Silvassa experiences – Part 1

I got my first job with Sterlite Industries after completing CA course. Five people were recruited by the company (all CAs) after multiple rounds of interview and I was the only tamilian in that set. Two guys from Calcutta, a girl from Maharashtra and another guy from Hyderabad. Sterlite had two factories one in Tuticorin (south of tamil nadu) and another in Silvassa (I never even heard this name during my geography classes, I hope most of you wouldn’t have heard. I located it in India map only after getting the job). They also had a corporate office in Mumbai. The CEO was clear in his mind, to keep the new recruits far off form from their residence. So, during interview itself he made it clear that I will be posted to Silavassa factory and the guys from Calcutta will be posted in Tuticorin factory. The only good thing is that we all will undergo training in both Tuticorin and Silvassa factory. The first month training was in Tuticorin factory. I really enjoyed the time, I took all my new friends to a tamil movie (I was busy translating the story). I also took them to kutralam and some other exotic locations in tamil nadu-kerala border.

As part of second month training we were asked to go to Silvassa unit. After the training I will be left alone in that place and the rest of the team will move to Mumbai and Tuticorin. I was curious to see the place, Silvassa being my posting location. Silvassa is located about 180 km from Mumbai on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route. Silvassa is the capital of Dadra & Nagar Haveli (a Union Territory (UT)). It is the only village (yes it is not qualified to be a town as per Indian Government norms) which is capital of a UT. It is the only capital which is not connected by a train service. It is so small that it does not have an assembly or MP seat for itself. There were not much politicians, I think this UT was managed by an IAS officer (Governor’s role).

We started to Silvassa by catching a train from nagarcoil. There was no direct train from Tuticorin to Mumbai. It was a long journey of 32 hours but as management trainees, we were traveling in two tier AC coach which was pretty comfortable. I have traveled in unreserved compartments for long, so it was definitely comfortable for me. For the team I acted like a coordinator, so I had the tickets, contact information at Silvassa and money for all. During the journey, I lost the tickets and realized it only when the TT (Ticket checker) in Andhra asked me to produce them. The TT in tamilnadu had already inspected the tickets once but, it is a practice in Indian trains that every TT getting into the coach will check the tickets, especially in the long distance trains where many people will get in and get out. We were not having enough cash also to buy new tickets as the tickets were very expensive (Two tier AC for long distance, Rs.1800 each). We told him to write a note for the next TT and assured him that somehow we will trace the tickets or else we will call and ask one of my friend’s relative to come and pay ticket fare in Mumbai station. He allowed us to remain in the train. Later the tickets were found in the toilet by my friend. I must have kept them on the corner slab which was normally used to keep soap and put a weight on them. I thanked my friend (her) and got her a big ice cream as a treat (infact I got ice cream for all, later claimed it with company). Later we showed the tickets to Karnataka TT. The train reached Mumbai and we spent the night in a hotel. The next day morning we took Shatabti (my first trip in Shatabti, I got to know that they even serve food in train) which runs between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. We got down in a place called Vapi, which is the closest railway station to Silvassa. We were supposed to be picked up by the company van. We got down the train and came out and couldn’t locate a single placard displaying Sterlite’s name or our name. Infact we have not even seen a single placard. We went out and enquired all the sumo/van drivers to check out whether anyone from our company. But there is no sign of anyone from our company. Since I was the only fellow who don’t even know a single word in hindi, all these time I was asked to take care of their baggages. All the other four came back to me and said we have to find our own way. I had written the address of our factory and name of the contact person in a small slip. I told them I have the phone number of the factory and gave them a number. My friend tried that number for some time (from public booth none of us had a cell phones and they were not that popular too in Jan’00) and came back and told me there was no such number. By mistake I had written the pin code number against the phone number (phone numbers were not eight digit numbers in silvassa). We called up the HR person in Tuticorin and told him the story. He asked us to wait and assured us that he will arrange vehicle in 45 minutes. We waited. Two hours after reaching vapi, we saw one fellow wearing sterlite uniform approaching us. He introduced himself as HR officer and informed us that we were waiting on the wrong side of the station. After getting down from the train we were supposed to take the railway bridge and move to the other side of the station. The side where we waited will lead to interior Gujarat and Silvassa is on the other side of the station. The vehicle driver who waited for us went back and told the HR officer that we missed the train. He suspected some mis-understanding and came to double check it. So, my first experience in Silvassa was not that enjoyable.

Finally we reached silvassa and stayed for the whole day. I bought a pack of bread and jam in Mumbai and carried them with me to silvassa. The next day, I planned to have bread and jam as my break fast. Unfortunately I didn’t carry any knife/spoon with me to spread the jam on the bread. So, I thought I can go out and get a spoon from the nearest store. I went to a nearest shop and asked him “ek spoon dedo” (Give me a spoon). He never understood what I was asking. He replied back in Gujarati/Hindi (both sounds similar to me) which I never understood. I checked with another shop but I could not convey it to him. Finally I went back to my room and told this to my room mate. He asked me to accompany him, we both went to the same shop. He asked “ek chammaj dena”. That fellow immediately gave him a spoon. We never call spoon as “karandi”. I lost my courage and started thinking of leaving the place.

Innovative re-using of pet bottles

My mom is very creative when it comes to storing things in kitchen. She is fond of finding new uses for old items. Especially she loves to reuse good looking old bottles. I use contact lenses and for maintaining them I use Renu solution. These contact lense solutions come in pretty looking bottles (blue & white) and the bottle has small mouth which enable you to control the flow of the solution. You can squeeze the bottle to increase the flow. Once I left an empty bottle in the hall. My mom picked it up and filled it with gingelly (sesame) oil. In the evening I picked up the bottle and poured solution into my lense’s case and stored the lense. Next day I took the lense and put it into my eyes (when picking itself I felt sticky in my hand but I ignored). The vision was blurred and I started feeling burning sensation in my eyes. Then I realised its something to do with the solution. Few minutes later I realized that the bottle had gingelly oil (this oil has different smell). I was furious and asked my mom why did you use my renu bottle for storing oil? She coolly replied “why did you pick the bottle up from the hall. I kept it out for your dad to have oil bath”. She added saying “don’t worry gingelly oil is good for your eyes, it will get into your body and help in keeping the body temperature (keep you cool)”.

I am not the only victim of this creative reuse. My father suffered too. Once my mom stored gemaxin powder (powder we use to prevent ant from entering food items). My mom bought it in polythene pocket and for easy usage she stored in shower to shower bottle (shower to shower is absorbent body powder which is normally used to keep your body dry, especially during summer days in chennai). Shower to shower bottle is very handy to use. Unknowingly my dad applied gemaxin powder and later forced to take bath twice and made to apply coconut oil in his body to control the itching sensation.

After these incidents we advised my mom not to indulge in such innovative reusing of old bottles. She nodded at that time. But few days back I saw new nicil powder bottle in our toilet. I went and asked my mom why you kept this our toilet. She said it contains bleaching powder.

Her creativity is unstoppable. Nowadays I am very cautious.

Bath brush

Bath brushes are not the common item you could find in south Indian’s bathroom. They are very useful to lazy people like me, who don’t like to bend too much to clean themselves. The bristles help in developing good amount of foam and also make you feel of cleanliness (more foam = more clean). I had a bath brush with nylon bristles in semispherical shape. I always try to keep it clean and neat. I hang it in my bathroom corner to dry between uses its very effective when you use it with bath gel/liquid soap.

The second day after my marriage, my newly wedded wife entered the bathroom, it was a bathroom attached with toilet. She is person who worries too much about her personal hygiene. She was not happy about the cleanliness of the toilet basin (bowl). She has never used a bath brush before. She picked up my pretty clean looking bath brush (would have wondered what kind of stupid I married, he keeps toilet basin dirty despite having good toilet brush) and cleansed the toilet bowl. Incidentally I never kept a toilet brush in my bathroom always I used to borrow from my parents bathroom. In the evening when I entered my bathroom I was surprised to see a clean bowl. I told her you did a very good job. She complained saying that the brush bristles are too soft to clean stains in toilets and advised me to buy a new brush with hard bristles. Then only I realized what happened. Fortunately I got to know of this before taking a bath. Now I stopped using bath brushes and started with loofah.

Fish cannot feel pain

Sometime back I read an interesting article in Hindu. Its about study into piscine neurology. After years of research scientists found out fish cannot feel pain. An academic study comparing the nervous systems and responses of fish and mammals has found that their brains are not sufficiently developed to allow them to sense pain or fear. The study is the work of James D Rose, a professor of zoology and physiology, who has been working on questions of neurology for 30 years. Awareness of pain depnds on functions of specific regions of the cerebral cortex which fish do not posses. What fish probably feel is “nociception” and not pain. Similar to a person who is anaesthetized in an operating theatre will still respond to an external stimulus but he or she will not feel pain.

If you are non-vegetarian now you don’t need to feel bad about killing a fish, after all it won’t feel the pain. (similar to deaths during surgical procedure).

INVISIBLE MAN IS BLIND

At the stage of introduction of DD2, it has telecasted a wonderful serial named “The Invisible Man”. I keenly followed that serial. I even wanted to become an invisible man like the hero of the serial, despite the tragic end. It was based on H.G.Wells’s novel “Invisible Man”. His novel named “The Time Machine” was much popular than this. Later during my college days I read a Russian book on some scientific truths .I don’t know what happened Mir Publishing company now, I don’t see any of their books. I was shocked when I came to know the fact that an invisible man cannot see. The author has ignored a basic scientific fact for the sake of making the novel interesting. The fact is invisible man cannot see.

Now, get into small basics, our eye has a crystal lens and other parts, which refracts light so as to produce a retinal image of surrounding objects. All of us read in school, any item in the world reflects or refracts or does both, which enable us to see the objects. Anything, which is transparent, i.e neither reflect nor refract or having refractory index equal to that of air, cannot be seen. An invisible man’s being transparent, has a refractory index is equal to that of air and light rays passes through him. That’s why he is invisible; in that case, even his eyes should also be transparent. So, the light rays will pass through his eyes and neither get reflected nor get refracted so, he can never be able to see. Despite all the advantages he could never derive any benefit being blind.

My First Interview Experience

Due to popular demand and sarcastic criticisms made by my friends, I’m planning to write in my blog. To begin with I’m going to narrate to you an interesting interview experience which had soon after passing out CA.

Before the start of campus interview process few companies tried to recruit fresh CAs. Its easy to get talented guys before others compete. One such company was Madras cements, it was looking for fresh CAs for their Internal Audit department. I have applied for it and the screening process started with an aptitude test and GD. Then selected candidates are called in for the interview with the GM (Audit) and finally with VP Finance. The GM (Audit) was an old man and all his questions were on academic issues. Being a fresher I could answer all his questions to his satisfaction. Then we (myself and four others) were asked to meet the VP (Finance) for the final interview. To our bad luck, he was called by the MD for an urgent meeting and he handed over the interview task to VP (marketing). (It’s really tough to be a sub-ordinate to Marketing in-charge which I learnt during later part of my career). I was sitting second in the order and the VP’s secretary asked the first one to get into VP’s room. After 15 minutes he came out and his face drooping to his shoulders. I suspected something but never had enough time to ask him. Then I entered the war front and sat before him. (He was looking like a tough nut to crack)

VP : So, you are a CA
Me : Yes sir recently passed out
VP : Good. Do you know what is the salary we offer to fresh CAs (during training period)
Me : Yes sir. Its Rs.8,000 p.m with accommodation in case of outside Chennai posting.
VP : That’s right. Don’t you think, the salary we offer is just Peanuts for CAs.
Me : (without knowing the trap) Yeah.
VP : So, if we throw peanuts we will get only monkeys right. Are you a monkey?
Me : # ***@. I don’t know what to say.
He repeated the question. Then slowly I given some filthy answers like, for any fresher it’s the priority is to learn the process and not to earn. Dhanya lakshmi will follow saraswathi, etc. Then he don’t want to leave me (it was like Goundamani kicking senthil he continued his rampage)
VP : Okay. So, when you are going to get married?
Me : # ***@. (Is it relevant for this job) May be after 2 or 3 years later sir.
VP : Why not now?
Me : I’m yet to get settled in my life. I need a job first.
VP : So, now if you get this one, will you get married immediately.
Me : No. I have to find a girl. Get settled in my work with atleast with one promotion to the next level.
VP : So, your marriage is dependant on your promotion. Say if we don’t promote me for
another 4 years, then what will happen to your plan of getting married in 3 years
time.
Me : May be get postponed for another year.
VP : Thanks. Do you have any questions??
Me : (After all this stupid interview) No sir.
VP : You may go now.
Then I came out with the same expression as that of my predecessor. Other three guys who were waiting for their turn were very enthusiastic with bright faces. One of them asked me what he had asked, I told him to go and experience himself.