Projects and Nations

At the project site. But see, no helmet !! :-)

Building something from scratch is always challenging. I had always known this. But got first-hand experience when I came to Gopalpur. Having operated a plant for 3 years at Joda, I had thought that working at a project wouldn't be so tough; what with no production targets to be achieved and no employee union to squabble with. I have never been so wrong in my life. The last six months have been a killer.

Consider this discussion that took place at a project review today.

Chief: "Is the raw material handling system ready at the site?

Senior Guy: "No Sir, the system isn't completely ready yet."

Chief: "Why?"

Senior Guy: "Sir a major equipment has not been supplied by the vendor yet"

Chief: "Why? What were you doing all these days when you knew that the material has not been supplied? Bas aate ho aur baith-baith ke jaate ho. Why are you coming to me now. I wanted it to be ready today"

Senior Guy: "Yes sir,.. I think they have not completely manufactured it at their end"

Chief: "Bhak!! Why? What is the manufacturing status? Have you asked?"

Senior Guy: "Sir...I didn't ask the vendor sir... but he was saying that some items have not yet arrived from his suppliers and hence it is delayed"

Chief: "Tell me what items they have not received yet which is holding up the equipment? Who are their suppliers? From which city will the supplies come? By when will they supply? What is the status of manufacturing of those supplies? Why haven't they supplied yet?"

Senior Guy: "Sir..i think it will take two weeks... but will have to check... "

Chief: "Is it my duty to check?? Just go now...asshole.. talk to the vendor and his suppliers. Ask the delivery and manufacturing status for each item. If required, go to the vendor's facility in Bangalore. Check the status of manufacturing. Ask them to make it ready in two days. Go to their suppliers if required. Give me an action plan in 15 mins."

This took place at a gathering of 50-60 people. Interactions like these happen frequently. A project is all about schedule. A project is all about momentum. You are always chasing deadlines, and without momentum you are always going to miss them. And you are going to get fucked. 

In projects, every day is a new day; and there are unforeseen challenges. On a lot of occasions, you just don't know the way forward. The whole project seems thwarted. You wrack your brain over a problem all day. You cry to bed at night. But suddenly the next morning you have an idea, you talk to your team and start going ahead with the idea, and suddenly it clicks. The project gallops once again.

The process of creation is just that much more difficult than the process of sustenance. You are creating a 600 crore entity from thin air. You are building structures, towers, reservoirs, roads, and integrating all of them to produce something absolutely fantastic. You are building skills, manpower, morale, and knowledge, touching hundreds of lives. You are building your nation. However, while you do this, you face hurdles every minute -  not the internal ones, but those external, those fostered by bureaucracy and local politics.  

Will tell another recent happening. Local villagers were staging a sit-out at the main gate of the site.(They wanted a few more of their never-ending demands to be met by Tata Steel) They had been sitting there for the last fortnight or so, not allowing any entry or exit of vehicles from that gate. There was another smaller gate which was sufficient for movement of small vehicles and trucks. However, a 80 MVA transformer of 100 T had come on a trailer to the site. And considering the combined weight, height as well as the length of the trailer, it could not be taken in through any other path except the main gate where the villagers were staging their dharna. Long negotiations were held with the agitating villagers to allow us take the trailer inside but to no avail. The district administration also gave up trying to convince the agitators. The project was getting delayed and something had to be done. At the dead of the night one day, so as to not arouse and agitate the protesters, a section of the wall of the site, at a distance from the man gate, was broken down and the trailer finally taken in. 

That night, I recalled what the Chief had once told me "In a project environment there are no if's and but's. Even if a wall comes in front of you, you have to break that wall and move ahead. You cannot just stand there and contemplate. 

That's the way with life as well, I think.

BTW, what's up with the projects of my personal life?? Where's the schedule?? :-D

Why So Serious??

Was getting too serious with life recently. Better sense prevailed soon and I realized that it was foolish to think too ahead of yourself. Watched a few of my all-time-best movies and all was well again. Needed a re-fill of emotions as I tend to run out of those from time to time.

There's a ton of passion in all the movies posted above. There's love, beauty, agony, hatred, misery, resilience, insanity, struggle, deceit, horror, sheer brilliance and intrigue in all of them. There's however one thing you had find common in all these movies - hope. 

"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies" - Andy Dufresne

Now you know which is THE movie I love the most out of these super awesome ones. If you don't, get in touch with me and I will change your life, for the better. :-)

The Sea, The Sea !

The view from my balcony

The Beach

“The sea! The sea! The open sea!, The blue , the fresh, the ever free!” – Bryan W. Procter

I came to Gopalpur on a new assignment this summer. A small, sleepy town, it is situated in southern Odisha, on the Bay of Bengal. A town of white-washed churches, fishermen and the sea.

Three years at Joda had taken a lot out of me. I was starting to get weary of the long working hours and the 24-hour work schedules. Thus when the opportunity presented itself, I just couldn’t stop myself and came hopping down to this beach town.

Even before I had arrived here, I had made up my mind that come what may I would live near the sea. Thus I let go of a city just 10 miles away, to live at a smaller, quieter place near the sea. What is the mall and the supermarket in comparison to the vast, blue sea??

In fact I have always been drawn to water. I had choose to stay in a lodge by a water body any day over that in a five-star hilly resort. And living in a apartment overlooking the ocean just beats everything else. I get to appreciate nature here. I go for jogs and walks on the beach. I get to eat the freshest sea catch and drink the sweetest coconut water. I meet the local fishing folk and get an opportunity to experience their lifestyles. But most importantly, I get to live a life I had always wanted to live- beautiful, bright, and sparkling – like the sea.   

Its an ideal retreat for a writer. You can sit in your balcony writing a book all day long drinking  cups of tea, while the tides rise and ebb. I had obviously love to write a lot more. But then I have a manufacturing plant to start, and its not a supposed to be cakewalk. The sea keeps you mesmerized though. It changes its colour - one moment it is a very dark blue with white crests, then a light green after which a lucid grey. At times, it is a glassy green in the front, and a dark blue-grey at the back. It makes you feel happy and forget all your worries. It also makes you dreamy and optimistic about life. You must see the bay on a full moon night, its ravishing. And all this for no cost at all because it returns everything it takes – I had lost my towel to the sea the other day I had gone for a swim; a local fisherman found it on the beach a day later and brought it back for me.

School Friends

At the banks of Ganga in Patna, June'09,  I clicked this pic ! 

During semester breaks in my 1st year of engineering, I used to reach his home at 6 in the morning everyday to ride his dad's scooter. He rode pinion, giving instructions and cracking jokes. Once, he was seriously hurt when I crashed the scooter into a pole, hurtling both of us on the road. But he continued giving me riding lessons. It hardly mattered to him. He was a stud. A come-what-may guy.

He was a dear friend at high school. His house was a stone's throw away from our school and a domestic help brought him hot tiffins everyday during lunch break. All those years, I ate more out of his tiffin than I did of mine. He was also this hot-blooded guy who was always getting into fights with others. Once he got into a fist-fight with a senior whose sister studied in our class. He had blood all over his face and I, like the coward I always was, did not go to take sides with him.

He got a very decent 87% in his 10th boards. Went to Kota to study for IIT-JEE, could not stand it after 7 months and came back home. It all went downhill for him after that. Scored a 58% in his 12th boards and spent a year at home. Went to Pune for graduation and survived a near-fatal road accident which put a permanent scar on his handsome face. Did his MBA but stayed jobless for a few years. We didn't talk at all those 3-4 years.

I was relieved to hear that he had finally landed a job at the Union Bank earlier this month. He called me up from Chennai to tell me about it, and he sounded his usual self again - confident, cheeky, and slightly presumptuous. We promised to meet at Chennai and recreate the older days. I have another friend from my school days at Chennai. It had be great to meet both of these guys there. Made many friends all these years at NIT and at Tata Steel, but friends from school are different. The bond is that much stronger.