Rekha Gas Agency 30th anniversary function

Last full week has been hectic for arranging the programme of gas agency 30th anniversary as well as preperation for filing the pressure testing tender of our company. Fortunately both the things went off well the programme of 30th anniversary of Rekha Gas Agency was indeed memorable and heartering, Felicitating the customer who are our bread and butter is good deed for a businessman and the workers who have been working for so long for you doing laboreous work of carrying the weight of 32kgs of an LPG cylinder in all the weather and against all odds also deserved their felicitation. Conducting the Rangoli & Cooking competition envolving ladies with the help of Lioness was also a good thought. I could see the happiness on the face of Mr. Gudhe our TM and the other officers and above all on the faces of all my workers.

For the tender of pressure testing and painting of IOC Manmad Plant cylinder. We are the second lowest in the two parties who participated in the tender and naturally as per the tender conditions we are going to get 40% of the work for three years and that too is going to be satisfactory.

Informal engagement of Rahul

Aless today be receiving the coconut and some token money the engagement of Rahul was confirmed my Pragyan's uncle Dilipjee in presence of Shri. Rajeev his brother-in-law. I have just dropped them to the station for boarding Karnataka Express for Mathura. In fact in this engagement I give all credit to Chi. Bhuvan and Geetu because of whose initiative this could take place. In the conversation with Pragyas both uncles I have spelt out my wishes about future of Pragya taking over reins of Rekha Gas Agency as next generation. Any way it is left for Rahul and Pragya to decide after marriage. The formal engagement will take place on Dashahara and the marriage on 23rd of January most probably at Jalgaon.

Arrangement for Rahul’s Marriage

It is all settled that we will have to take the marriage party to Mathura respecting the feelings of the elderly people in Rahul’s inlaw family. The confusion is whether January or March I think March-after the examination of all the young’s in our family all over will be an ideal date that would be borderline of winter and summer and I know well that season in Delhi/ Mathura will be the best that time we will the best that time. We will have to plan so well that the stay of the marriage party is comfortable, a tour in that area also could be arranged, and Rahul can pay tribute to Thanwale Baba our Kuldevta at Holipura Continue in next blog

The switch over to LPG distribution business

My father-in-law had an excellent business sense. I was happily working as Planning Engineer in MICO, there were advertisement for gas agency i n 1980-81 by Bharat Petroleum for Nasik, Jalgaon, Nanded on advise from my father-in-law I applied for the distributorship of Nasik the interview was carried out by Mr. Shantisingh, Prabhakar Konte and other two officials of the two oil company. There was no oil selection board that time but the interviews were carried out by the joint committee headed why the Divisional Manager of the oil company seeking distributor and shor listed three promosing candidates and the person offering. The best as personal quality and infrastructure were offered the distributorship. In Nasik I was shortlisted but I believe the infrastructure was not appropriate so the distributorship was awarded to the other gentlemen Prakash Vaishampain who is my brother distributor at Nasik today my father-in-law was very keen about me entering into the business and I was made to apply for the Jalgaon distributorship which had good member of applicant and the interview panel was also same. The DM even asked me why I was so much after getting the gas distributorship I thought he was very well aware who is inspiring me for this profession. After the interview it was almost a month when I received a telephone call, from the receptionist asking me to come on line of external call handset, it used be in the maintanance manager Mr. Murthy's cabin. It was Mr. Shanti Singh on the line informing me about me being selected for Jalgaon distributorship. I was not sure what to say but I thanked him and informed my wife as well as my father-in-law and father. I admite today that I was not very much interested to come in to the business but after lot of persuation by all the family member I went to Pune to the Bharat Petroleum Corpn. Divisional Office to receive the letter of intent I remember my father-in-law was so anseious to know that when I was sitting with Mr. Singh for the LOI he made three lightening calls to a Parsi Bakery cum liquor shop opposite to the office. The servent of the shop fcame to the Division office to inform me about that and when I informed him about me accepting the LOI be must have been really happy. Continued in next blog...

The two years at Nasik after marriage

After marriage I had to leave Sunanda at Rajnandgaon for one month for the rituals of "Gaurpooja" which are supposed to be carried out for a month. I came back to Nasik and searched for a house. It was a sort of paying guest accomodation in Gandhinagar with an employee of MICO itself a remember the house name 'Nandadeep'. For attending the factory I made arrangement with Mr. Giri a foreman in needle shop of our company for that I had to come to the main road at around 7-10-7-15 in the morning and he used to pich me up. While coming it was not always sure to match the timing but we used to manage coming together. In case I fail some or the other person would drop up to the Rajdoot Hotel at the corner of Satpur Road from where I could get the city has from there towards Nasik Road, the famous double decker Sunanda joined one after a month and my routine continued. Some how we were not happy as it was very inconvenient to come to the city for shopping I kept searching a house nearer to the city and ultimate got accomodation in CIDCO Nasik in the row housing N5/K55. For help I received a Bajaj Scooter from Jalgaon 9610, it became great help us the movements became easy and so attending the factory. Continued in next blog......

My Marriage

We got married on 21st May of 1979. It was an arranged marriage. In our communites other than arranged marriage was very rarely heard of in our community those time. I can see the Tourist Resort converted to Hotel Tourist where our marriage party stayed. The Maheswari boarding where marriage took place and the Panchu Banglow where me and Dhanesh rested for couple of hours between the receiption ceremoney and the 'Phere'. There was no formal receiption or garlanding each other was arranged my father-in-law Babulaljee was apprehensive of adverse reaction from my relatives if that was ananged today we think he was wrong me and Dhanesh my co-brother and husband of Alka my wife's cousin got married at the same time under the same MANDAP. Frankly, I had no opportunities to see my wife that to partially her face at the time of 'pheras' and 'kanyadan' and up to 'pahena'. I think my inlaws became bit bolder and I could see Sunanda's face clearly. That was the first sight, admiry wife's beauty it would sound toomuch formal or flattering but she is today also I can happly sing the song of "Aie meri Johrajabi tuzhe maalum nahi, tu abhi tak hai hassi aur mai jawa". The marriage was over with all the formalities by 22nd May evening and car journey back to Rajnandgaon started in the evening. Continued in next blog......

The Every day philanthropy

yesterday I attended a programe arranged by Lions club of Jalgaon it was for distribution of school books/kit to the Junior K.G. students for a muncipal school adopted by Lions. As usual a local leader who played the role of master of ceremoney in the programme prolonged the meeting in the felicitation activities. The chief guest of the function was Suresh Dada Jain the Honourable Member of Legistative Assembly. I could see the real philanthropist Suresh Dada speeking that day, the concerned for human kind concerned for have-nots, no touch of politics at all. Your learns a lot from these people and if you carry out even one percent of this is your every day life as every day philanthrophy it makes you a good human being what one should be. When I was felicited by him for the donation of school kits, I touched his feet to pay respect and the blessings were as an elder brother would give to young brother "Lambi Umer Ho". A great experience.

The Bride Match of Rahul

Ultimately after a search of practically two years Rahul has selected a girl from Jaipur. I talked to the matternal uncle of the girl this morning Leiutenent General Vishnu Prasad Chaturvedi a sitting General in Indian Army. The ingagement or the ring ceremony would take place after Navratra. I have seen the photograph of the girl and admire Rahul's selection and he rightly said so "Akher Meri Zindgi ka Sawal Hai" I would prefer 'Chat Mangni Pat Byah' as it would be very inconvenient in summers for every body whether in Jaipur or Jalgaon. Let us see how best it can be done. Continued in next blog.....

A staunch belief in living for others keeps you healthy

I am completing the title of the blog as a staunch belief in living for others keeps you healthy in all respect phycically, emotionally as well as financially to elaborate on this belief a will quote an incidence of just ten minutes before a Muslim Youth visited me to seek help for his child's operation. His child of just one and half month age has developed catract in both of his eyes, he has been shunting around to get his child cured and needs funds. I helped him with some amount! I could see the tears in his eyes and these are the tears of expresion of gratification. I have experienced number of times and I tell you this kind of gratification provide you great strength to rise in life. Continued in next blog.

My 57th Birthday

Tommorow is my 57th birthday. The otherday I went to greet Ishwar Babujee the owner of Rajmal Lakhichand on his birthday he mentioned that " vaise birthday kya manana jindagi ka ek saal kam ho jata hai" my immediate reaction to his statement was that the birthdays should always be celebrated with the positive thinking particularly for people like Ishwarbabujee who has became member of parliament . I am not compairing myself with Ishwarbabujee and can not do so Ishwarbabujee is bigger to me in all respect name, fame, money and power but here I would always express my feeling that people like me who head a sizable business, hold reasonably good position in the socity and possess and earn enough money to take good care of the family should always aim to celebrate. The birthdays by creating as Bench of Mark as I have done by plaining a Blood Donation Camp involving all the three Bharat Gas distributorships of the city

The waiting period of engagement & marriage

As mentiioned in the last blog I was engaged with Sunanda in somewhere in the end of 1978. In today's generation it may not believe there was no formal ceremoney of engagement and I could only see and possess a photograph of Sunanda. After that once while coming from Rajnndgaon to Nasik I thought of getting down at Jalgaon but changed the idea. I had a collegue in MICO VP Kolhe an assistant engineer in the industrial engineering department. His wife Pratibha the sirname before marriage Khadse belong to Jalgaon and was classmate of Sunanda this I came to know casually, once I tried to contact Sunanda through Pratibha but there was no response. Today when I see the young couple roaming hand in hand I think I should have born thirty years later. Continued in next blog.

The engagement with Sunanda

As mentioned in the last blog I came to know about the marriage proposal only after getting a letter alongwith photograph from Jalgaon. I could make out from the photograph that she would possibly have been my choice if I was asked to choose amongst the three girls serving us dinner. I conveyed my consent to my parents which they officially conveyed to Jalgaon. There is prevailing procedure of "Pakkayat" sending a token sum of money to the boy's parents to confirm the relationship. The amount used to be Rs.11/- in old days it went on increasing day by day and my father-in-law also exeeded the prescribed amount a little hit by sending Rs.501/- as Pakkayat. I came to know about this engagement by a letter from my father later on. It was somewhere in the end of 1978 and with an understanding for the marriage to be taking place in summers of 1979. Continued in next blog.

My first visit to Jalgaon

After the visit of Shri Babulaljee, who lateron became my father-in-law, there was constant insistance and follow up from one Dr. Chandak for my visit to Jalgaon. Ultimately myself alongwith Devendra Mehta made plan to visit in the mid of August,1978. It was visit for two days where we were given warm welcome by this family at welcome good hospitality at the Choube House, polan peth and ofcourse the visit to Ajanta by the olive green Premier Padmini. I could guess that this was an indirect proposal made for marriage. The evening we reached Chaube house there were three girls serving us dinner, not formally introduced as it happened in these times in conservative Chaturbedi families while coming back from Jalgaon. I was in a dilema who was the girl proposed to me. The dilema was over when I received a letter from my parents at Rajnandgaon alongwith photograph of Sunanda. That photographis still in my bedside table duely framed. continued in next blog

My first meeting with my father-in-law

One morning after visiting the shop floor for the routine work of followup us I was just reaching my table, the Tool Room superintendent Mr. Tiwari called me to his cabin working me whether I write my sirname as Chaturvedi, my answer was afermative Chaubey has become short form of Chaturvedi. He told me that somebody wanted to met me in the canteen manager Mr. Soman's office taking permision from Mr. Ghatwai I went to Mr. Soman's cabin a bald gentleman was sitting opposite to him after exchanging the greetings with "Palagan" (A well established way of greetings in Mathur Chaturvedees) We now talked about each other originis and family background for a while then I excused myself to work. In the evening my friend Shriniwas from the personnel office me ' yar Dilip ye canteen manager teri salary aur qualification ke bare mein kyon phooch raha tha". That queshion gave me small hint that may be that gentleman had some marriage proposal. Continued in next blog

The Projects Carried Out as Planning Engineer and the Award Received From Mr. Kroll

I was working as Asst Engineer in the Heat Treatment and Surface Treatment Planning. My senior colleague Mr. V.V. Ghatwal mainly concentrated on the Heat Treatment part of the planning as he was diploma in Metallurgy I concentrated on the Surface Treatment as it required good number of machines on mechanized infrastructure.I introduced three major Mechanical Infrastructure in the Surface Treatments, one was Glydetle errocted Line enacted by Canning Mitra Pheonix (CMP). This was a structure constituting open chemical tanks in which a rolling bonel loaded with the nozzles after heat treatment was taken by mechanized shifting this was the process carried out to clean the nozzle full from the heat treatment salt before sending it to further process. The third machine was Ultra Sonic Cleaning Machine erected by Grower and wail India Ltd a fabrication Industry from Mumbai. This was also a cleaning machine to clean the nozzle after the lapping operation. Lapping is an operation carried out with the help of a paste on a surface to get the required fineness. The award winning project was of cutting down timing in the hardness checking process on the nozzle seat of the nozzle holder Initially in this process the inspector used to check each nozzle holder on a simple Rockwell hardness testing machine and this used to take approximately one minutes time which we as team of Do If Right Compain brought down to 10 second i.e. approximately one sixth of the time required earlier this process improvement gave us the award which was received by me along with Mr. Joshi the Heat Treatment shop foreman from Mr. H F Kroll Our General Manager. German gentleman Continued in next blog

The Three year of Bachelor hood at Nasik

We were three Musketeers Mhendra Khandekar and Devendra Mehta and to co relate it with the latest movies of Amir Khan Three Idiots living in Sana lodge of Mr Abhyankar it was a wonderful life getting up around 6 in the morning go for a cup of tea in the morning go for a cup of tea in the nearly hotel or prepare at the room get ready to go to the company we all three Together catch hold of the bus from Ravivar Karanjaa 7 am reach to the company by 7:30-35 and if time allowed go to canteen for cup (steel tumbler) of tea with some snacks and just in time of about 7:42-43 reach to the work table see the diary for the day for The days of work and get on with the day. In the first year as Graduate Trainee Engineer I worked with materials department after completion of the work sampling in the Industrial Engineering. This job asked for co-ordination between materials department, the tool room and the work shop primarily to keep track of the work order placed by different planning engineers on tool room to cater the need of their corresponding production shops. Though not very interesting as a job an engineer would have loved to do in the start of the career but I did well and delivered what It was expected by Mr. B.V. Kudwa the then materials department having the designation of AVE After the first year training with the materials department I was given job of Asst Engineer planning department to work along with Shri V.V. Ghatwal for planning of Heat Treatment and Surface Treatment Initially I was bit surprised that what a Mechanical Engineer would do in Heat Treatment Planning That time I remember a saying that time I remember a saying rather definition of an engineer our design professor Mr. Jaini told us in the College which holds good of any engineer any where in the world.
“An Engineer Is Not Skilled Enough to Be a Craftsman He is Not clever Enough to be a Manager He is Not Learned Enough To Be a Scientist An Engineer is Required To Be Blamed For short Comings of Scientific Procedures and Methods.
Today also I feel that which working as an L.P.G. distributor for last thirty years the definition hold good for me.

My First Day at Nasik and The first Day at Job

I reached Nasik early in the morning by the famous Calcutta Mail on the 1st May 1976. I had found about a lodge, which provided accommodation to working bachelors. It was ‘Sarai’Lodge in the Gole Colony of Nasik owned by one Mr Patwardhan. That was an old banglow converted in to the lodge with the help of partitions I was provided a shared accommodation on the back side of the banglow probably originally meant for servants the owner. This was on twin sharing basis and my room mated was one Mr Giri a Foreman in MICO. There were some more employees of MICO in the same lodge I clearly remember name of a Gujarathi gentleman named Chavda. I stayed in that lodge for a day only as Chavda introduced me to two gentlemen Mr D K Mehta and M M Khandekar who had joined MICO couple of months back as a Graduate Trainee Engineers like me. They were living in a different loge it was “Sana” loge named so by its owner Mr Abhyankar after some African word, there again I was given accommodation on the first day on the backside of the loge on twin sharing basis later on I came to room adjacent to Mehta and Khandekar in the front. I was in room no 1 of the ten rooms in that old styled banglow. Next day along with Mehta and Khandekar I reported to the personnel department of the company. I was directed to report to Mr P N Patankar incharge of Industrial Engineering in the planning department I was also introduced to one Mr K Janardan incharge of Nozzles process Planning Initially. I was given a task of carrying on work sampling in the maintenance. Shop workers work sampling is a kind survey carried out to determine the percentage utilization of man or machine. I had read about work sampling in the subject of Industrial Engineering in the final year but this was a practical on the job. I found about the small library in the factory got me issued couple of books on Industrial Engineering to study the process of work sampling on the same day I was issued couple of white aprons by the stores.
In the evening along with Mehta and Khandekar I went to the Narottam Bhuwan centorium. It was a sort of mess run by a Gujrathi family in Panchwati area of Nasik and they prepared very homely food. This place become our permanent joint for evening meals before marriage
Continued in next blog.

The Written Test and Interviews after Engineering and Job with MICO

Between July 1975 and May 1976i.e. passing the engineering and joining MICO. I faced two Service Selection Board one at Varanasi for the Air Force and the other at Allahabad for Army. Apart from these two written test one for Indian Oil Corporation at Kharagpur (West Bengal)and the other for Oil and Natural Gas Commission. I did not quality for Air Force at Vaeanasi and Allahabad Army selection was not accepted in the family. I passed in the written test of Indian Oil Corporation the interview was conducted at their Prabhadevi office of IOC, where I visit in connection of over pressure testing work today. I was not successful in the Oil and Natural Gas commission written test Once I went for an interview to Gajra Gear Dewas where I was selected but the salary offered was very poor. Meanwhile I was called for interview by MICO also and I was given the appointment the very same day I faced the interview. Before coming for the interview I was not fully aware of the company’s profile but after seeing the factory and its premises I accepted the offer to join them after a month time. The time I asked for was the making arrangement for accommodation and getting answer from IOC about Interview results ultimately on 2nd May 1976 I joined MICO as my first and the last job. Continued in next blog.

Completion of Engineering a Dream Come True

In the forth year I Was down by one subject and to my surprise it was Machine Drawing and Design. Which I cleared in the supplementary examination I was getting the smell of success in the engineering and making the dream come true for my parent, my family as well as myself like the character of Arjuna in Mahabharata I was seeing the eye of the sparrow and the white spot There in I recall my parent asked us about our studies It was not as not as if they did not understand and importance of studies. My father was “Intesciner” pass a land mark in the qualification in his time in the 5th decade if the last century. This was after matriculation and before graduation. They were confident about their children’s studies. He always boasted about his friendship with Padmshree Dr B. S. Choube Ex-dean of Medical College Nagpur a renounced Physician of central India, based at Nagpur.
Out of the six brothers and sisters the elder sister Rekha Completed is Master Degree in Literature from Rajnandgaon, I was in the final year of Mechanical Engineering. Mukesh did well up complete his graduation Hemant also made some trials and errors with his advance studies. Basant completed his Bsc and so Renu her post graduation. Overall, all of us received our education despite the constraints in our family.
As mentioned in this blog I was seeing my bright future so I concentrated on my studies in the final year keeping aside the exa curricular activities. The drawback of the annual system was a student had to contrite on all the eight Subjects along with the practical at a time unlike the present semester system any way I prepared well for the exams.
It was probably first week of July 1975 I am not recalling the exact date on which my results came. As I was having only the hint that with in two- three days time the result might come I used to go daily the bus stand where the business from Raipur used to bring the news Paper the other communication facilities were not available those days. I was full conscious about my success in the examination but not sure about the percentage I would get. Finally The day come after reading about the headlines of result in the Navbharat I searched for my roll number in the first Division list of the mechanical Engineering final year result, I will not be able to express my feelings today what I felt after finding my roll number in the first division list I rushed home with the news paper touched feet of my parent and told them about my results we were all in tears the tears of pleasure the tears one gets after achieving some thing and making the Dream Come True.
Continued in next blog.

The first Vocational Training in Engineering

The engineering students that time were supposed to have a vocational training of six weeks after fourth and final years. The first training we had was at HAL Kanpur we had earlier made correspondence with the authorities of HAL Kanpur through our college and set off for training after appearing for examination of fourth year we means me and Kirtikumar Kahale (KKK) more popularly know in our batch. I talked to him last year at Dubai after getting his reference and telephone number from a relative Kirti was and should be very austrocate and perfectionist in his life style, a typical Maharashtrian Bramhanis “Nit Netke Pana” He was our neighbor also in the hostel so I know about his life style. Initially we stayed with my maternal uncle popularly known as “Gulkande Mama” He had a Paint Shop on the ‘P’ road opposite Gopal Talkies in Kanpur named as ‘Swadeshi Paint Store’ I do not know who owns the shop today but being a politician and an active member of congress party he could not keep the business flourishing and in the fag end of his life he spent his days at Chandrapur my Nani hal in UP District Agra Tahsheel Bah.
Coming back to our stay and training at Kanpur as Mama and his family of four daughters were living in a small room at Kanpur it was very difficult for us to stay there even other wise the HAL factory was based at Chakeri very far off from P road, we decided to shift to a locality called Lal Bangla in rented room. It was a Muslim family of one of a worker of HAL Kanpur who gave us a Paying Guest accommodation. It was not a very family of very high standards but we could adjust ourselves there for five weeks.
The HAL Kanpur manufactured HSA Hocker Sidley Aviation 747 aircraft In the decade of 1970-80 It was more than mediocre technology of air craft manufacturing. We were given training initially in the drawing and design department and later on in the different department stage wise. The Fuseloge (the Centre portion of the air craft) The Nose (the front portion) the Tail (The back portion) The body of an air craft is basically fabricated by special alloy of aluminum with two layers and using some soft material in between to make the aircraft should proof for the passengers sitting inside. The number of seats 747 used to have was around 100. The autopilot system, the electronic controls in the cockpit were very amusing for us that time and that training imparted a real practical knowledge and application of engineering.
We use to come to the city frequently particularly in the weekends we also saw some movies with my cousins there Kanpur is very famous for its tanneries and leather market that is why we made some purchasing of footwear and came back to our home towns after successful completion of training Continued in next Blog

Forth year of Engineering the Sight of Future

The forth year of engineering started with a very exciting note that yes the future is visible I started seeing myself contributor in Nation Building National Security. I am not going in the details of the engineering subject of fourth year there were the entire general subject which are taught in the fourth year courses today in the 2nd semester of third year or first semester of fourth year. As I mentioned in my earlier blogs that I was very keen to join the armed forces. In the beginning of this session there was are interview conducted by the Navy which was University Entry Scheme under this scheme the technical officers for Navy were selected, called for the Service Selection Board examination and if they were selected they were allowed to continue with the education with the condition of joining the force after completing the engineering degree. I was selected in the interview and later on in the month of January asked to face the Services Selection Board Roorkee. I am remembering the month of January clearly because while coming back from the Roorkee and catching train from Delhi to Rajnandgaon via Nagpur I stopped for one days at Delhi it was 26th January 1974. The services selection Board have got their own well established system of selecting officers for the armed forces it makes all kind of test the Physical Psychological Group Discussion Leadership of the candidate Any way I was not amongst the successful candidate as there was only one selected out of the three batches of ten each in the group. That fellow was from Bengal. Any way I enjoyed watching the Republic Day parade at Delhi near India Gate with a feeling of envy to see NCC cadets marching for which I was selected in the initial stages and could not make to the parade because of education
I continued with my studies with all the effort to get good marks, spending time in the library with the books and the subject not available with me It was easy to get the popular books of all the eight subjects from the bookshops in Raipur but still there were certain subjects for which we had to refer from the books from the large library of the college it must be containing more than a lakh of books and should have been one of the biggest library of any engineering college in the state at that time. The calculators and computers were not invented till then even if in they were invented they were not in regular production and use our dependency on calculation was on the SLIDE RULE. A sort of regular scale in which another sliding unit for incorporate and the calibrations there in facilitated the user to calculate all the variable like log, tan, sin, Multiple is of II whenever we forgot to take the slide rule in the class it was commented by professor –some students took help of the printed book called “log table” Continued in next Blog.

Concluding The Third year and My Reading Hobby

I have touched all the subjects of third year of engineering academic sports, NCC etc. I passed the third year with flying colors Ashok was probably one subject down which he cleared in the supplementary exam.
After the exams I was at Rajnandgaon only, helping the family in dairy business and holidays by reading books I have been rather today also an introword person, I do not know this should be called a good quality or or bad quality but my tendency has always been to have self contentment which might not have been liked by family members at times however it will be difficult to change the nature now reading has been my hobby, in holiday I used to finish some times two or more novels in a day. No particular choice in novels, but Gulshan Nanda was vary famous that time some of his novels made a film script like “Kati Patang” His novels were mostly on social issues Apart from Gulshan Nanda the other favorites were Vedprakash Kaboj’s character Vijay was my favorite I have not read any of their I have not read any of their novels for a decade now and should be available in some good and versatile library The hobby is continuing today also though the choices are changed because of age position and maturity. I am regular subscriber of The Readers Digest and some autobiography of all time great like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and APJ Abdul Kalam are ready treat of readings continued in next blog.

The Marriage and its Equations

What should be the right time of marriage? This question has been made and answered by different people in their own ways there is very old saying that a girl should try and get married as fast as possible and a boy should try and delay the marriage as long as possible, I was wondering whether this saying holds good in today’s time? It might change from family to family.
I am noticing today that the career oriented and highly qualified generation is not giving the appropriate importance of rather preferences to timely marriage. Marriage in right time between 21 to 25 years of age for a gave and 24 to 28 years of age for the boy is ideal. It has got a very strong medical reason for both the girl develops the right physical condition to go for a marriage and the related activities there after the education is complete and she becomes mater enough to make good balancing between the personal life and any career she chooses. Similarly for boys who normally opt for higher education the trend today is of management courses and this makes the choices for setting in married life by three years. But what so ever may be the reason the marriages should take place in right time for a healthy married life.

Good Jokes in Hostel Life and the Hunger Strike

Reddy a two years senior from our college, students of final year Metallurgy when we were in third year there are couple of Jokes related to this gentleman. His room was just above over room and he used to pass on such humorous comment on our singing or our any other occasion probably this Joke is of second year. I was singing the famous song of Manoj Kumar’s film Upkar, “Kasme Wade Pyar Vafa Sab Baten Hain Batoka Kya” what he commented from his room, “Kyon Dilip Ghar Se Money Order Nahin Aya Kya”.
We used to celebrate Ganapati festival in our hostel though not in continuation it depended on mood of the hosteller. In the second year we celebrated Ganapati festival by installing the idol of Ganapati in our reading room regular pooja and arati was carried our on the tenth day when we went for immersing the Ganapati in the Boodha Talab opposite Rajkumar College, Mr Reddy sing a good song “Oo Jane wale Ho Sake To Laut Ke Ana”.
As I mentioned in the earlier blog in the second year our seniors few names Singhal, Pradeep Chaube the leaders to the strike asked me and Ashok to sit on hunger strike. A tent was erected adjacent to the boundary wall of college on highway. Unwillingly three of us we both and our Mr Narang two years senior to us set on the “Hunger Strike” up to couple of ours, we ate nothing but after a certain time we started feeling the real hunger and we broke our strike unofficially by calling batata wadas from the Mini Canteen and threw the wrappers behind the wall and coolly continued with our hunger strike this continued for the second day then ultimately we told the so called leader that our family will be concerned about us when they hear about us and refused to continue. Continued in the next blog.

Sports and NCC Camps in the Third year

In the third year our hockey team went to Jashpur Nagar near Raighrh for the inter college tournament in the university, Ravishankar University of Raipur had a huge area almost the entire Chattisgarh of today. Why I mentioned that is Jashpurnagar is a very small town that time at the border of then Bihar and today’s Zarkhand just adjacent to Rachi. Our first encounter was with our CMD college Bilaspur we had not forgotten the defeat in the first year by Digvijay College Rajnandgaon by 13-0 two year back and we worked our in these years towards our health our strategy every thing. We heard that CMD college of Bilaspur was also strong team, runners up in the last tournament. We started and gave full efforts we were captained by a senior student Bisen from Gndia. We were trailing by one goal till half time but ultimately won by 2-1 whenever I see the Chak-De today I recall the memories of the game I scored one goal by penalty corner shoot in that game.
In the third year we went to Sagar the famous city of MP for NCC camp. I was having rank of an Under Officer, trained to participate for the National Parade of Republic. Day but could not go because of engineering studies, Coming back to the NCC camp of Sagar. Sagar University is based on a hillock like our North Maharashtra As usual the camp was of ten days because of my smart looks I was given guard commanders duty at the Quarter Guards there. Our daily marches of 8 to 10 kms used to be on the hillock of the university. There used to be two types of firing that time by 303 rifles Application fire and Groups fire Application fire meant how much you aim and hit in the inner circles of the target and the group fire meant all the bullets should hit in the bunch that means once you hit a bullet to a particular sport all the other bullets given to you should hit the target nearest to the first shot the maximum distance between the two bullets decided the group. I used to make a group I used to make a group of ¾’’.
Very funny incidence of the camp we had our NCC officers Mr A S Dave warden of a hostel and a senior professor in minning department, when we got down to Raipur back from Sagar Some body has added another ‘S’ in his initials in the name making it Ass Dave and he was furious about it. Continued in next blog.

The Love Received from Family for Becoming Engineer

Mechanical Engineering is a very interesting and a versatile branch of engineering you will find Mechanical Engineers in a Chemical factory and you will find mechanical Engineers in Armed forces also I was finding my branch interesting for our future me and Ashok were the first engineers to be in the “Khandan” Here I will define our Khandan as I know have been hearing from my parents and grand parents. The Khandan of my great grand father Chachahu Baba of Holipura Tahshil District Agra in U.P. I was not born when Chachchu Baba were alive I believe Mithilesh Bhaiyas took birth when he was alive.
In summer vacations, I used to come to Nagpur just for enjoying the summer holidays mostly I stayed with Girish Chacha in his Dhantoli House Girish Chacha had an office in the building of Panchsheel cinema for morning hours and for evening in the Geeta Mandir Compound. I remember I was given my first wrist watch a white dialed Richo bought from a famous shop in variety chawk after passing first year of examination so was love and affection from Umesh Chacha when ever in the evening I visited his Apna Press he used to introduce me to his friends “Yeh Hai Ramesh Bhaiya ka Ladka Dilip Engineering kar Raha Hai” I could always notice while saying so his chest size must be doubling what we call “Chati Dugni Ho Jana”, from every body we received this affectionate love.
Even otherwise my love with Nagpur was always there and still continues today The owners of being client of Girish Chacha we had privilege do see movies free of cost occasionally may be more frequently the cinema owner may not have allowed.
Umesh Chacha has been “Khudai Fauzdar” more of social worker than politician There is absolutelyno doubt that Satish Chacha made his own empire the political status out of his own efforts and brilliance but the initial recognition in the society was as younger brother of Umesh and Girish Chaubey students of Hislop college Nagpur. Umesh Chacha was president of the first student union of Nagpur University.Umesh Chacha was also Chairman of standing comittee of Nagpur Municipal Corporation. All these brothers have very high degree of social influence in Nagpur City. We both became the favorites of the family. Continued in next Blog.

The Third year of Engineering class Mates, some Incidences

We had section strength of around twenty five students in the third year Mechanical Engineering; the hostellers amongst them were Surendra Singh Basir, Subhash sharma Subhash Kanhe R.R. Jain and the day scholars were Rajesh Sharma Deepsing Jabbal. Subhash Sharma R.R.[Rekha Raj] Jain were very intelligent and always found place in the merit list and Rajesh Sharma was branch topper. Another class mate and hosteller
I remember is Kirti Kumar Kahale. Presently he is in Dubai as some body from Jalgaon from the Chaubey’s met him there and gave my reference which he could immediately catch up. In fact we had gone to Kanpur together in the vocational training after fourth year to Hindustan Aeronautics [HAL]
Mehmood Husen one of the day scholar class mate is a brilliant Cricket player he demonstrated his brilliance in the first year it self while playing inter college tournament with Durga College Raipur the favourate amongst the student, he scored a century later on he played up to Ranjee trophy. I spoke to him during my visit to Bhilai last Deepawali.
I was remembering an incidence of Bhilai where we all Surendra Basir Subhas Kanhe Subhash Sharma and myself were taking dinner at Vidya loge opposite to Raj Talkies Basir started getting severe stomach ache which could not be subsided by the medicine fortunately Raj Cinema is near the bus stand of that time we got a private taxi and took him to Bhilai his native and to the Bhilai Steel Plant Hospital. I remember the agony on his face. He was immediately taken for the operation after initial investigation, it was appendix. I still remember pleasure I got after seeing the relief on his face.
Wherever I visited Rajnandgaon from Nashik or Jalgaon I made it a point to visit them. Continued in next blog.

The Third year of Engineering

As I mentioned in the earlier blogs, in the Five years Integrated course of engineering that time in M.P. The third year was a very crucial in a way it was a turning point for your career, your life. I opted for Mechanical and Ashok for Chemical. Raipur Engineering Collage had six branches Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical Metallurgy, and Miming. Out of this six, the last three were the only branches amongst all the seven Engineering Colleges of M.P. The preference wise sequence was Chemical Mechanical Civil Electrical Metallurgical and Minning Chemical was a rare branch with good future. Metallurgy and Minning though rare but because of fewer job opportunities and safety hazards they were not preferred
We were happy on our choices. The class sections of seventy-five in first year, fifty in second years became of 25-30 students. The subjects became specific concerned to the branch. Theory of Elasticity and plasticity, Automobile Engineering Heat and Mass Transfer, Machine Design and drawing Workshop practice, which included Machining Moudling an advance practice in work shop.
Continued in next blog.

The Second year of engineering

The college routine was very good there was a system of tutorials where an assessment of whatever you have learnt was made. Unlike the existing semester system we had annual examinations but a supplementary examination was conducted somewhere in the month of August September for the benefit of those students who could not clear in the annual examination. For students having failed in more than two papers it was General Supplementary. There was a rule that even it you have cleared in all the papers but your agreegate does not clear 50% still you have to face the general supplementary but I do not recall a single case in our student life. Hear the sessional marks these were the marks with authority of the professors of each subject, except drawing and workshop each subject had a professional mark of 50there was very stringent rule about these marks i.e. if you do not score minimum 60% you are not allowed to appear in the exams itself. This system kept a fall control of professors over the students and stray cases of students misbehaving with the professor were detained.
I became in NCC in the second year. For the first time our hockey team took part in the university hockey matches. We had made good practice but could not stand before the Digvijay Collage Team of Rajnandagaon in the first match and we lost with 13-0 for volley ball our team went to Kanker of Baster belt where we demonstrated very well and reached up to semifinals Agrawal an year senior to us and Sudarshan Ahuja our batch mate were the best strikers one of our junior, the name I am not recalling, was also good striker of ball.
Our NCC camp we held at Allahabad in U.P. The Camps used of ten days. The training in NCC both in junior Division as well as senior Division imparted a discipline in the student life itself The morning physical training, the afternoon parade the evening roll call everything on dot. In the first year of NCC we even did some firing by point 22 and then by the famous 303 rifles. It was a thrill to fire with the 303. I recall one while coming back from late night show of film we, we were five of them lost our way to the camp site and were caught by the guards if Army. It was high alert as there were pows prisoners of wars of Bahgladesh kept in Allahabad contolement in a make-shift prison for them. The kit lay out in the tent which occupied 6 to 8 cadet, The quarter guard duty of standing for continuously for two hours holding the rifle When we visited the Rashtrapati Bhavan in the last month we could astonishing observe the guard giving such duty except the eyelids nothing moved, but in NCC it was not like that some usual we had to reach the perfections.
There were some ugly incidences of strike called by notorious students for removal of our Principal Shri Saravate by collage the few of them one morning set fire to the only big vehicle college held at time a Dodge-Bus. We were not aware of all this. We came to know only when our hostels were surrounded by the Reserved Police, every room was searched then we were asked to vacate the hostels these students then wanted the exams to be postponed but nothing got through it was a month before the exams and all students were disturbed. We Ashok and me went back to Raigarh and Rajnandgaon respectively for the preparation this disturbance affected us also I failed in one paper and cleared all. However this paper I could get through in the supplementary the percentage was always above sixty.
Continued in next blog.

The Thirty One year of Happy Married Life

In the context of today’s world one may be surprised by reading the title. How one can be happy after thirty one year of marriage. When wife in like Sunanda one can be happy like me. Describing all her qualities in the blog would be too personal. The mother of children like Geetu and Rahul and grand mother of Annanya and Lavanya. At times I felt that she has not given due care towards me or my life then brushed away the thought that a lady has to lead multiple life apart from being so body’s wife she is daughter of her parents, mother of her children and now mother in law of Bhuvan and mother in law to be Rahul’s wife. I feel Rahul should select his match out of the proposals we are getting faster, I am in a hurry have a Bahoo at my home and of course the grand children. Am I not sounding too selfish Continued in next blog.

Thirty First year of marriage Anniversary

Couple of day’s back I talked to my wife regarding celebrating the thirty first year of marriage anniversary on 21st as usual the response was very cool. I could understand she does not want any celebration saying that there is another programme on that day at her cousin’s house on the sixth day after his sons marriage. The denial did not surprise me because now I know her for thirty one years. Though I never discuss with any body but wonder what actually people celebrate after so many years of marriage lighting candles cutting cake, in the western style, having dinner out side or trying to do something demonstrating that they are happily married. However I have decided that I would better celebrate our 31st year of Marriage Anniversary spending evening with the two grand daughters at home continued in next blog.

The Second year of Engineering

The second year of Engineering was interesting because of its technical subjects. In the General Civil Engineering, the Chain Survey, Plain Table survey, I recall we could never connect the end points on drawing paper after doing the Chain Survey. However the Plain Table survey at that time Civil Engineering technology was better refind type of survey to get location of a building. Now the things are not relevant in today’s time but these are fundamentals of Civil Engineering.
Similarly the General Electrical Engineering had its own charm in learning. The electric motor the r.p.m. reader the impedance the resistance voltmeter all very familiar equipment to learn the basis of Electrical Engineering apart from the theoretical part of it.
The Civil Engineering has a survey of leveling or drawing contours this survey is seen being carried out today also may be because of no alternative found so far, very interesting work it is.
The Mechanical Engineering in second year level had heat engine workshop a locomotive boiler was kept in this work shop it took me some time to understand that the basic power producer is very small mechanical part of a locomotive, otherwise the gigantic machine produces steam only.
There were few class mates who made direct admission in the 2nd year of Engineering after doing BSc in mathematics that too student passing out with first division were given admission practically it made a seven years course for them.
Robin Muzumdar ,Uncle, Rajeev Mudliar he was nick named because of his age, and physic the very faint marks of chicken pox made his grey complexion faced a bit-bad looking but he played good teems is and very aristocrats in his life style Rajeev Mudliar and SudhirVasudeva became room mates for all the remaining four years. I will continue with the blog, the 2nd year of Engineering

Rahuls Marriage

I am continuing with my blog today I visited The Choube House for lunch on invitation of the mother in low for celebration by her on the ADHIK MASS Shyam Jeejee, Jeejajee Krishna Jeeji, Jeejajee Alka and all the kids were present I do not know what mythological significance in this celebration, any way celebration is for enjoyment.
Yesterday I received photographs of Saumya from Lekhendajee of Wapi for Rahuls match in the very look of the photograph I find that this girl should be proper match for Rahul we should invite Lekhendrajee with family to Jalgaon just for formality of meeting the girl and if possible for Sagai before Geetu leaves for Delhi. The program could so arrange that when Bhuvan comes to Visit to Jalgaon the Sagai ceremony should be held.
Hemant will also be able to come from Nasik at that time. This blog is to convey my feelings to the family members. Continued

The Jorney to career

I am jumping by four year in earlier blogs. Just because of one reason that exactly thirty four years back on this date 30th April 1976. I started Rajnandgaon to Nasik to join the Motor Industries Company (MICO) .
We have cleared the exams in July 1975. I got first division with 70 percent marks In the period of eight months I gave written test for Oil and Natural gas commission at Baroda (Guj) Indian oil corporation at Kharagpur (W.B.) appeared for Services Selection Board (S.S.B.) no 10 of Allahabad for Army,Interview Gajara Gears at Dewas (M.P.) Indian oil invited me for interview at Bombay astonishingly it is the same office where I visit in connection with our pressure testing contract with them, oil and Natural gas did not call for interview and the Army, my choice was not accepted in family I had faced MICO interview couple of months back and already received their appoint letter as Graduate Trainee Engineer. The interview was conducted by Mr Narayan cheef of Quality Control and Inspection department along with a Mr Prasad a senior Engineer in the same department. They had complimented me in the interview itself as a promising boy. However, I was waiting for reply from IOC and it was cause negative after enquiry then I decided to Join MICO.
The Journey was by Hawara Bombay Calcutta mail which had arrival time at Rajnandgaon at 11-15am for years together I can never forget this day my parents, brothers Mukesh Hemant Basant youngest sister Renu every body came to the plateform to see me off. Rekha was already married an year back so could not be present there. I joined MICO on 2nd May 1976 in the next blogs will brige the gap of four year.

Second Year Of Engineerings

As I mentioned in the earlier blog that the engineering students had to clear the first year in three attempt. If he had failed in two subject i.e. receiving less than 35 marks in the subject but passed in all others and the aggregate was more than 50% he was allowed to take admission in the next class what is called A T K T to day. This made a sort of screening in the process of becoming engineer As we both had cleared the first year in first attempt we continued in the second year and got automatic admission in second year. Unlike the class of more than 50 in the first year it was smaller section of thirty five students. The subject were Engineering Drawing, Mathematics in three portion Physics and Chemistry Workshop Practice, General Electrical Engineering and of General Mechanical Engineering. Though all students were supposed to mentioned the choice subject in the first year of engineering itself but the second year provided an opportunity to change the choice if he felt. Rarely did any body do this. Our choices were very clear mine was Mechanical Engineering and Ashok for Chemical Engineering. I continued in the NCC and was given rank of Company Seargent Master i.e. C.S.M. we used to enjoy the periods of Engineering Subject i.e. drawing workshop and the other three as it was something new in this subjects. I was a mediocre in making jobs in the work shop, could complete the jobs most of the time in the three hours of practice but the finish was not that good as it should have been As practice makes the man perfect, in the end of the session I improved in work shop practice. There was no particular uniform of the college but for workshop it was khaki trousers and white half shirt Our classes used to be on first floor that is on f-22 class room we were thought general Electrical Engineering by proof Ms Jadhav and the HOD of Electrical Engineering Dr Ekbote Civil Engineering by the reader in the department B.M. Thakre. Yes, He was our warden also in the ‘B’ hosted. We had shifted to the new hostel building the ‘B’ hostel. In this hostel the ground floor was occupied by the second year students and the first floor was occupied by the fourth year student. The provision of food were as it was in the first year of engineering. I remember the name of the ness contractor It was Bindeshwari and he remained our contractor for the rest of four years time. This Bihari gentleman used to cook good food with his team whenever we felt like having parathas cooked by him we used to provide our ghee to him and he favored generously Other wise the food was simple chapatti, one vegitable dal and rice, we used to take the ghee along with us in a small “katori” for the chapattis and dal The same system continued morning 10-10:30 Lunch before going to collage and diner between 7 to 9:30 in the night Saturdays the feast and evening Continued in the next blog.

Enginnering Education and English

The first year of engineering passed with without any major incidence to mention in personal or academic life with happy note, that both of us Ashok and me passed the examination with flying colors.In the five years integrated course of engineering in MP that time it was a rule that if a student does not clear the first year of engineering in three attempts he is debarred to get admission anywhere in M.P. in future that made the student concentrate on the studies.It was astonishing that students who had very high ranking in the admission merit list started failing in exams, the main reasons was medium of education Mostly students came from Hindi medium schools English was a subject which was not given its due attention in the student lives my those students and engineering being the whole English medium education, these students found it difficult to cope up with. We had advantage over such student because of our good knowledge of the language. This knowledge pays rich dividends even on today! Continued in next blog.

Ragging in the first year

Today we see very ugly ways of and some extreme result of ragging I checked the dictionary meaning of ragging it is teasing. That time it was called taking introduction of the new comers, in general a decent way of teasing. In our hostels it was done once in a year in the beginning of session in the mess hall. The students well called room member wise some general questions like asking names, hobbies etc. were asked by the seniors and the junior was asked to carry out some activity like, I was asked to carry our some dance pose Ashok was asked to sing a song a fellow student Subodh Patkar bit fat was asked to climb the mess table with out taking support of hands which the poor chap could never do. Some body was asked to spell out the whole title of the college if mistaken was asked to go running to the main gate of the collage to read the correct name from the sign board that poor fellow never understood that the same title is written on the hostel gate it self.
Any way it was enjoyable once the student knew each other just saying hello to the classmate and wishing the senior was a regular practice. Continued in next blog!

I am continuing with the engineering. The hostel life is really good if one knows how to enjoy it I remember being some of my hostel mates. V.V. Kekatpure well built and height of six feet plus He had a younger brother with the same initials of V.V. and senior to us infect the elder one joined engineering after completive BSc. I met VVK around 18 years back when me Ashok, P.K. Joshi, S.N. Maheshwari all had an evening get together at Bombay, his wife works with Air India. The other names above both belong to Indore and well room mates P.K. Joshi was a good singer. Some other mates I remember are Rohit Ghiya, Malvendra Badeka The most stylish of our batch. That was time of Parallel Bell-bottom trousers and printed polyester shirts they were always the first to bring the fashion to our hostel C.M. Vijayvargiaya. O P Vijayvargiya from Guna Surindersingh Bashir Surindersingh Majhu, Ashok Ahuja, Sudarshan Ahuja, Subhash Sharma Subhash Kanhe all of them were hostellers. The day scholars. Rajesh Sharma his maternal uncle Tiwari both were our class mates, that is why rarely we called him by his name and he became “MAMA” of all of us. Continue in next blog.

The Hostel Life In The First year

There were students from different background in our hostel. I remember about Rajaram Goswami of Rewa who had never boarded a train before coming to hostel mostly from middle class families there was distinct genuineness in their attitudes towards studies. Attending classes with a clear aim to make the dream of becoming an engineer. Main collage building was near to a hostel so attending the periods as per schedule was very easy.

As Rajnandgaon just apart by 60km from Raipur both of us used to come on weekends to Rajnandgaon whenever we felt it convenient and get our stock of snaks prepared by mother. I continued with my morning exercise and playing Hockey and Volley ball I was not very good at Volley Ball but excellent Right - Half Hockey player swift movement, good stopper and expertise in defending penalty corners and striker in penalty corners.

The love of National Cadet Corps (NCC) continued and I joined Cadet Corps. That time the uniform of National Cadet Corps was Khaki Full Pant and ash colored shirt. The parades used to twice a month. Continued in next blog

The Hostel Life

· Our Prefect, i.e. the student incharge of hostel was our senior Mr Kharvate of final year Mechanical Engineering and warden was Dr Telang Superintendent of of work shop. The Principal of collage was Dr V.V. Saravate a legendry acadamacian in technical education of Madhya Pradesh later on he retired as Director of technical education at Bhopal. His son Ashok Sarvate was also student of final year Mechanical Engineering and frequent visitor to our hostel. Astonishingly I am able to member my roll number in the first year class and it was 11.
Breakfast was not served in the mess there was electricity in the hostel but no ceiling fans. We had to use table fans. For preparation of tea the electric heaters were used. Jagdishan was egatarian we used to object about disposal of the egg wastes to him initially which he took care off and avoided boiling eggs in the room. Bread, cream rolls biscuits were the eatable delivered to us in the hostel by a regular cycle hawker.
There was small canteen across the highway near Aurvedic collage called Mani canteen run by some Bihari Gentleman called Maniram The batatawada of that canteen was very tasty and believe me it cost just 20 paisa a vada and tea was just 25 paisa, but to take taste of this wada we had to walk down for more than a kilometer and it was worth. Continued in next blog.

The First Year of Engineering Collage

We were very excited to become engineer. We went to the city and bought the instrument box the drawing board and also the slide rule In my blog yesterday I forgot to wrote about subject of Engineering Drawing the foundation of engineering. I First year it was like drawing a straight line proper use of proper pencil like H, 2H, AH, and HB all specification used for particular use while marking drawing e.g. the border line in the drawing sheet by HB the bottom rectangle in the right side of the sheet to put your name, class etc. then in the next stage it was hyperbola parabola etc. learning of projection the projections specifics four quadrics of two crossing each at right angle and any object placed in this quadrant seen from the top is called PLAN and seen from the front called ELAVATION. This is core of engineering to effectively read the drawing. Mostly used projection that the third quadrant of the cross if you start from top left side clock wise.

Our classes started from around 10am in the morning in the initial days of the session there used to be no much pressure of exam but attending all the classes religiously and making revision by discussing with follow student in the evening was regular practice. I would say this paid me rich dividends through my a cadence carriers.

The hostel mess used for be sum by contractor the monthly mess charge was rupees 60 per month. This included two turns meals and feasts on Saturdays after noon Saturday evenings it was- off from mess and we used to spend the evening in city either with Shanti Bua Family or eating at same restaurant will continue in next blog!

Admission in Engineering Collage

July 1971, me and Ashok along with Dadda (Taujee) went to the engineering collage after ensuring our names in the admission list. The tuition fee that time was Rs 200 a month we had to pay Rs 1800 each for the nine month session and Rs 5/- per month as hostel fee the total came to around Rs 1850 per annum, The hostel was ‘c’ hostel only for first year students of the collage, each room had three occupancy We both were allotted room no 16 in the upper wing the third partner was K Jagdishan, south Indians from Bhilai. That was five years integrated course after eleventh standard unlike to days 10+2+4 it was 11+5 The first two years were common for all the students, In the first year the subjects were English Mathematics (in three parts ie Arthmatics Algebra and Trigonometry) Physics, Chemistry subjects taught to the science students in the first year. Three were no subject of engineering in the first year
My first day in the collage was very interesting both of us in search of the allotted class room S-11 (second floor eleven number) were passing through the corridor, some senior student standing in the corridor called as, we were wearing slippers we had heard about the ragging perhaps it was the first “kyon bathroom men aya ho kya” we both stood in attention position looking at our feet without saying a single work. Then one of them said “Kal Aakar Apane Pahne Huai Jute Dikha kar Jana”
That evening we both on the green color Rally cycle given by my father to me in school went rushing to the city double seat to buy the shoes, those were shoes made of rubber, it was raining cats and dogs and next morning putting on those shoes we went to that seniors class S-1 fortunately for us that was off period for seniors and it was Final year Mechanical Engineering. Continued in the next blog.

Last few weeks have been busy keeping targets of Beyond LPG sales in the year end and related activities. The year has been extremely good for business and family as well, good rather handsome profit both in the industry and distributorship. Yesterday a very old friend from Basant Rubber met me in the shop, offered us good business of booking their rubber tube as product.

Once again back to the Rajnandgaon days entrance to the engineering collage. Me and Ashok my cousin but more than that good friend together filled application for engineering in 1970 I had passed with first class 70% marks in the Matriculation exam and Ashok also we gave preference to Raipur out of the six collages of engineering that time it was centralized admission process without any pre engineering test. As we both had good marks we got admission in the first preferred collage of engineering that is Government Collage of Engineering and Technology Raipur (MP),yes that time it was in Madhya Pradesh Once again in section A if First year because of our status in the merit list continued in next blog.

Rajnandgaon

Further to my days at Rajnandgaon, I used to be bit healthy somewhere in between thin and fat used to ply Hockey regularly another good form of excercise, was cutting the “Katiya” a kind of fodder on the hand operated cutting machine sweating for hours on the fodder ready for the cattle’s that gave me very good work out This was done any time after the schooling.
Ratti Chachi; I know her by this name only had joined a school in Rajnandgaon she, impressed by heroism of Dinesh Chacha got acquainted with him this relationship later on turned into a marriage.
Barring few incidences life was a sort of routine getting up early in the morning at around 4am doing studies helping Bishahu in his cattle feed preparation, getting ready for school in the morning study and concentrate in the class, some of my teachers name I remember shri Sharma for physics shri Nannaware for Chemistry Principal and vice Principal both Shrivastas.Principal D.N Shrivastav and Vice Principal P.N. Shrivastav. One important thing used be there exactly at 7:30 am in the morning before start of the classes there use to be National anthem which all the teachers and students used to attend religiously. Me being monitor of the class used to be at the front in the class I used to take part in extra curricular activities like drama. In one of the drama I played role of medical peresentative which was highly appreciated and got prize for that drama.
While writing this blog a thought occurred to me why our work places do not start their activity with National Anthem is it so impractical that it should be reserved only for 15 th Augusts and 26th Januarys. I have observed some banks who have undeclared attachment to a particular religion starting their activity with prayers of that particular religion, but why not National Anthem. I think we should think about this idea to be real Nationalist before being Global. I will continue in next blog

Rajnandgaon

I am continuing my blog autobiography with my days at Rajnandgaon. One of my unknown friend Mr Vivek Soni yesterday had shown his curiosity of how was Rajnandgaon in late sixties and seventies.
Rajnandgaon was a Tahashil Place of District Durg of then M.P. A population between 75 k to100 k at that time. The biggest advantage of Rajnandgaon which perhaps not been utilize by any industrialist so far in its location on Highway no 6 and one of the oldest Railway Track of the country between Bombay to Hawra. I hope now in Chattisgarh with its rich National sources some body will think about it.
Then Rajnandgaon was one three parallel roads connecting the National Highway to cinema line, Kamthi line, Gudhakhu line Jaistambh chowk Rajnandgaon was famous for some body continuously sending his request for film songs to radio celorce along with zumri talia. The cinema halls that time were Ram,Krishna and Komal. The balcony used to cost Rs 3.20 dress circle Rs 2.50 The first class Rs 1.60 the second class Rs 0.60 we were regular visitor t dress circle or First class very rarely to the Balcony
There is absolutely no doubt that Chattisgaree’s are very hard working people articularly the women folks. You can find people as far as at Delhi working hard for their livelihood. I will continue in next blog.

The days of Rajnandgaon

Writing blog is a fascinating thing you can express your feelings, put it on record probably some feelings at corner of your heart you have been unable to expressed to any body so far.
I am continuing recalling my memories of child hood turning in to adolescent. We the whole family for once and for all settled in Rajnandgaon in 1968 Baby (Rekha) used to go to the Kamala Collage (the correct name may be different but it was popularly known as kamala collage) Baby was students of arts I joined the maths class in the State School of Rajnandgaon There were two major schools one belonging to municipal council and other to the state called state school in which I got admission. That was XA the tenth standard, A used to be for mathss standard for engineering or similar courses and ‘B’ for the Biology standards who aspired for Medicare or similar courses. Here I continued to be cadet of junior division of NCC. Rajnandgaon is the place which laid the foundation of my personality which am I today. The reason being very simple, the age of 14 to 18 is the age where an adolescent grasps the thing which the family, social schooling etc provide to him. I had seen my father struggling to meet the needs of the family with his source of the income as clerk with the liqueur distillation company and the post was glorified by the company as were house manager. His income used to fluctuate with some commission he use get over the issue of liqueur to the contractor, a termed called ‘Nikasi’.With out going deep in to these issues I would recall the memories which are life time memories. Small house with a varanda of wooden mesh, a tiny room adjacent to the varanda which was called “Dilip wali kholi” is a termed used in that part of Chattisgarh for a tiny room. A small table, small cupboard and the table lamp which is still in my possession. Chacha my father thought that distributing milk would add to his source of income he started buying buffallows from the “Baila Pathra” the name used for cattle market of Rajnandgaon. We constructed a small unauthorized shed on the plinth of the where stands “Bidi Patta” Godown to day he started with couple of buffalows. The number reached to ten and couple of cows at one time.
I was in Rajnandgaon just for couple of years, ie tenth and eleventh standard. Baby me, Mukesh Pappu (Hemant) and Guddu were one or the other way involved in milkman’s business Baby used to distribute milk from house to the near by resident, some foreigners like Miss Bibby and Miss White, the two foreigner ladies care taker of the church were also our customers.
I used to go to. Hotels like Manav Mandir or Ganesh Halwai to delivered the bulk quantity along with Bisahu our servant who did the job of preparing cattle food and so also milking the cattle’s both the times. We did not have sanitation facility, the toilet attached to our house and had to use the common toilet facility near our house though not healthy but we had to manage with it.
Chacha bought a Railay cycle of olive green color for me which I used till my collage days. Dinesh Chacha was imprisoned for four years in some criminal case at Nagpur and used to come on parole to Rajnandgaon which he thought was a safer or better place to spend time.
All the three cousins od Chacha, Girish, Dinesh and Kumod (Satish) Chacha have lot of respect for Chacha as he was the person who supported them financially when in Nagpur of course the relationship bonds are always there.
I will continue the blog autobiography in next blog

Annual Function

Yesterday me and Sunanda attended the annual award Function of Jalgaon L.P.G. Territory the Executive Director Mr R. M. Gupta along with Ms. Carmen D’ecosta were the chief guest of function. Our distributorship received for First prize for commercial sales in Jalgaon sales area Though the credit should be given to whole team of Rekha Gas Agency but my special compliments is to Yogita who monitors the operation of commercial cylinders sale very well with delivery boy Pappu Jadhav who is also a ever smiling young boy. Apart we received felicitations from the whole official dignitaries of Bharat Petroleum for obtaing ISO 9001:2008 for our distributors as well as crossing 1 cr of Beyond LPG sales this financial year. Getting best Suraksha sales awards in this year, of course, can not be forgotten.
Ms D’ecosta touched the on salient features of Rajeev Gandhi vision 2015 yojana regarding LPG distribution by the government wherein 53% of present customer population is to be taken to 75% coverage in the country by 2015 which will naturally benefit the distributors. Community kitchen for providing facility of LPG cooking on hourly charge basis for the people who can not afford to avail a gas connection is another society friendly idea.
The facility of providing LPG on odd hours by charging Rs 50/- Extra and minimum option of there months by the customer is customer friendly and distributors will also be happy to provide this refill as it fetches the distributor appropriate cost for the extra service, this will be in line with the charges allowed for delivery of cylinders to villages.

Annual Function

Yesterday me and Sunanda attended the annual award Function of Jalgaon L.P.G. Territory the Executive Director Mr R. M. Gupta along with Ms. Carmen D’ecosta were the chief guest of function. Our distributorship received for First prize for commercial sales in Jalgaon sales area Though the credit should be given to whole team of Rekha Gas Agency but my special compliments is to Yogita who monitors the operation of commercial cylinders sale very well with delivery boy Pappu Jadhav who is also a ever smiling young boy. Apart we received felicitations from the whole official dignitaries of Bharat Petroleum for obtaing ISO 9001:2008 for our distributors as well as crossing 1 cr of Beyond LPG sales this financial year. Getting best Suraksha sales awards in this year, of course, can not be forgotten.
Ms D’ecosta touched the on salient features of Rajeev Gandhi vision 2015 yojana regarding LPG distribution by the government wherein 53% of present customer population is to be taken to 75% coverage in the country by 2015 which will naturally benefit the distributors. Community kitchen for providing facility of LPG cooking on hourly charge basis for the people who can not afford to avail a gas connection is another society friendly idea.
The facility of providing LPG on odd hours by charging Rs 50/- Extra and minimum option of there months by the customer is customer friendly and distributors will also be happy to provide this refill as it fetches the distributor appropriate cost for the extra service, this will be in line with the charges allowed for delivery of cylinders to villages.

My Delhi Trip

The last one week’s stay at Geetu’s residence was one of the finest days in the recent time. Bhawan is gem of a boy. Taking good care of both of us at times I felt he loves and respect us more than Geetu. The tabla recital of ustad Jakir Husein was treat of my life. The giggles of Lavanya the speeches of Anananya all I will wait for May I am hoping that Rahul’s Engagement will be of through now only thing that two life partner should understand that marriages in families of our background can not have memorandum of understanding to pin point in future as I told you so! At any cost Rahul’s happiness is our happiness

PLEASURE OF LIFE

To day I was invited by the youth of Varad village to inaugurate a series of cricket matches being conducted by them at Varad village, I have never been a cricket player though represented school and collage in Hockey and Volley ball, after the rituals of inauguration by breaking coconut I was supposed to face the rubber ball and believe me all the six balls of the over I could send to fence, a great pleasure of life is it not!

THE GOLDEN DAYS OF CHILDHOOD AT NAINPUR

My schooling in Nainpur were golden days of my childhood.
Chacha was posted at excise warehouse at Nainpur. I was given admission in the Janpad school of Nainpur. Our residence was in the row housing behind residence of one Khandelwal family who were rather are the next generation is still grain merchant. Pillu and Tillu the two brotherof the family, the real names of Styanarayan and Ramnarayan were my friends. There was no electricity in this small village. It was seventh class where I got admission, what we call is the secondary education. I studies seventh eight and ninth clasess in Nainpur. Seventh and eighth of Secondary School Board Exam and ninth of high school. I stood 11 th in the Mandala District.Once going to Kahha National Park some years back I went to check whether my name is still there,to my surprise it was very much there. I had joined National credit corps N.C.C. Junior wing there is Nainpur in 9th standard I was very impressed by our NCC teacher Shri Mahale. The high degree of fluency in English and grammatical perfection is achieved by me because of the foundation laid by the school teachers in Nainpur.
Just in front of residence there was Police Stations I used to get frightened because of cries of the thieves when they were for touturd by the police for confessions. One sub inspector of police Shri Tiwari was of our neighbor he owned a white horse and I used to ride that horse occasionally of course with the help of his canstable attendant.
Lala Ganesh Jaiswal and his two sons Chedilall and Ghanshyam were the liquor contractor.
The victory of 1965 war with Pakistan sad demise of one of the best Prime Minister we had Lal Bahadur Shashtri’s demise in Taskand, the songs of moral boastings in the films. The touring talkies, film like Aas ka panchi seen in aath ana (50 paisa) ticket sitting on mud flooring the Kalyan Hotel and its Rasgullas, Govind a child hood friend who was notorious, slap of Chacha to keep away from him. Brother Shyam and Ram Soni who trained me in Hockey, the famous player who was nicknamed as Pahadi Allio because of his complexion, the stealing of wood on Holi nights right from the custody of forest ranger Vajpai’s, his daughter Anusuya Vajpai who used to come to our house with parents, crossing a roadside sleeping parson by his jeep Ghanshyam Jaiswal and his arrest, Dinesh Chacha making a criminal case at Nagpur, Chacha supporting him fighting the case, me being awarded scholarship by the Board Education be cause of merit list. Dayaram Sindhi and Ashok Vishwakarma the class mate and bright students. My fight with a class mate in NCC camp in which I punched him to loose couple of teeth The camp commandant Major Waktawae Singh ordering my expulsions from the camp and later changing the order as the other boy had abused me and reaction was justified by other fellowrs students and teachers. The beautiful another Chacha used to bring for us are some of the memories I recall and perhaps ever remember. In 1968 Chacha was transferred to Rajnandgaon one year he used to make up-down between Nainpur and Rajnandgaon. Ultimate we all decided to shift to Rajnandgaon though I was very reluctant because of loosing the friend circle, made lot of hue and cry about it still because of parents decision 1968-69 to Rajnandgaon The next blog will be about my stay at Rajnandgaon

The Two Painful years of Nagpur in Childhood.

Chacha was not stable with his job in years 1963-64 he was literally hopping places to places as per wishes of the employers. Bhabhi (Mother) the name was popular because of all Chachas calling her Bhabhi used to live at Gwaliar with Nanhe Mama that is why I was kept at Nagpur with Umesh Chacha – Chachi for education and that was the time from when Bebi always was with Dadda – Bhabi till her marriage in Balaghat.

I was given admission in the 5th standard of Hindi Bhashi Sangh High School, Santara Market, Nagpur. The classes used be in the morning and the whole day used to be free I did join some kind of Mandals where physical education was thought, yes I was member of scout for couple of years.

Marriage of Umesh Chacha in 1962, Taujee and Girish Chachas coinciding marriage in 1964. The Shankar Vilas Ganesh Mandals of Nagpur accompanying Girish Chacha in the open baghghi till Darampeth in the marriage, the Ambhazari and Telan khedi Gardens, Maharaj Bangh the since of Nahrujee crying after Lata Mangeshkar song of “Aai Mere Vatan ke Logo” in Dhanvate Rang Mandir, The Geeta Mandir the swimming tank adjacent to Geeta Mandir where Dinesh Chacha taught be Swimming. The heroism of Dinesh Chacha, the half lemon story of Girish Chacha keeping it balance with Chachi to be used for his next meals the memories are endless but the most Painful was to miss parents company.

To add to Nagpur’s memories are being turned away by gate keeper of Variety Talkies at Variety Chowk to see Sangam picture as it was an adult movie The hairstyle of Devanand in Guide Cinema of “Fugga” at the front which every body used to try along with humming of famous songs of “Door Gagan Ki Chav me” of Kishor Kumar, Geet Gaya Pattharo Ne, the first film of ever green Jeetendra any was jin 1965 when Chacha settled at Nainpur of Mandala District of M.P. we all accept Bebi shifted to Nainpur for further education and it was the golden era when the childhood gradually turns in to adolescence very like an earthen pot being given shape when the soil is wet by the parents and the teachers the memories of Nainpur in next blog.

Childhood Days at Mandala

Chacha, my father was employed with Shivni destillary, a loyal trusted employee whome the employers dependad lot. Before setling in Rajnandgaon he worked at Mandala Nainpur, Chidwara of M.P. when he was at Mandala,I was in 3rd standard we were there for two years Bebi (Rekha) my elder sister was one class ahead of me. We had an alsasian dog namede Blackee I recall that whenever the dog was to be given its non-vegetarian food It was taken to some distant place by our attendant.Mukesh started going to convent school infact out of all four brothers he was lucky to start education with the convent school. Hemant was a small kid that time. we had nabours, Panchiati Babu a clerk working in telegraph office and Nishad Babu another Government employee. It was a sort of row housing where we used to live. Some incidences to remember one that Mandala is on the bank of Narmada a life line river of M.P there used to be frequent floods we used visit Rapta Ghat to watch these floods also we used to accompany our mother for holidips at the river.

I am recalling some childhood days which I can remember the Ghoghar Pathshala of Reewa from where we, myself and Ashok started schooling. We both got admission directly in the 2nd standard less because of our brilliance more because of Dadda's influence who was posted as sub Inspector of excise in 1960. I learnt the basic letters of Hindi from the grand mother and Ashok by Dadda. we both were found fit to be directly admitted in the 2nd standard. Reewa was a sansthan,means state rule earlier by Maharaja. On Dashahara the Raja used to more in to city riding on elephent I faintly recall that the Raja that time was Raja Marthand singh he had number of palaces special rememberence is of a couple of white tigers owned by this Raja one of them named Mohan. In fact the breed of white tiger in the country started from there.

Today is Sunanda's Birth day the 52 nd. I am wondering what gift I should give to her a saree there are plenty some of them she has never put on about gold she knows better infact I wanted to gift her Honda City today but the deal could not be done and such a big investment should always have a reconsiderationt.Alast I think a buke should take care of every thing