Back in 1983 my self and my colleague Mr MR Kedia were posted to SMS- Germany for 3 months for Engineering works for upcoming LMMM mills at Visakhapatnam. Few interesting events took place and few are worth revisiting. One of them is described here. We were travelling club class in the upper deck of Air India's Boeing 747 popularly also called Jumbo jet. We were overwhelmed by the hospitality of Air India. Since for 26 seats in 7 rows, we had in attendance 8 stewards and hostesses. They would every now and then offer drinks or minor eats. Itinerary  was Delhi-Rome-Geneva with connecting Swiss Air flight Geneva-Dusseldorf. The plane made an unscheduled stoppage at Athens, we were not permitted to go to the terminal building but came down for few minutes and went back due to chilly weather. The reasons for the additional stoppage was strike by Custom personnel at Rome. Kedia and me L-R, Me, Mr GC Pd, Late Sri PL Modi, Mr MR Kedia In Rome Air India was unab...

I was a part of joint team of MECON and Shree Precoated Ltd, Pune to a visit to USA and Canada in March 1993 for evaluation of old mill equipment and to locate vendors for refurbishing as well as for new supplies. I also was required to visit independently Berlin for evaluation of Elpro AG  an erstwhile East German company for tie up or joint venture. We left Bombay with visa stampings for UK, USA, Canada and Germany. We reached Mumbai then called Bombay on Sunday 14th March just 2 days after infamous bomb blast and while travelling  on Monday 15th of March  from Hotel Citizen near Juhu Beach  to Our Office in World Trade Centre in Cuffe Parade, Mumbai  we passed Mahim and Air India building and the devastation was quite visible.. remarkably Bombay was up on its feet and moving! We met officials of M/s Shree precoated Ltd at their Fort office and finally after completion  of formalities  got foreign exchange on Sat 19-3-1993 a bank half day worki...

I am a very irregular blogger..sorry for that. Now I realize how much efforts Journos put in  to keep us busy whole day or else we get same story time and again the whole day ! In this post I like to enclose some photographs of my work places only.. Bhilai, Chandigarh, Sriharokota, Milan, Kulalumpur, Sun City (RSA), Lille, Niagara, Rhine Cruise, Paris, Paris-Swiss train, St Etienne, Bokaro-HSM

1983 में  मुझे और मेरे सहयोगी श्री मंटू राम केडिया जी को विशाखापत्तनम में लगने वाले मर्चेंट मिल  के इंजीनियरिंग कार्य के लिए जर्मनी में 3 महीने के लिए SMS, Germany के डुसेलडॉर्फ ऑफिस में पोस्ट किया गया था। नेपाल के सालाना ट्रिप के बाद यह हमारी पहली विदेश यात्रा थी और हम बहुत जोश में थे और आशान्वित थे । उस दौरान कुछ रोचक घटनाएं घटित हुईं और उनमें से कुछ फिर से स्मरण करने लायक हैं। उनमें से कुछ एक का वर्णन मैं यहाँ करने जा रहा हूँ। जब हमलोगों का चयन जर्मनी जाने के लिए हो गया तो ध्यान आया मेरा तो पासपोर्ट भी नहीं था। मेरे बॉस ने थोड़ी डांट भी पिलाई। ऑफिस का दस्तूर था की सभी अफसर अपना पासपोर्ट बनवाा ले और renew करवाते रहे । ऑफिस में एक विभाग इसी काम के लिए था यानि पासपोर्ट वीसा का काम करने करवाने के लिए। ऑफिस वालों ने मेरा पासपोर्ट हफ्ते भर में करवा डाला। वीसा स्टम्पिंग भी हो कर आ गयी। हमदोनों ने गरम कपड़े , टोपी वैगेरह बनवा लिए बाटा के महंगे जुते खरीद लिए । कंपनी के तरफ से इसके लिए अलाउंस भी था। पहले भी लोग US , रूस जाते रहे थे। हम एयर इंडिया के बोइंग 747 से जाने व...

2 days ago I got a call from an unknown number... It was a surprise a call from Mr TV Vaidyanathan. I had come across this brilliant Mechanical or more accurately a Mechanical Project Manager during erection and commissioning of MECON's Skin Pass Mill at Salem. One of 2 engineer (other was Mr Sugatahan)  who knew mechanical erection according to  Mr Munshi - who headed their department in MECON. Sri Vaidyanathan (TVV) is a nice gentleman a go getter and never say die type of person. During Salem E&C days we used to use his temporary liquor license for buying our drinks. During Vizag project days we came to know his prowess in use of PC's - including games (never my forte) and in playing cards. His wife was a proficient classical singer and sang over Radio  and other places. Later on she did not keep well & was ill and had many medical complications. She expired in 2009. As informed TVV's daughter is married of & is in D...

Were there no Emergency in India my life would not have been so exciting ! How ? Let us roll back a little to 1977 .. Janata Party - a conglomeration of anti Congress and anti Emergency political parties  overthrows Indira Gandhi Govt by thumping Majority after dark days of Emergency. Late Mr Biju Patnaik,  Steel Minister in new dispensation goes ahead to set aside earlier decision to have Russian Mills and gives the order for new CRM-II complex to MECON with Wean United Inc of USA.   Thus MECON - a leading Steel Consultancy Company - got the order for CRM-II in 1977 and  MECON had to play dual role as consultant as well as supplier of equipment for SAIL- Bokao Steel. In view of this new job some 17 electrical engineers were selected from Bokaro Steel Ltd for parallel transfer to MECON - both companies were subsidiary to SAIL at that time. I along with many of my friends Mr SB Mukherjee, Mr PC Sadhu,  Mr Prakash Chatterjee, Mr Udai Singh,...

Few years after performance guarantee test SAIL HQ realized the importance of fire fighting system, which was never commissioned to the satisfaction of Salem Steel. Almost Rs 2 Crore was pending from SAIL to MECON and there was pressure on Lube and Hyd department of MECON who had supplied the CO2 fire fighting system as turnkey system and our Electrical department was not involved. However when the problem of pending money came up- we were again summoned to recommission the system supplied by Vijay Fire. Sri KN Jana who was that time in Electro Technical Laboratory was asked to investigate and do the needful. After brief study he found that the power supply to main board was not stable. He assembled a power stabilizer using 2N3055 transistors and we started our journey to Salem. That time we found that we could afford to stay in Welcome Group Chola Shereton a 5 star Deluxe Hotel in Chennai as per our DA entitlement if we shared room. We did stay in that hotel sharing a room. ...