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.