

 My II & III year classes at MIT

At the end of the first year course ( i.e after the second semester examinations including reexaminations) 31 students have been promoted to the second year. That included 20 of 18th batch entry & the rest from 17/16 &15 th batch entries For the second year course, we have been shifted to the Instrument Technology block. All our classes and practicals were conducted in that block only. In Instrumentation, we had the following subjects classes taken by respective subject matter specialists. Out of my lecturers 4 were themselves senior DMITs. The faculty members were:

Prof. GSS Sharma- HOD & Control Engineering    

Prof.MM Rao- Optics

Mr VG Subramanian- Process Instruments

Mr KV Narayanan- Electronics

Mr L S Janakiraman- Electrical Instruments

Mr Sambasivam- Aeronautical Instruments

Mr W C Chitra- Measurement Standards

+ Mathematics, Physics & Chemistry subjects continued.

When we were students ( II& III year i.e 1967-69) the Instrument  systems in factories were transitioning from mechanical age to pneumatic systems. As for electronics it was still in an infant state. Computers / Microprocessor and software development etc. were unheard of then. Yes, the ammeter, voltmeter, resistance bridge, inductance, capacitance & multimeter etc. were in vogue.

Similarly, the microscope, oscilloscope and allied optical devices were still in development state; only  a few companies in Europe ( M/S Carl Zeiss Jena , West Germany & Sweden) were manufacturing them. As India had several import restrictions then, no one can import them.

Keeping those objectives in the background, our course syllabus was restricted to the following topics only.   Servo Motors, 2nd order equation, first order equation, Time Constant, Lag & Lead, La Place Transformation

Optics- Convex, concave,opaque, transparent, prisms, refractory index

Process Instruments  - Newton's laws, Archimedes principle, Boyle's law, Buoyancy,Bourdon gauge,Flapper-Nozzle, feedback mechanism,PID control terminology, Definition of Proportional,Integral & Derivative action, Diaphragm & Bellows, Temperature elements & thermowell. Flow elements

Electrical & Electronics- Ammeter, Voltmeter, resistance, Wheatstone Bridge, Network Theory, Inductance, Capacitance, Diodes, Triodes & Transistors

Aeronautical instruments - Speedometer, Altimeter

Measurement Standards- FPS, CGS, MKS and their conversion factors

In most of the above topics, only the names used to be mentioned as the teacher himself has neither seen nor studied their assemblies! The handicap was that  the students did not have any idea about their functioning, or assembled components  or their principles of operation. The curse was  that the student did not gain any value or knowledge to realise their objective and use. The pity was that many of the teaching staff  did not have exposure to them at all as they have never worked in industry. Also due to financial constraints the department did not have enough funds to source the sample devices for demonstration and explaining to the students. The same was valid when it came to the labs.& workshop also. In the optical lab. every student has to go on polishing  the given glass disc  to make it concave or convex for the entire semester ( approx. 6 months period @ 4 hours/ week). No one was clear about the overall objective with that? There was no measuring or inspection mechanism to verify its finish or the smooth polish quality etc. When it came for verification and grading the marks for each student, whatever the optics professor felt was the final. It was fortunate that he has not failed anyone but favoritism was very much prevalent.

When it came to the mechanical workshop things were even worse. Only fitting exercises like hacksaw cutting, filing, grinding  of metal plates etc. were given as assignments. In the electrical & electronics lab. some small network applications and measurements tasks were practised.

Overall, if one evaluates the  complete course in the institution, the students have heard the various technical terms of their subject but practically no knowledge to apply Where/Which one to suit the demand in their profession. But the beauty- all the students picked up the working knowledge of their trade during the mandatory industry practical training and courtesy  the help & guidance of seniors ( earlier batch DMITs in those factories).

When it came for the subject matter textbooks, though there was a library in the department, only 2 books- Industrial Instruments by P Jones & Handbook on Instrumentation by Considine were the only two utilised by the lecturer as well as students. In the class room, I used to sit in the front row, very meticulous in taking notes- whatever the lecturer has said during the lecture hours. I used to take such notes from all the classes( irrespective of whether understood or not.) My hand written notes used to be verbatim. Rather that became handy to all my classmates during the semester examinations. Invariably as I used to move to the hostel prior to semester examinations, my notes used to have heavy demand- moving room to room at any given time ! We used to find it difficult to track its availability ! So my classmates gave me the title " Notes Ramanathan";this is over & above 'Aruvai'.

There are several instances which shall follow.