SARASWATHI – GODDESS OF GYAN

 

Tomorrow, we are celebrating Saraswathi Puja. Saraswathi is worshipped as “Goddess of Gyan “. Nowadays, we are teaching our children that she is a “Goddess of Education “. This is mainly due to transformation of society and perception of the society about education. We reduced the value of education from path to knowledge to path to livelihood. We are more bothered about comfortable and well settled life. Accordingly, knowledge and Gyan have taken a back seat and success in examinations and interviews are a priority. Education is a steppingstone to reach the ultimate aim of Gyan (Much more than knowledge perceived by us). Due to this we are making our gods also into stones rather than the knowing the real purpose behind Bhakti and worship.

In our locality, one religious teacher was explaining the meaning of all familiar story of Tiger and Cow. One person in the crowd raised a doubt whether tiger will agree for cow to leave to feed her calf even if it begs for it. The teacher did not mock at him. Instead, he appreciated the person for being attentive and thinking about the story rather than listening, agreeing and simply ignoring the moral. Then the teacher asked him whether he is believing that tiger and cow will actually speak, talk and negotiate with each other when they come face to face. If he believes that, then believing other things is very easy. The essence of that answer is if you start questioning from the beginning to end, you will understand the triviality of this questioning and the main aim of the importance of speaking the truth. That is why Indian philosophy never discouraged questioning and in fact all Upanishads are the results of debate between different people of all genders, castes and professionals. Nobel  Laurette Amartya Sen also writes in his famous book “Argumentative Indian” that in India an atheist is born the day god is born and no Galileo was ever poisoned in India like western countries for questioning the traditional beliefs. At the same time, we should not start debating whether this Sri Lanka or Ram Setu or Kurukshetra are same as described in great epics  Ramayana and Mahabharat. Instead of that we should try to understand the messages they convey to the whole world.

Another great interpretation of education and gyan are explained by the two verses written by great telugu poet Pothana in Bhagavatham . These verses are conveyed through Prahlad to his father Hiranyakasipa when he was asked by him how the learning is  going on in grukul and what he learnt. For the first question he answers that he was taught well by gurus and he read many shastras and apart from that he read many things and in one sentence he read all the intricacies in learning. For the second question he answers that hands,legs,eyes,mind,head,ears,the tongue which are used for the service and praise of god are only can be called as such. The first one is education and second one is gyan and the synthesis of both only can create a scientistlike Kalam or Jagadish Chandra Bose or a politician like A B Vajpayee or P V Narasimha Rao or an industrialst like N R Narayana Murthy or Ratan Tata or a bureaucrat like T N Seshan and a judge like P N Bhagawathi 

TRANSFORMATION OF VALLUR

 

TRANSFORMATION OF VALLUR

 

On a Diwali day in October 2014 I received a transfer order from NTPC Ramagundam to NTECL Vallur. Immediately afterwards I had to go to Delhi on an official tour to attend customer meet arranged by BHEL and discussion with Corporate OS an issue related to Ramagundam boiler. I was advised by ED (R) R K Srivastav sir  to meet  RED (S) R Venkateswaran sir on my way back at SRHQ.

During my Delhi trip I met ED (OS) Y V Rao Sir. He told me that it would be very difficult to work in Vallur and condition of the plant and township are really testing for anyone. At BHEL customer meet I met Sri NIzamuddin  AGM contracts who was already known to me and Sri R Bharadwaj AGM CCD. When asked they  told me that problems of Vallur are only to be seen to be believed. As had been advised , I went to SRHQ office to meet Venkateswaran Sir. After seeing me he had showed the MW reading of Southern Region in which all three units of NTECL were reading “0”,”0” and “0”. Sir had explained that one unit was having tube leakage for last three days , the other unit which was just synchronized after overhaul also had BTL on that day and 3^rd unit commercial operation was getting delayed due to various reasons. He had told me that he wishes to see 1500 MW like Ramagundam.

On November 7^th NTPC raising day I got down from suburban train in Attipattupudunagar station after around 12 hour journey in GT express. My friend Sri Sarat Babu sent a vehicle for me. Driver Mr Mohan with a broken telugu wished me and uttered this “ Sir, I heard that you are coming as boiler  pressure parts incharge. One boiler is having tube leakage and every alternate day there will be tube leakage”. Initially I had wondered how even a driver was so well informed but later on I came to know that he is a driver for BMD vehicle. After reaching township and taking bath , I went for ICH breakfast as usual everywhere in NTPC. There I met Sri K Satyanarayana Engineer operation who closely worked with me earlier at Ramagundam. During conversation he told me this “ Sir, don’t compare Vallur with Ramagundam. Here no unit runs continuously for 10 days. It trips or is stopped for various reasons. There is no system that runs trouble free”. With these type of feedback, On the same day I joined here with the cooperation of Sri Ponnambalam DGM HR and reported to Narendra Sir GM O&M. Within one week I had realised that none of them exaggerated.

After 7 years I could see a lot of change though there are still lot of problems and still lot of work to be done. I will not tell all but some representative things. The company declared dividend two times in a row , declaring full DC consecutively two years, Unit 1 running continuously for more than 150 days two times, station running for 46 days, Ash utilisation of more than 100% for last two years and many more.

Still there are lot of challenges associated with man power optimization, corrosion related issues, environmental obligations being nearer to metro city, coal transportation, coal availability and pending receivables from beneficiaries to name a few.

BUT WITH LAST 7 YEARS EXPERIENCE, NOW I AM MORE CONFIDENT THAT NTECL TEAM CAN DELIVER.

ACTING AS A SMALL LADDER- DAYS AT SAI SEVA SAMITHI NTPC RAMAGUNDAM – MY WIFE PADMA

ACHIEVEMENT OF A PEARL IN COMMON SAND- GAYATHRI

It is said that when you wish for something wholeheartedly, the whole universe conspires to make it happen.

Such is the wish of one of the students of Sai Seva Samithi Elementary school run by  employees of NTPC Ramagundam - Miss Gayathri. My wife P L Padmavathi M.A. B.Ed worked as honorary Principal of this school from 2008 to 2014. Because of her efforts and qualification, the school could get recognition from state authorities. Mr K S N Raju, Mr P Ramdoss , Mr Narendra, Mr P V B Raju and many other employees under the leadership of Mrs Sasmitha Dash CMO madam are doing yeomen service in running Sai Seva Samithi with the donations of NTPC Employees,  other local residents with continuous help from NTPC and Deepthi Mahila Samithi . Apart from running this school and providing free mid- day meal to around 100 children, samithi is running free hospital, TB centre and many others for the nearby labor colonies’ residents. I am happy to inform that recently Samithi celebrated 2 decades of noble service and it is a showpiece in CSR activities of NTPC Ramagundam.

Gayathri was a little girl with a bright future which was reflected in her eyes when I had first met her. She was introduced by my wife. She joined this school for the same reason as all the wonderful students there – an yearning for learning! Her dedication and hard work  paid off with the help of the teachers and staff of the school who recognized her potential. During one of the visits of  Mrs Padma Y V Rao in 2011 ( The then president of Deepthi Mahila Samithi, Ladies club of NTPC Ramagundam ) to the school, my wife mentioned about this child to her. Without second thought Madam through Sai Seva Samithi adopted her along with two others through ladies club to send them to Sachdeva school for better and higher education. Mrs Sapna Mishra , the Principal of Sachdeva School provided them utmost support and free books .

After seven years she secured grade point average of 9.7 out of 10 in her 10th class exam and joined Karimnagar residential college for Intermediate, equivalent of +2. She is continuing to flourish for the last two years and scored 918/1000 marks, another remarkable achievement and proves the point Nobel laureates Mr Abhijit Banarjee and Mrs Esther Duffelo describes in their most acclaimed  book                        “ POOR ECONOMICS “,  the possibility of the poverty making pearls to remain in the earth and coming out in the open with only a little support they get. They may even become future scientists, nation’s saviors or billionaires. I am sure about her bright future if everything goes well. A ladder is only starting point to build big buildings.

 With the encouraging results, Deepthi Mahila Samithi is continuously sponsoring two to three children every year and till now 20 to 25 children got benefitted.             

     

PROMINENT WOMEN OF  INDIA’S FREEDOM STRUGGLE (1880-1947)

Gender equality is much talked about subject by feminists. In UN human development index gender equality is one of the factors. But in India, from vedic times it was natural phenomenon. Maitreyi’s debate with sage Yajnavalkya resulted in great Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. In that the debate between Yajnavalkya and Gargi is very insightful among all the debates. Similarly in 8^th century for the famous debate between Adisankara and northern scholar Mandana Mishra, Mandana Mishra’s wife acted as referee. Rajiya Sultana in 13^th century is the first female ruler of Asia. Molla in 15^th century wrote Ramayana in Telugu.  This shows how women are seen in Indian history. However in the middle ages there was deterioration in values of India which resulted in exploitation of the many weaker sections, not particularly women. This essay on women freedom fighters is only to reemphasize this point. I hope this will inspire all modern women not to debate on this and simply feel it as natural right. 

Coming to fighting for rights again Indian women are second to none from ancient times. Kannagi is arguably  the first and Silappathikaram is the first epic in world history with woman centric character. As per this epic, she not only reformed her husband but fought against injustice meted out to her husband by Pandyan King of Madurai. But there was reluctance in including women in freedom struggle of India. However these 7 women are certainly the most famous women who  actively participated in struggle at different times in different ways and proved second to none.

1 BHIKAJI CAMA :  Born in rich Bombay Parsee family and married to a supporter of Britishraj,  influenced by Grand Old Man of India Dadhabhai Nauroji and London Hyde park addresses of famous Indians she actively worked with revolutionary Shyamaji Krishnavarma  and even tried to help V D Savarkar. Even Lenin got impressed by her . Like Nauroji she can be called “GRAND OLD LADY OF INDIA”. However Dadhabhai opposed british policies only in Parliament and press and never in extremist way like Madam Cama.

2 ANNIE BESANT: Though Born Irish, influenced by Indian theology she is one of the illustrious women of freedom struggle and worked as Congress President. Along with Tilak she advocated and led Indian Home Rule movement. Later years she was involved more in Theosophical Society and tutored illustrious and unique philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurthy. She was role model for many freedom fighters.

3 KASTURBA GANDHI : Though innocent, married to Mahatma at an young age she equally suffered and sometimes more than Mahatma being a woman during struggles in both South Africa and India. Even her health failed during frequent imprisonment and satyagraha leading to her death. Mahatma regretted for not giving proper recognition to her in his political and personal life.

  

4 SAROJINI NAIDU : Daughter of Bengal and Daughter-in- law of AP, poetess, courageous to even criticize Gandhi is undoubtedly  a role model for modern women. Her statement during salt march “The time has come when women can no longer hide behind, under the shelter of men but equally should face the perils and sacrifice for the liberation of the country”. She walked this talk.

5 LAKSHMI SEHGAL : Alumni of Madras Medical College, treated Indian National Army soldiers in Singapore , Captain Lakshmi a follower of Subhas Chandra Bose actively worked for INA, was Minister for women affairs of Azad Hind Government in exile, can be truly described as Modern Rani Laxmibhai

6 Aruna Asaf Ali : Thrown out of the family for marrying a muslim Asaf Ali, a freedom fighter she was the woman who hoisted the national flag during 1942 Quit India movement when all other leaders were arrested by British. Defying Mahatma she actively supported mutiny of INA soldiers in 1946 which is considered as the last straw for declaration of Indian independence by British.

7 DURGABHAI DESHMUKH : Founder of Andhra Mahila Sabha , known for discipline and commitment , she stopped even Jawahar Lal for attending Indian National Congress meeting without taking mandatory ticket. She was imprisoned many times and drove many common women into movement.                

     

DEAD VS SURVIVORS

 

 

Recently   l attended a  training on BEHAVIROUL BASED SAFETY. In that faculty   had told that if you visit the family of any accident victim the pain will be understood and sometimes it may change your attitude and influence your life.

 How true it is? I want to share with you my personal experience and importance of human life and safety and sometimes how decision of each one of us will affect the life of others.

 

               Some years back in one accident one migrant worker from Orissa died in an accident at dam.  I      D was one of the two entrusted with the job of disbursing money (obviously before demonetization) to his dependents. To my utter dismay there was a pathetic scene.

               One side widow of the victim with a two year old kid is standing and on the other side his old parents are standing. Both were virtually fighting for the compensation money to be given only               to them not to the other as they are having no other means to live and the other party may not               at all give anything to them. At that time it looked as if they were not bothered about the dead person but only interested about the money that is being disbursed. But the real point is having lost the only bread earner they are scared about their future and their very survival is in jeopardy. Hence they were trying to catch the last and only hope available of compensation money. Everybody there knows that the compensation money is just sufficient for survival only for few years. It will neither help in educating the children nor help in meeting the medical expenses of elders. We with the help of union leaders consoled them and disbursed the money to both in an appropriate way and somehow managed the situation.  

               But that incident made me think about the importance of life.

               WHO IS MORE IMPORTANT?  DEAD  OR SURVIVOR?

                DID ACCIDENT KILL ONLY ONE PERSON OR WHOLE FAMILY?

                WHO IS AT FAULT? THE PERSON CONCERNED OR THE PERSON WHO MADE HIM TO DO UNSAFE

                WORK?

                WHEN A FEW SECONDS THINKING COULD HAVE AVOIDED IT WHY PEOPLE ARE IN SO HURRY?

                 IS FEW LAKHS LOSS OR A BAD REMARK IS COSTLIER THAN LIFE OF WHOLE FAMILY?

 

 

                              

STEPPING STONES

                      -More people would learn from their mistakes if they were not so busy denying them

It was in December 1988. It was just one year after I had completed my Executive Trainee training at Singrauli and Ramagundam. Ramagundam unit 4, first 500 MW power unit of South India was commissioned in June 1988. Boiler water silica had been maintaining high and condenser tube leakage was suspected. To check this , it was planned to isolate condenser passes one by one. I was asked to stay at Cooling Water pump house control room to take care of any eventuality in CW pumps. One CW pump was stopped and one condenser pass was isolated as planned. After 15 minutes suddenly running CW pump also had tripped on discharge pressure high protection and as a result unit tripped. I was suspecting by mistake unit people might have closed the other condenser valve also causing the pressure high trip. Similarly unit people had suspected that I might have closed running pump discharge valve resulting the pump trip. Suddenly two Japanese people had come running to me from CW pumps which are located in other room and told me that they had activated the protection to check its healthiness. Here I have to describe the background of the event. CW pumps are Hitachi make and these people had commissioned the pumps around one year before. Meanwhile NTPC commissioning team had checked the protections and suspected the discharge pressure high protection was not functioning properly and same was reported to Hitachi. These people were experts of CW pumps but did not know the relevance of the pumps with the rest of the plant. So they had tested the protection without informing NTPC people as they thought that running the pump without this protection was not good  for the pump. 

Immediately I told them what had happened due to their action and explained about the loss of production. They were apologetic and came to unit control room and tendered apologies to everyone present there. As usual initially our people were very angry and scolded them. However later on our people had told these things do happen during initial commissioning phase and assured them that it would not be reported to Hitachi head office. But our people were surprised to receive an apologetic letter from Hitachi Japan. When contacted it had come to our knowledge that matter was reported by those two people only to their company. When asked for the reason for their reporting the answer given by them was indeed a lesson to me. Hitachi will take somebody’s genuine confession in the right spirit whereas deliberate suppression of wrongdoing will be viewed very seriously.

After six  years similar incident occurred. By the time I was unit controller of unit 6. Generator stator is cooled by water. There are two primary water pumps for this purpose. One pump runs continuously and other is a standby. Permit was given to electrical maintenance for checking the module of one pump. While they were working on the module, running pump tripped on supply failure causing the unit to trip. When asked, our electrical maintenance immediately answered that fuse of the running pump might have failed  at the same time. But when pump was started after putting back the same fuse it was running normal. Even though everybody had suspected that it was too much of a coincidence to believe the matter was left there.

I remembered above two incidents after reading the book “ The Power of Habit “ by Charles Duhigs given to me at corporate centre recently. In that two incidents are described about the approach of Paul O Neil when he was CEO of Alcoa. In one of the incidents a worker jumps the safety rope and try to fix the problem of a machine. While he is attending suddenly machine takes start killing the worker on the spot. Analyzing the incident Paul concludes the following reasons. In his own words: “ We killed this man. It’s my failure of leadership. I caused his death. And it’s the failure of all of you in the chain of command.” The errors identified for the cause of the accident includes two managers who had seen the worker jumping safety rope but failed to stop him, a training program that hadn’t emphasized that he would not be blamed for breakdown, lack of instructions that he should find a manager before attempting to repair and absence of a system that automatically stops the machine if someone steps into pit.

In another incident at Alcoa Mexico plant, there was build up of fumes within one of the facilities causing temporary sickness to few workers. The problem was immediately resolved. Workers also recovered fully in two three days. But the plant manager failed to report the incident to headquarters Incident came to Paul’s notice when a nun complained about it during a shareholder’s meeting. Plant managers even though he was one of the most valuable executives otherwise was fired immediately. The reason explained by CEO was “ He got fired because he didn’t report the incident, so no one else had the opportunity to learn from it. Not sharing an opportunity to learn is cardinal sin”.

Primary water incident described earlier is not an isolated incident. Many times all these years I am observing that people not only do not accept their mistakes but also deny  the failure of even equipments in their area instead blame others and other equipment for the problem. As a testimony to this we can see only very few near misses are reported in the plant. This I feel is done because system rewards the people who defend and cover better than others compared to learners and who honestly admit their mistakes. In a country which taught the world about work with detachment ( Karma Yoga ) people identify themselves with equipment and failure of equipment is taken as person’s failure.

In one of the personality development books I read this : When a little child tries to walk and falls an Indian mother will immediately takes him into her lap curses the floor and kisses the child whereas an Israeli  mother encourages him to try once more telling him that these things do happen while learning a new thing. In her anxiety to show her affection and love Indian mother prevents the child to see the reality, teaches him to shift the blame,  denies the opportunity to learn and not allow him to try harder.

Mahatma Gandhi writes in My Experiments with Truth that committing mistakes is not that bad, but not learning from them is disastrous. He describes incidents like how he had learned from stealing some money from his father’s pocket when he was child and some more incidents when he had tempted (near misses ) to commit mistakes before  realizing the values he stood for. In one of the major events in response to a violent incident in a remote  village of  the then United Provinces Chaurichaura he suspended a national movement only to demonstrate the people that for him non violence is more important than freedom of the country for which he dedicated his life.   

We should have the courage to honestly accept our mistakes, discuss them, analyze them dispassionately emphasizing more about issues rather than persons and more importantly learn from them ,  spread the message so that entire organization will benefit from it.

At  the same time organization also should empathize with employees who accept genuine mistakes but punish willful  and habitual offenders. Not disclosing an incident should never be accepted and pardoned. Management should emphasize more about the incidents rather than persons.                        

         

                         

choic is yours

CHOICE IS YOURS

Limiting desires rather than fulfilling them leads to happiness and salvation - Gautama Buddha

For the last 23 years, 26^th August is special and memorable to us. It is the birthday of my two daughters- Pratyusha and Anusha. Though born two years apart on the same day in 1992 and 1994, they also look similar. Many people wonder whether they are twins. We enjoy celebrating their birthday on that day. But for the last seven years, either one of them, or sometimes both of them are not with us as they are studying or working away from home.



But I am really pained to hear questions from some people whether it was planned to have their birthdays on the same day and any surgery was carried out so that the birthday remains the same. I really thank Dr. Srimathi of Hyderabad, not to yield to our pressure. Our pressure was not for the birthday sake, but we were unable to see the pains suffered by my wife for more than 36 hours. But the very experienced doctor was confident and ruthless that delivery would be normal and in that condition she never performs surgery. This brings into my mind a lot of questions.





I am proud of India, not because it has ancient culture, vedas are born here and lot of epics and religions has roots here,but because it is the largest democracy in the world. It had proved many skeptics wrong by remaining a democratic country even with its wide diversity, illiteracy and poverty. Amartya Sen-Nobel Laurette writes in his book-Arguementative Indian that democracy is not new to India.Here is a country where Caravaka's athiest arguments also were respected and from this country Buddha's highlighting of good behaviour rather than good prayer were spread across the world. No Galileo was ever killed in this country for proposing a theory against the then existing beliefs and practices. So freedom and choice were enjoyed by Indians from time immemorial.





However, is it right to have your own choice all the time? Especially opting for surgery for some mere enjoyment of same birthday, for the children or to have a baby born on an auspicious day or for a better horoscope. While I was working at Ramagundam, I came to know that Karimnagar district recorded one of the highest number of surgeries related to delivery and most of them are carried out in private nursing homes. Greed of Gyneacologists was suspected to be the major reason for majority of them.Is it not inhuman? Mahatma Gandhi writes sorrowfully in his autobiography about five legged cows of Benaras. In his childhood he used to see and enjoy them.But when he came to understand later that they were not natural, but the result of artificial transplantation of a leg of a calf after killing, he was very upset. But this was being done by poor people,whereas unnecessary surgeries are carried out by greedy people.





When I distributed sweets at the time of my second daughter's birth, my boss at that time, a very intellectual and effluent by Indian standards remarked- in his own words: '' you are the second person to distribute sweets on daughter's birth,I being the first''. This shows his feeling towards daughters. So it is not surprising that female foeticide, gender identification and declining sex ratios are the major problems in financially developed states like Punjab and Haryana.There is a saying in Telugu  "An illiterate washerman is better than a learned scholar”.





Alvin Toffler predicts in his popular book Future Shock that designer babies will be a reality, if not already existing. Restrictions on Human cloning research in many countries may be putting brakes temporarily, but cannot prevent it much longer.Then , is it right to have one's choice in this or can we have a right choice? All may opt for boys in India and girls have to be imported. Many may opt for IITs, IIMs, IASs, and etc.and there will be dearth of people of other professions.So having your own choice is sometimes catastrophic.





While writing this I came across another fact in newspapers to ponder over. Breast Feeding rate in India is only 44%, the least among the South Asian Nations. Given the choice babies will think twice for taking birth in India.





My daughter passed her 10^th class examination in CBSE stream with a grade of 9.8. I was not surprised when she innocently asked me whether she would be having any choice of studying further without opting for physics as a subject. She honestly told me that she was not inclined to study Physics. Almost all her friends opted for either engineering or medical stream. My colleagues and family friends were also curious to know whether she was opting maths or science as her subjects, as if these were only two options. I advised her not to study any course without interest and learning should always be associated with enthusiasm and not fear. She took a wise decision and opted for Commerce Stream. Then many people tried to console her that all children are not equally bright and there are good opportunities for Commerce students also. With this type of attitude the country can produce teachers, lawyers, accountants, writers and economists etc of only mediocre quality to the detriment of nation's future.





Children should be encouraged to pursue the careers of their own choice and wishes of parents should not be thrust upon. At the same time, it is the duty of every child to satisfy the legitimate aspirations of the parents and understand their limitations, before trying to do any work of their choice. Legitimacy should take precedence over Legality.





Pick and choose is not easy and there is no guarantee that we can choose always in our best interest. Former President Abdul Kalam dreamt of becoming pilot in his college days. After finishing aeronautical engineering from Madras he appeared for Indaian Air Force selection test. He finished tenth and only first nine were selected. Disappointed Kalam not knowing what to do went to Sivananda ashram in Haridwar. After knowing the reason for his unhappiness, Swamiji consoled him with these words. “God might have something big in store for you. That may be the reason for you not getting selected. Who knows, One day you may make aircraft and conquer the space”. Rest is history and known to all of us. He went on to become a space scientist, missile man, scientific adviser,President of India,Bharat Ratna above all a great teacher,mentor,guide,philosopher and a role model for modern India.