How does Modern Healthcare touch lives..

Indibloggers.in is staging a blogging competition along with Apollo Hospitals. the topic is “how Modern day health care is touching our lives” and here is my submission.

There was a time when we were a part of nature. We didn’t have any specific knowledge of health or what it meant, because we were no different than all other animals. We ate, lived in and were cared for by nature herself. Slowly with the invention of the fire, the wheel human beings became a big force to reckon with. We came out of the care of Mother Nature and started carving a niche for ourselves and went on expanding our knowledge and understanding. As our total knowledge expanded beyond the capacity of any single person, we began specialising. We assigned ourselves different and specific branches of knowledge and went out on our different ways. Each one of us became an expert in something. But by now we had already moved far away from the care of Mother Nature. We started falling sick and dying and that was going to have a real negative impact unless cured. So a specific branch called medical sciences (different cultures had different names for them like Ayurveda, Unani etc) was allotted to a specific group, who got the duty of healing the sick. With time our ways of life kept changing. As our knowledge expanded further we focussed on more specifications and the knowledge to keep ourselves fit n fine was lost like different pieces of a puzzle. We began falling prey to diseases, plagues and epidemics. Vast sections of the human population died. We were helpless. We were groping in the dark searching for cures but could not find any.

Here, modern medicine came to our rescue. It started its research from scratch and catalogued its findings. Slowly we began understanding our own anatomy, what lies within, how it works and all! Joseph Lister started it all with the discovery of the vaccine. Louis Pasteur, father of modern medicine discovered bacteria and told us how we could prevent diseases. Anaesthesia paved the way for painless surgeries. Since then medical sciences has been on a roll! Deeper research of medical sciences was promoted by the discovery of the compound microscope and the electron microscope. Fibre optic technology helped us in micro- surgery. Radiology helped us cure tumours and cancers and today we have organ transplants! Curing cataract is now a single day procedure. Pacemakers have given new lease of life to millions. Artificial insulin is helping sugar patients comfortably continue with their own lifestyles. Blood pressure and asthma aren’t lifestyle-dampers either thanks to modern medicines.  Even a few years back, cancer was totally incurable. But today early detection can completely cure cancer. Today HIV +ve people can lead normal lives and have normal HIV -ve kids. Most important of all, average life expectancy has increased. Mind it, I just gave a narrow coverage of a huuuuge topic , There is much, much more to talk about!

Even after so many advances and discoveries, modern medical research is yet to reach the pinnacle.  There are still many areas unexplored and unknown. But our brilliant scientists with their untiring efforts are working day-n-nite, determined to discover them all! Hats off to them!!

Possibly the most important lesson of my life ever..

Just finished downloading and watching the movie The Truman show starring one of my favourite actors Jim Carrey.. Those who know me personally might be a bit surprised to know that I took the time to download and watch something which is not at all an animated one. Even I myself don’t know what got into me. Maybe God had decided to teach me the most important lesson of my life.. I recommend you watch it too if you haven’t already.

Throughout the movie I felt pity for the Truman Burbank character. I had to keep reminding myself that it was just a story born from a fertile imagination; otherwise I could not have watched it till the end. Also usually I am able to relate myself to most the characters portrayed by Jim Carrey (to some extent at least). This one was different. I didn’t find any such relation, just watched it passively. The movie finished, 10 min afterwards it hit me!!

This whole movie was an absolute parallel to my life! I was living a real-life Truman show. According to the story Truman was bound in the world created for him since birth. As a result, it was his comfort zone and he never thought to break out of the artificial world, so he never knew anything about what was beyond what he knew. He never got the whiff that he was being monstrously deceived. He was always limited by his fears of the sea and air travel. Parallel to that, I live inside a world of my own fears, which have made my life limited to the same old routine like Truman’s. But eventually Truman starts realising the truth of deception and starts seeing through the masks. Finally he musters courage to overcome his child-hood fear of water, braves the artificial storm across the artificial sea and escapes from the artificial island of Seahaven.

So I realised that my comfort zone is actually the cage created by my own fears and mental blocks. I killed all my chances to escape the cage by the I possibly can’t attitude. I have let most opportunities pass by thinking “This isn’t possible for me”. Mostly I am shy to go somewhere or  do something alone, all by myself, thinking “What will others think”. But no more!

Even till yesterday I used to be shy of writing blog posts in front of somebody else for no concrete reason at all. But right now my dad is sitting beside me. He asked me what was i doing which I answered quite plainly (pretty big feat for me, ‘coz he intimidates me) Even while writing the last post I was thinking “Would my readers like this post”. This was the thought at back of my mind, but not today. Today I am writing this to keep reminding myself that there is a lot to be done. It takes just one thought  to overcome the fears I have. I am not afraid of anything anymore. From the next month I am gonna go to learn swimming alone. I don’t care if I have any friend to accompany me, I am tired of asking for company. I am gonna face the exams I have always dreaded. “If I shall succeed” will be answered when I get the results. But now I have just got to do, because “I can only if, and only when I want”. Everything else will take care of itself.

At the Door of this artificial world (courtesy :Taxidrivers.it)

A funny way of telling “You were being poisoned”

Or maybe “are being“, who knows for certain?

I like noodles not because they are tasty but those are the only things I know how to cook .

Funny thing is that each time I prepare the same thing, it tastes  a little different. Sometimes a little soupy (or runny you might say), sometimes so dry that by the time it cools down the whole cooked mass takes the shape of a solid cake again.I am a bit clumsy. So each time I cook I read the instructions minutely before doing it (though there are only 6 or 7 lines).

Pack of lies!

One day while reading the pack, I noticed a line “NO ADDED MSG” in the ingredients. I thought “What the hell? Was this an ingredient of the Masala pack that comes with it?”. I prepared the noodles, the taste wasn’t any different. On Google-ing I found that MSG (called Mono Sodium Glutamate) is a common additive of noodles, also very obviously bad for health. Since then I started noticing such lines on all other products. Nowadays, all brands of potato chips packets have “No Trans-fats” line. Oil packets have “no unsaturated fatty acids” line, fruit juices have “no added preservatives” etc. The height happened when I saw an ad of a specific brand of paan-masala in which a lady was saying “Does not contain any tobacco!”. I was dumb-founded!

What the hell is going on? These announcements that their brand of products doesn’t have this and that, are no more than advertising gimmicks. Some are carefully crafted, and some are paper-thin. Ex. “No added preservatives” on fruit juice packs, that’s a see-through lie. If the “No trans-fat” was true then potato chips would have been ticked off the junk food list long ago. So, I think is useless to believe them, ‘coz we can’t tell by taste or by smell if those “no added” additives are still been added. Still on the slight chance that we do believe, it would mean that we have been consuming this poisonous stuff before for a pretty long time!

If we have been poisoned already, then what’s the use of having ambrosia other than to prolong our pain in death?

P.S. : the point of view of the lay-est layman

My one-liner #1

Q: Who invented Romance?

A:  Romans, who else?!!

‘Coz they were the first ever
authentic Roman-tic people
living on the face of earth!! 

A job interview: My luckiest day ever!

(Some of you might be knowing that I successfully cleared the 1st tier of IBPS bank clerk exam, today was the day of the interview)

Today wasn’t a dream come true, rather it was a live dream. Let’s have a replay!

My day stated at 5:50. Dad called up on my phone. With sleepy eyes I went on with my daily morning business. Then took a bath, got ready in my new formals (this was to be my first off-campus interview in full formal gear). I had a light breakfast, then put on my shoes, bah-byed my elder sister and left off. Stepping on the road I remembered that I had left my money purse on the T.V. I can’t have gone anywhere without it.  I ran back and found that I had left my files and documents along with my money purse! Momentarily I had a flash-forward of a future in which I was appearing before the interview panel, without any of my documents. This whole thought made me go a little dizzy. I dropped on a sofa to catch my breath. My heart was chasing Ussain Bolt and it did take me a few minutes to gather myself. I thanked god from the deepest of my heart and went off again (Let this be a reminder to us all as an example of a grand blunder, caused by tension).  From that point of time, everything went downhill.

Within a few minutes of reaching the bus stop, I got the bus. The venue of the interview was very close to the Chetla rest house, where I have stayed a number of times with some of my friends and had a few memorable days (click here).  I reached there with an hour to spare. Waiting outside in a line, on an Indian summer day is extremely uncomfortable. But it wasn’t as bad as that. The sky was cloudy and the place where we were waiting had a lot of trees to shade us. Having nothing else to do I got acquainted with some. All of them had come from different places and different backgrounds. Each one had a different story but none was even close to mine. Suddenly the crowd at the gate thinned. The candidates were called in. There were four interview panels of 4 people each. I was assigned to panel  number 10. The interview was scheduled for later on, first our documents were to be verified. We were seated in a room having the design of a very small auditorium. Seats were raised progressively from front row to the last one. We were told to arrange our documents with photocopies and get it verified from them. Many had not brought all the documents, but they did not fret at all. Even when I went to submit my documents, I was a little tense and shaky. The person at the desk noticing me, asked me to calm down. His words were “Don’t be tense or your interview will be ruined. We are here to take care of all the formalities. Calm down, you have nothing to worry about”. Just imagine, such a reassurance from a person on a desk job, handling so many documents, simultaneously verifying them, it is too good to be true. Same was true each one of the staff whom I met. They were surprisingly calm and reassuring; one of them even cracked little jokes to keep our tension at bay. One can’t ask for a better venue for an interview.

After some time it was my turn. I went in and with the usual formalities took my seat. First question was

Mr Mahanty. Are you by any chance related to (a short pause) Ramesh Mahanty?

(Before I go any further, I gotta say this was a sort of trick question. Mahanty-s are rare in this part of India and Debasish Mohanty was a famous player in the Indian cricket team. So, the question was supposed to go along the lines of “Are you related to the Debasish Mohanty”, and I was expected to answer with a “no, Sir”.
Instead he changed just one word and asked “Are you related to the Ramesh Mahanty”, but I saw through his trick)

I replied “Yes sir! He is my father”. The interviewer seemed impressed at my prompt and correct response! Then there were the usual questions like “Why banking after B.Tech”, “do you think your skills are going to be of any use?”, “What are interpersonal skills” e.t.c. The fourth person, a lady, was obviously a person of technical background. She asked me some basic questions from networking and programming (Electronics graduates are not supposed to know in depth about computers and programming, so she wasn’t expecting any answer from me but I proved her wrong). The interviewers were impressed. One of them began in Bengali and gave a long speech of 10 minutes concluding with “boy, you are a born officer, don’t chase such petty jobs as that of clerks”.

I felt like this!

When the interviewer praises you, it is hard to keep your teeth concealed behind your lips. I was feeling so buoyant I might have floated off the chair!! With a lot of restraint I managed keep it limited to a modest smile. They wished me good luck and I left. Coming out of the room I was so happy that I grabbed my bag and ran off!! I was so, soooo happy! People of Kolkata are too busy to notice anything else other than their own business, but if someone had seen me then, he might have thought of calling the Mental Hospital. My luck had not run out yet. I was buying tickets for the metro at Kalighat, when I met two celebrities. One was the star of a Bengali daily soap, another was a veteran actor of Bengali cinema. I might have approached them for autographs, but didn’t. Coz none around me seemed to be noticing them. Like I said before, people of Kolkata are too busy. I could not dare to stand out from the crowd and approach them, also because I could not believe my own eyes seeing them. As usual I took the bus for Durgapur at Esplanade. Luckily enough we didn’t get stuck in jam at Panagarh (the most dreaded place on the Kolkata-Durgapur route). Even better, as our bus entered city center bus stop, I thought I would have to wait for an A-Zone bus to take me home. Like I said before, waiting for anything on the noon of an Indian summer day, is terribly punishing. But today was my lucky day! Right then an A-Zone bus came in. I was thrilled! Had I bought a lottery today I would have hit the jackpot for sure! Thanx to all of them who wished me luck for the interview

Galaxy Y is getting Divorced!

Sticky situation!

Pretty often my head sparks with ideas for such cartoons, and this one was sparked by Miss Mala Teaha of malateaha.wordpress.com.  Excuse the drawing, I am not a good artist. This is the best I could do 

a Realisation

There are sometimes when we are hurt by some people dearest to us. Not on a single occasion, but day after day, year after year the same thing happens with amazing predictability. We just can’t fathom the reason of this bad behaviour, we want to leave them at the first chance and go somewhere far away, but we can’t. By the time we gain the opportunity to leave them, we don’t want to leave. By then we finally understand why they had “behaved so badly” with us, because by then we are in their shoes. Guess, who are the persons in this riddle?  Parents and children.

I used to be a typical kid without the mischief. More nearer to the “good kid” than the bad one. Like any other kid I was beaten up by my dad whenever I did anything wrong. Like any other dad he did love me nonetheless, but it was hard for me to see that side. I always longed to leave home and go somewhere far away from my dad. Dad always said “one day you will understand me, by then you will be a parent”. Turned out, I didn’t need to be a real parent. Being the caretaker of a stray dog, taught me all that I needed to learn.

mom named her Tupu

I recently adopted a stray puppy. When I took her in she was no bigger than a palmtop, now she is as long as my arm. The earlier two strays that we had adopted were brought by my brother. He and my mom used to care for them. I adopted this one (against my dad’s wishes), so I have to care for her mostly. People say she is a puppy of a foreign breed, maybe Alsatian, veterinarians say she is a street dog. I don’t know about that, but now I am her foster parent. Like any other kid, she is full of bad habits. Every now and then I have to tap her on her forehead to tell her that something she is doing isn’t desirable. She poops and pees all over the garden. Me and my mom, we collect them and deposit them in a corner (I think I read somewhere that this is how dogs are trained to poop and pee and a certain place). Like a naughty kids she doesn’t like to go to bed. Then I have to tap on her forehead a little harder and make angry noises to keep her on her bed. I have to hold her like that for a few minutes till she goes to sleep.  Sometimes she wakes up in the middle of the night and whines. Then I have to get out of my bed take her up in my arms, pat her until she falls asleep, put her back in her place gently, lock the doors again as silently as possible and go back to my bed. With time this sort of job loses its charm, so sometimes when I lose temper, my mom handles her. While doing all of this, I have flashbacks of my own childhood. I see myself doing the same things as my dad. The past and present are same; I just got promoted from the post of a son to that of a dad. In a few months I hope I will bag a job. I will have my chance to go somewhere far away from my dad like I always wanted to do, but I don’t want to do that anymore.

Why I hate Touch Screen..

Call me a grampa if you will, but I have my own set of reasons for going against popular opinion.

Reason 1: Ever locked yourself outside your apartment with the key inside? I have often felt the same way while using my brother’s tab. Just 5 months old and the touch screen is malfunctioning already. Pretty often it becomes inert to my touch and locks me out.

Reason 2. For using touchscreen, thin fingers are needed and mine are too big. On an average, to type one word I need to backspace twice. Other than that I end up calling the wrong people while browsing the phonebook.

Reason 3: Too complex.. Touch screen devices are so loaded with features that the menu feels like a huge maze. I don’t know about you people, but I need to consult the manual often to work on my brother’s tab. On the other hand my phone (with a keypad) is not as rich in features as a touchscreen one, but when I want to do something I can do it pretty quick because I know exactly which way to go through the menu.

Reason 4: Excessive sensitivity whenever I don’t want it. While browsing the internet, touchscreen picks up wrong clicks from my palm and other points it comes in contact with. Strangely, at the same time my fingertip is not good enough to tickle it. As a result I end up clicking on wrong and payable links spread all over the pages I visit, effectively compensating for the high speed of my internet.  To copy/paste links is another gigantic pain.

Reason 5: You can’t rough handle a touch screen device. It is too sophisticated for any adverse environment. On the other hand, my bar phone has already been through many drops and bounces and has taken a swim once. Still it is working fine!

Reason 6: Last but not least and my favourite reason! I can’t text on a touch device without looking, which I do pretty well on my phone with a nice keypad!

Bad-luck, Good-Luck? Or just co-incidence?

You decide for yourselves but whatever it was, I enjoyed it through and through

As a few of you might be knowing that I had my FCI tier 2 exam scheduled for this 3rd Feb. I was pretty excited and nervous. This exam if cleared could end my job hunt and secure my life with a government job, otherwise you know what. My exam center was at Umes Chandra College, Kolkata. Usually for exams in Kolkata I go to my big brother’s  place on the day before.

I had tickets for the Kolkata bus scheduled to depart at 1:00 am from city centre. I reached there with 15 minutes to spare.  Ten minutes to the departure, I was sitting at a place. My mind toggling between the exam, and jobs I had applied for that morning. My phone rang up, I received the call. The caller was an unknown lady, asking me if I was Somesh. She then told me that I  had an interview scheduled for 4th feb 11 am at Kolkata. I was exhilarated with the opportunity after a long time! I had a little consultation with my friend Arijit and accepted the offer. Then there was a bolt from the blue! I remembered that I did not have a single pair of formals. This was the first time that I was leaving for Kolkata without an extra pair of interview formals, coz I had a 8-10 kg yam (harvested from our backyard garden) for my brother in my backpack. Bad luck or pure co-incidence, I didn’t know what.

On the GT road towards Kolkata at a distance of about 45 minutes form here, is a place called Panagarh, infamous for traffic jams. Anyone leaving for Kolkata dreads Panagarh like anything, and if one is on a tight schedule he/she prefers taking the train to the bus. We were lucky, or so I thought as we passed through Panagarh without a hitch. By the time our bus stopped at Shaktigarh (halfway to Kolkata) I was pretty sure of reaching my destination before the evening rush hour traffic.  Little did I know that a few traffic jams were awaiting us on the way ahead. At a little distance from Shaktigarh we could see an increasing number of police vehicles along the way. Barriers were placed at numerous points on the highway to throttle traffic. Naturally we were delayed. Was this the price for our good-luck at Panagarh? Or pure co-incidence, I didn’t know what.

We reached esplanade, late by an hour. As usual I took the metro. But it was rush hour, I got myself jammed against the sliding door. At each station I had to get down and get back on. I got off at Tollygounge, took an auto-rickshaw. I was lost in my thoughts about the exam on the next day and didn’t notice anything else till the road and surroundings seemed unfamiliar. I asked the auto-wallah if I had crossed Ranikuthi, I was supposed to get off there. At once he stopped the auto and asked me to walk back, I was way past my destination. I won’t say this was bad luck, this was my fault. My streak of bad luck had finally ceased. There was chicken biriyani for dinner! With tummy full, I went to bed early.  I woke up early in the morning, perhaps due to exam tension. Got ready and left off for the exam. It took me around an hour to reach college street, still I was there pretty early. I didn’t  have any friend or acquaintance with me, so I was kinda lonely, tired too from standing for half an hour.

A view from the 4th floor balcony of the college

The exam center was a named Umesh Chandra College by my admit card. On reaching there I found out that the same building had 4 different names including the one in my admit card. On inquiring I found out that the same building housed four different institutions, at different times of a day!  This was one hell of Multiplexing I have ever known

My seat was at room 27B, 4th floor, it was quite tiring climb. Some were climbing the crowded stairs with their shoelaces untied. If someone had stepped on their laces by mistake, it would have been an accident of the scale of a stampede. Carelessness at its worst!  Anyway, we were at our places on time. The OMR sheets had been distributed and we were busy filling it up. The question papers were being distributed when someone raised voice saying he had got the wrong question paper. We were supposed to get Paper-2. But it turned out that our invigilator had brought the set of Paper-3. The room was already buzzing when another guy came in running saying all rooms had got the wrong set. The college itself had got the wrong set of papers.  After some time 3 official looking men came into our room to inform us that the exam had been postponed until further notice as all the exam centers in Kolkata had got the wrong set of papers. Some were infuriated. They had the LIC ADO exam on the same day and they didn’t get to sit for that because of this one. Their candles were burnt on both ends. But I was happy! Terribly happy because I had a few more weeks at least to prepare better. I came out with everybody else. It was time to go back home. I was waiting for the bus for Esplanade when I saw a tram of the same route coming up. I never had rode a tram before and I always wished to do so. There it was before me.

Now the problem was that I didn’t know if trams had any fixed stoppages or just stopped wherever needed like buses. I put out my hand to signal it to stop, but put it down quickly thinking it might look awkward. The tram didn’t stop, it slowed down. I guess the driver didn’t notice me, it slowed down for the traffic ahead. Whatever, I got up in the second

Inside the tram

compartment. The conductor and the 2 passengers were looking at me as if thinking “this guy is insane”, because I was taking clicking pics of the compartment . For me it was ten minutes of fun ride and I was excited like this was my first plane ride! Stupid, isnt it? I got off at esplanade took the Durgapur bus leaving at 11 15. Another coincidence was awaiting me. On the previous day I had got seat number 8, right behind the driver. On the way back, I got the same seat again!

Ever feel like you aren’t growing up?

I do, quite often!

(Before I proceed any further I wanna let u all know that I am the worst at expressing my feelings in words and this topic is about a deeeeep feeling. So there is a high probability that this post will be a disaster, proceed at your own risk )

In school, years of my life were slow, verrry slow. This was because I didn’t enjoy going to school. I was reserved and introvert. I used to talk a lot with myself and very little with others. Naturally there were pent up emotions which needed periodic release, and I always ended up trusting the wrong guy with those. Invariably the wrong guy used to go public with them and I was left with ears red. Those were embarrassing. I was the underdog, peers picked on me all the time and I hated school. This hate made each day at school a torture, and time was a lot slower than I wanted it to be. But I could feel myself growing! I am not talking about being taller. I could feel myself growing in my mind. My behavior, way of talking, becoming choosy with whatever I shared with whoever etc these were all changing through the years. By my secondary school exam, I was no longer the kid who used to giggle all the time like when he first stepped into school life. This is absolutely normal you would say. You might also add “what the hell does guy want? Does he want to stay little all his life“. Nope, this guy is as sane is any other . It is just that, then I could feel this change. I said “I could“, because now I can’t! :O Seriously!

School life was slow and I could feel myself growing. But as I finished school and came into college, life picked up a hell of a pace! 4 whole years. They passed by as quick as 4 weeks. Since then I haven’t felt myself growing anymore. Let me explain.. It is said that as we grow older, we gain maturity, wisdom, stuff like that. My experience of watching people says while growing older these qualities are supposed to make us egoistic and grouchy (at the least). Being grown up means if someone calls you a bad name, you can’t let it go easy and you have to fight for your honor.You aren’t supposed to take things lightly anymore, unless absolutely necessary. But I can’t feel any of these. Among my peers, I am the only exception who still goes about his business with the carefree air of a guy in his 18th year (by my DOB I am 22+ ).  Most of them having girlfriends and boyfriends, have already started talking and behaving like family guardians. I hate being so serious all the time. Sometimes I find it hard to relate to them.

You know, this isn’t about feeling myself growing, it is more about being more mature each day, to be a guy of my age. I do agree that there are situations where one has to be serious and a bit grouchy, other than that is it really necessary to carry that air everywhere? Or am I missing the point of growing up?

Thinking…

P.S. Phew! this wasn’t a disaster like I had expected

Trip to Koderma: 2nd day

This day we were to be up and ready by 9. Uncle was already gone by the time I was halfway with my morning business. Before leaving he told me that a bolero would come to pick us up and take us to the officers’ mess for breakfast. I knew for sure that I would not be able to stay hungry till then, that’s why I brought 2 packs of magi from our trip to the market yesterday evening. Thereafter Abu went into the bathroom and I went to the kitchen. It is very hard to find the exact thing you want in someone else’s kitchen. It took me around five minutes to gather my tools and start working (on the Maggi ). I added a little bit more water than needed and it was sloppy, needed a pinch of salt be palatable. Anyway, we were ready by 9. We locked the doors and came down to wait outside.

2nd day morning

The warm morning sun was pleasant! So we stood there waiting for our ride. It wasn’t until 9:20 that we realised that our ride was getting late. By then the sun was too warm to be pleasant. After loitering a few more minutes outside we went up to our rooms. We hadn’t even settled down when a person appeared at the door. Finally, our ride had arrived! We took the middle seats. Yesterday during the chat on the balcony, Mr. Manoj had told us that most of the plant staff was Bengali. True to his statement, all the people in the vehicle were talking in Bengali! On a distant land finding someone from home is just like being back at home, and here there were so many! We were feeling a lot better. The vehicle dropped us at the mess for breakfast. Today the menu was “matar puri” and some curry. We ate to our fill, came down and found that our ride was gone. Called up uncle, he told that it would be back soon till then we would have to wait. Around us everything and everybody was moving, except the two of us standing in front of the mess building like two idols. We were very prominent and people could easily tell by the looks on our faces that we were outsiders. A guy even came up and asked if we were looking for something. As soon as we said “waiting for our ride” he gave a nod of understanding everything and said “hmm L&T”, and went off.

(Before I go any further there are some facts you should know. DVC is setting up a thermal power plant at Koderma. They have given the construction tenders to different companies. L&T has bagged the job of fabricating the coal silos, 2 boilers, 2 turbines and the switching yard. My uncle is the head of the safety department of L&T at the site)

While our ride was gone, we went to a nearby shop to recharge our phones. There we had a hearty chat with the shop-owner. He was quite friendly and told us things about doing business there like how hard it is for the little businessmen to keep themselves afloat and so on. By then our ride had come back and we were back on track, though a little late. The road was long one and very bad. We kept bouncing up and down in the bolero until we found a good piece of road towards the end of our journey.

Our first view of the plant, from a long way off

It is a huge plant!! At the gate we expected some trouble coz we didn’t have gate passes, I mean someone was waiting at the gate with our passes to let us in. But at the time of our entry there was some sort of scuffle at the gate, so we went through unnoticed (at the end of today we came to know that the person who was waiting at the gate for us, waited for a long time, coz he didn’t know we had got in ) We were taken to my uncle’s office. It was at the other end of the plant. The roads inside the plant were worse than those outside, and made the worst by the continuous rainfall since 3 days. Today the weather has cleared to some extent, tomorrow I hope the skies will be clear. So, there was mr. Manoj again. He gave us blue helmets (helmets are colour coded, blue is for supervisors) and off we went walking through the scrap yard towards the boilers. We 3 were like great friends now. He took pleasure in telling us about the things we don’t know and we were equally interested not to miss a single word of his. He told us that the present scrap yard was originally the raw materials yard when construction of this plant started 4 years ago. Now that the plant is up and ready, the place has become the scrap yard for the surplus materials.

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He took us through the path between the coal silos and the ESP (electrostatic precipitator) to show us the burner and the boiler. This plant had got two boilers, two turbines for electricity generation. Today is the last day of commissioning of the 1^st boiler and turbine. Mr. Manoj explained commissioning as running the whole device and equipments at 1.5 times of normal capacity for 72 hours. This test decides the fitness and durability of the plant for normal electricity production. There was a minor fire in an oil line for boiler 1. By the time we were there the fire had been extinguished and there was a collection of helmets of all the colours . We saw some guys were of our age, but they were employees of BHEL (BHEL is in charge of supply and operation and maintenance till the plant is ready for normal operation). Then we went to the BHEL site office to meet with the chief of the electronics department. This isn’t as big as it sounds. We were just gonna consult him about some sort of contractual jobs if any, at the plant. But he was busy somewhere else.  Right beside the office were the two cooling towers. Mr. Manoj explained the design of the cooling tower like a cascaded fountain where water is sprinkled at the top and it overflows each step and comes down. Its only difference with a normal cascade fountain is that it is damned huge, covered from all sides and only open at the top! There is a dam nearby which supplies water to make up for evaporation. Then it was time for lunch. We were taken to the plant canteen. Lunch was tasty, even more coz I was hungry from walking for so long.

One of the cooling towers, huge!!!

In the 2^ndhalf we went to the place where the turbines are placed. One turbine was being commissioned today another was in its last stages of fabrication. They had not covered it all so we were very lucky to see the inside. I had never seen any turbine so closely and I never knew anything about the blades’ design and placement. So within a short span of time my head was buzzing with new knowledge ! Right beside it is the switching yard. The switching yard takes the power generated, regulates it as required and transmits it forwards to the overhead supply lines for distribution. We were standing on the edge of the turbine floor when we saw a commotion beneath. An ambulance was reversing and within seconds it sped off towards the main gate. Mr. Manoj left us in a hurry with the instruction to be there till he came back. Took some snaps of ourselves to pass the time.

The ambulance and the crowd

Mr. Manoj came back after some time and called us. This time, uncle was with him. They introduce d us to Mr. Abhimanyu Ghosh, the person we have been waiting for all day. He is a respectable person but I should say that he lacks common courtesy. Among all the persons in the room he was the only one who didn’t even look at us. As if he was feeling disgust in our presence. We may not be as highly qualified as him, but we are engineers too. We did deserve a minimum respect from him. So, the job for the day was complete, almost. We went to DVC office too to meet the chief, but he wasn’t there. That means we are gonna have to come back again tomorrow to meet him. Our ride was waiting for us, we submitted our helmets and got into the bolero. The way back seemed quicker, though a different one..

A scene at sunset

Trip to Koderma: 1st day

The day was quite exciting to begin with! We had plans to board the Purva Express around 10 25 AM. As usual Avinandan (Abu) was late and I was at Durgapur station by 9 45. The man at the ticket counter gave a bad news. The recent train fare revisions has made it mandatory for everybody to buy tickets for certain minimum distances for each class of trains. In our case we were to buy tickets of Rs.118 instead of Rs.68 each !!! I was quite sure that I was awaiting criticism from my dad for this. When I passed on this bad news to Abu, he too was like “my dad is gonna kill me for this“. All our dads are same, they always tell upon us before listening to anything we have to say. Anyway, I am quite used to it.
It was 10 15. I was waiting at platform 3. The train’s arrival had been announced. It was due to arrive any minute yet Abu wasn’t visible anywhere. He wasn’t even aswering my calls because he was busy talking to Anima, his girlfriend. How more irritaing can it be??! But things were gonna get better from then onwards. Just before Purva express, The Howrah-Mumbai Mail pulled into the adjacent platform, along with Abu appearing on the scene . I was relieved!
We had general compartment tickets for Purva Express, but it was damned crowded as usual. We were gonna have to stand for the whole journey of 4 hours, but there was another option. The Mumbai mail was late by 12 hours, so it was quite empty.

Abu on phone

We asked a TT on the platform if we could get on Mumbai Mail and he gave a positive nod! The general compartments were mostly empty.  We took two berths for ourselves .
Another thing I forgot to add! In this meantime Anima had reached the station. She was just got on the opposite platform and became visible when our train began to pull away. It was a cinematic moment! Him and her, both waving to each other and receding into distance.. I would have loved to film the moment but Abu was blocking the door . So we began our journey!

Halfway on our way the dreaded R (for roaming) sign appeared on our mobiles as we entered Jharkhand area. It was time to save our phone balance like misers . Other than that our journey was quite uneventful. Around 10 minutes to our destination, I got a call from my uncle. He asked us to wait in front of a hotel named “Shital Chhaya”. So we did. After getting off the train we went to there to wait.

On the way

At first glance the surroundings looked much like our own Benachity Bazaar of Durgapur. Only difference was that the roads were a bit less crowded and there were a lot of  Trekkers waiting for passengers. We don’t have trekkers as a mode of public transport in Durgapur. People around were too busy to notice these two curious people gawping at them. A billboard above a shop told us that we were on the Ranchi-Patna Road. I had a random guess; if that road was the Ranchi Patna road then Ranchi might be somewhere near. I called up my friend Tanvir (nicknamed Guruji), he lives in Ranchi. He told me that he hadn’t heard of the place yet, but he could come over to meet us if it weren’t too far. After a while a medium height person approached us asking if we were Mr. Patra’s relatives. I gave a confused nod. Confused coz I didn’t know my uncle’s full name, so I wasn’t sure if it were him who sent this person to receive us. Then I thought since there wasn’t anybody other than the two of us waiting, so it had to be us. We followed him on foot for quite a distance. We were to be received by a Bolero, we were bit  unlucky. The Bolero had broken down before meeting us . We went to a hotel deposited our luggage and took a table for ourselves. Mr. Manoj (that was his name) was to pay for our lunch. So we ordered our usual rice, daal and sabzi plate. Two plates arrived and we started our lunch. Back at Durgapur, the hotel owners are misers. Whenever you order a meal, they give you half of what ur stomach asks for. Back there you can’t help asking for extra helpings to feel full. Here it is the opposite; you don’t dare ask for an extra helping!!

Just outside the station

We were staying on the 1st floor

Filled to our throats we resumed walking. But this time Mr Manoj called up two rickshaws. Having loaded ourselves we were off for Tilaiya Clinic. The place we were staying was called Jhumri Tilaiya. Koderma was the name of the district and the nearest city. So, the station was also named Koderma, even though Koderma is 6 km away. Few minutes later we were at our destination. Uncle wasn’t at home, Mr Manoj had the keys. He unlocked the doors and let us in, showed us the rooms, kitchen, bathroom etc. Then we had an extensive discussion with him on the balcony. He told us about the upcoming power plant that we were planning to visit, his designation, his job, my uncle’s job, life at Koderma, transport etc, yet it didn’t tire us anymore that we were already. He left after sometime, but I stood at the balcony for a while longer watching the road, people and vehicles. Even though at a distance of just 4 hours by train, we were the farthest away from home in recent times. Felt like something

I’m back!

It has been a long time since my last post. I have no idea why I could never bring myself to tap-tapping away at the keyboard. Anyway, I’m back!

Not much has happened since I posted last. Days been regularly boring, doing nothing but eating sleeping and applying for jobs. A few days back we celebrated the Durga Puja, our biggest festival! It provided me a much needed break from this monotony. Believe it or not I got a date for an appointment for an interview just on the final day of the puja. and that info came by mail just the day before! I could not attend that The only positive thing which has occurred to me in recent times is that I finally got rid of my persistent cough-n-cold, which I had acquired at the onset of autumn! That too at a time when winter has fully arrived! Tomorrow I am going to Koderma, (Jharkhand) with my friend Avinandan. This one is gonna be a job-search cum pleasure trip. An uncle of mine (quite handsome for his age) is the HSEO of LnT infrastructure at the upcoming DVC power plant at Koderma. He is responsible for maintenance of all sorts of safety of the whole plant. Funnily enough he calls himself and his whole team  ”Licensed Bandits!“, since they can stop anybody doing any job in any stage for the reason of being unsafe . Well, that’s all for now. I gotta go and pack for tomorrow. Good night!

PS: Anybody and everybody whose blogs I haven’t visited in this time gap,  SORRY! I shall try to make up to you people