TRIP TO WHITEFIELD AS A KID

 

As a kid in middle school the authorities of the school had the ingenuity to take our class for an excursion to Whitefield, which we kids were all very excited about. This must be in the sixth standard  as Mrs. Grace accompanied us.The plan was to take the morning train at 9:00AM and return by the evening train at 4:00PM.

 

We visited three places , the Alembic glass factory, the Blind school and the Joy ice-cream factory.It would be worthy to point out that Bangalore in the 1970,s were full of mini plants largely making steel and a power intensive sector where many worked in various capacities. Kamani steel, Kap steel, Andhra Steel, Shivamoni steel to name some on the K R Puram Railway station to Hope farm road. Whitefield had become a very important residential hamlet by the early 1900's with many Victorian style houses.

 

What struck me most as a kid was the Alembic Glass Factory. Kamlesh Mehtha the son of the owner was a student at our school for some time.We tiny-tots were treated with courtesy by the factory staff. Alembic glass factory existed close to the Whitefeild Railway Station. We were amused to see glass manufacturing. Alembic glass company made glass bottles for the Medical industry. Large furnaces and procedures that made glass bottles were seen.

 

In retrospect I think children could be introduced to Industrial Manufacturing so that at a very formative age they get to appreciate such things and imbibe them which will shape what they do in the future.

 

 

IIM KOZHIKODE

 

How to reach IIM Kozhikode?  

IIM KOZHIKODE is at a place called Kunnamangalam some 15 kms from Kozhikode city.Please note that Kozhikode and Calicut refer to the same place.Kunnamangalam is on the Calicut Bangalore highway which is also the Calicut Mysore highway and also the Calicut Ooty highway and also could be broadly stated as Calicut-Wayanad highway.

Where is NIT Calicut vis-a-vis  IIM Kozhikode?

NIT Calicut is at a place called Chatamangalam which is closer to the Western Ghat mountains and is EIGHT kilometers from IIM Kozhikode.While coming from Calicut turn towards the right at the junction in Kunnamangalam to reach NIT Calicut.

Who founded IIM Kozhikode?

KPP Nambiar founded this institute facing various challenges and road-blocks from various agencies.This institute exists in Calicut by and through his efforts.I used to meet him often in Bangalore.

P O SUBASH PHOTO OOTY

 

INFERNO (FIRE) IN GRAPHITE INDIA PLANT

 I was a witness to a major fire in the GRAPHITE INDIA plant in 1992.Industrial fires are of a major concern around the world as it can create huge economic losses and an extended and un-predictable down time.

Graphite India used to have a Baking unit which bakes charge coming from Extrusion department.It used to be done with furnace oil  in pits at a temperature of 800 degrees centigrade. Calcined petroleum coke and pitch are the key ingredients of making graphite which is a by-product of the Petroleum refining industry.

On that afternoon welding was happenning near by and a spark lit the oil largely that was scattered on the ground.The GM of Graphite India was A K JAIN and the Joint General Manager was Kersi KUKA.I used to have good relations with Kersi Kuka.A K Jain was out of town and Mr.Kuka was supervising things and sometimes had the temerity to go close to the fire which was ill-advised.

What ensued later was a very major fire towering above the plant and the fire engines arrived almost two hours later and doused the flames.

There was fire in BPL plant one night during over-time when some spark from some soldering machine lit cotton waste in the corner.

One of the reasons why I am putting these on record is that Indusrial engineers and managers must do everything possible to prevent fires.Sparks from the welding process have created fires at many places.The resonsibility of predicting possible fires and extinguishing them very early is a key aspect of Industrial engineering which would prevent huge losses to all stake holders and prevent organizations from going into a reverse gear.

DR. K P MOHANDAS AT REC NIT CALICUT

 Dr. K P Mohandas served REC  of our times and NIT of today for many decades with diligence and distinction.A product of  College of Engineering Trichur and later doing advanced education at IIT.He could be easily labelled as one of the few academic experts in the area of Control System Theory of which he was a specialist. I mentioned somewhere earlier that I used to get high grades at the exams in his subjects.I was planning to visit the College of Engineering Trichur but will do so some time soon.COE Trichur is one of the earlier Engineering colleges put up in Kerala.

He had a methodical approach to teaching most of the time bringing notes to the class and progressing through the session in a systematic style and also was an intellectual in his own right.My Father used to share good rapport with him.

If I were to remember some of my teachers in the list would be Mrs. Starry who used used to teach Science at Lowry Memorial School in Bangalore,Mr Chandrashekar who used to teach Sanskrit at Sri Sathya Sai Arts Science and Commerce college in Whitefield and Mr. H K Nagaraj who used to teach Trigonometry and Mr. Hegde who used to teach Physics both of the above at Whitefield.In this list would come two more people Dr. P S Srinivasan  who used to teach Induction Machines at REC NIT Calicut and Dr. K P Mohandas who used to teach Control theory at this place.

If there is one thing Professors can learn from him around the world never go into classes without some description or document which pertains to that particular session so that classes can be effective a lesson one can learn from Dr. K P Mohandas.

SHIVAGANGA HILL NEAR TUMKUR

 

 TUMKUR now called TUMAKURU is a town towards the north of the city of  Bangalore distant by some sixty kilometers and is an important transit point. Bangalore, Tumakuru and Shivamogga (Shimoga) are towns in the Deccan Plateu  and are not very far from the Western and Eastern Ghat mountain ranges.Tumkaru is a town which can be said to be equi-distant from these mountain ranges, the city of Shivamogga(Shimoga) more closer to the Western Ghat mountain ranges and the city of Bangalore more closer to the Eastern Ghats than the Western Ghat ranges.There are many independent mountains and hillocks at various points in the Deccan Plateau and these hillocks are made of solid rock formations and resemble the Eastern Ghat ranges.

 

One such hillock is the SHIVAGANGA hill on the way to Tumkur from Bangalore; I had visited this place decades ago and if my memory serves me right a turn towards the left from the highway It is an independent hillock which has many mythological tales and anecdotes associated with it.There is a SHIVA temple here within a cave.I did climb the entire hill. It is an exercise of adventure climbing the hill which is steep at many places and there are well formed stairs and railings at various points to make the ascent easier and the view from atop the hill is breath-taking.

 

Anyone living in Bangalore during his younger age must visit this place atleast once and take a climb up the hill.When you climb the hill take due care not to slip and go about the exercise with diligence and caution.

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THE AUTOMATIC JAPANESE SOLDERING MACHINES IN BPL

 From 1980 to year 2000 full twenty years BPL made Television sets now called the Dome TV. Mrs.Indira Gandhi on returning as Prime Minister sanctioned the large scale expansion of TV transmitters creating a sudden explosion of the Television Market. There were hardly any tv's in the country and only very few very privileged people had them. The sudden explosion of the TV market meant a huge demand for TV sets and there was only one channel namely the DOORDARSHAN.

Dyanora, Solidaire ,Bush were all few names during these times and into this market gate-crashed a less known electronics company called BPL which was till then known for making Medical Electronics products. With the pioneering spirit of its JMD (Joint Managing Director) K P R Nambiar BPL for several years later had dominance in various forms over the TV industry.

Initially TV was made with hands-on soldering and with time imported two automatic soldering machines from SANYO.

These machines were of a splendid nature and showed superior Japanese engineering skills of these times.Some twenty  operators would stuff the PCB( printed circuit board) in a production line and it would enter the machine  which operated with many sets of relays..the most key part being a solder bath at very high temperature arising on the operation of a relay and automatically soldering the entire PCB and another set of two TUNGSTEN CARBIDE cutters driven at high RPM cutting the leads of the electronic components after soldering. With the arrival of these machines the Production quantity at BPL quadrupled. The machine had a circular design with PCB's taking a U turn at both ends.It was a treat watching them work.

There must be such machines in vogue even today. These machines can give sudden maintenance problems of many kinds and periodic servicing of some kind and spares replacement can prevent break downs and critical maintenance issues.

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