Life in Ghaziabad
In Ghaziabad, I lived with my youngest maternal uncle Mr.K.K.Subramanian. My uncle was Production Manager for M/s. Unichem Labs – a pharmaceutical company situated at Mohan Nagar. Later this factory was shifted to Industrail Area on the Meerut Road.
After my uncle got married in 1970,(24th of August, to be precise) I shifted to Old Raj Nager – close to my factory, and lived with 5 other fellow staff in a rented flat.
The rent was only Rs.140.00 per month, and had two rooms besides a bathroom and open terrace above the roof. The flat was very spacious and we had no trouble in living there. In reality, we never met together due to our working hours. We prepared food at night on rotation basis and ate at our convenience- as each one was on his own schedule.
Our highest grocery bill was Rs.600.00 per month. Vegetable cost was very marginal – as we procured seasonal vegetables only- just to site an example, green peas was procured at 00.15 paisa per kilo, Potao was delivered at door step in a measure called DHADI, for Rs.10.00 per sack.
The cost of other vegetables was also in this range and so was the pricing of fruits. Raw wheat was sold at 15 paisa per kilo- imported from USA under PL480 scheme. We procured 10 kg at a time, washed and dried it and made flour at 10 paisa for grinding 10 Kg wheat. The only trouble was removing the chaff from the flour, and this was done on rotation again.
Before started living in Raj Nagar, I was living with my uncle in Gandhi Nagar. On days, when my uncle was staying back at Delhi on week ends; I invited friends – 2 max.-for snack or tea. On one occasion, I was asked to make some Urad dal Vada.
In good faith, I made urad dal paste and added some pepper seeds for taste.My friends came as scheduled. I boiled oil and started making a round sized urad dal paste, to be dipped into the oil. But, the circular paste did not hold, and slipped into the oil bath.
I managed to push in 4 or 5 vadas. But not one was round, and each one was of different in shape and size. I realized the defect – too much water in the paste. Though this product was delicious, the oil was gone in no time. We squeezed oil out of the odd shaped vada’s and only ate the cooked vada paste.
In the subsequent years, I perfected the art of making vada and made a lot, while living in Old Rajnagar.
During this period, my friends were staying in the village named Sehani. I made visits to see the life of my friends in this U.P village.
One fine morning, I went there by cycle. It was hot summer day though dry. I saw my friend washing his terline pants with VIM powder. I was shocked, that he was using VIM powder instead of a suitable detergent.
When I clarified, he told me his friends in the village had told him to do so, as VIM cleans everything. He could not do anything more except soak it in clean water and dry it.
After an hour or so, we saw this piece of clothe has become a rag without any shine at all. He nearly cried as the most expensive pants were no more.
I explained to him that, VIM is suitable for cleaning vessels / utensils which are used in cooking food. The tragedy was the person who told him to use it for washing the linen was also ignorant in this matter.
My uncle took me to the weekly market once in a while. He taught me how to count money in Hindi to deal with the vendors. The literature Hindi as it is, could not help me in the streets. He purchased a brand new Hercules Cycle for my regular movements within the city besides attending to work. The cost of this cycle at that time (1970) was Rs.260.00 only.
I used this cycle – I called it my TWO WHEELER – to the maximum advantage to me. This cycle, carried my wife, and daughter on its back and front respectively to hospitals and to neighbors places. It was stolen by my neighbor when living in Old Raj nagar. I knew the culprit but did not want to create hell for him. This fellow was also making illicit liquor and was caught red handed and was thrashed and sent to jail. I thought that he got what he deserved.
I purchased another cycle, but it never replaced my first one.
In Gandhi Nagar, the land lord retained all the news paper paid by my uncle. I started taking over from the time I started living there. Shamelessly, he asked me to leave it with him and take it after he finished reading it. But, I refused and took the paper directly from the vendor in the early hours of the day- everyday. I also fetched milk, from the neighborhood vendor who brought his buffalos twice a day.
While staying in Gandhi Nagar, I familiarized with most South Indian friends who were all some sort of Executives working for companies like Tata Oil Co, Hindustan lever, and some banks.
One day, I met one grocery shop keeper – Mr.Banarsi Lal Gupta- , who had just opened a small shop. He offered, South Indian items – like chips, pickles, coffee powder, etc; for which one has to go to Delhi in those days. He requested me to take him to all the south Indian families living there, for him to make a request to buy grocery from his shop.
I took him to all these people. They were very happy to avail his service as it saved them a trip to Delhi and the time involved. Gupta, became a house hold name and became a very well known vndor in Gandhi Nagar.
He always helped all of us in getting the scarcest item on any day. For example, he got us Kerosene during the war times around 70-72. Now his shop is the biggest one, in that area, and besides he had developed many more. Mr.Gupta is not around any more. His son Pappu is looking after the business – as I learned recently, from other friends living there.
Showing posts with label Working Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Working Life. Show all posts
Monday, October 26, 2009
Full time Employment-II
Fulltime Employment- Part-2
I was among the new staff, joined in the first quarter of 1970.The others were:
K.R.Kutty General Stores
Madavan Nayak Tin sheet stores
Parthasarathy Administration
I was staying at Gandhi Nagar in 1970. This colony was 4 KM from the factory. I was not entitled for transport facility. So I was walking to factory or taking a cycle rickshaw to reach my place of work well before 9AM.
K.R.kutty and Madavan Nayak were staying in a village – Sihani by name- 2 KM from the factory. They also came to work the same was as I did. Their lad lord was one Mr.Thyagi (surname). He was an agriculturist and also maintained scores of buffalos for milk.
Thyagi, always milked the buffalos by 5AM in the morning. He made it a point to spare half a liter of milk for the use by my friends Kutty and Nayak.
On Sundays, I visited them and we spend the day cooking, eating and passing time by discussing familiar matters of the week. We never discussed politics or anything about individuals in the factory. Most of the time, we were wondering about our future in Ghaziabad as the conditions were not very bright. The only positive aspect of our employment was – we worked for a reputed company who paid wages at par with Tatas and Birlas then.
After few months at work, I was entrusted with weekly Maintenance jobs- to done on Sundays when the factory was closed for production.
Those who attended work were entitled for half days salary and a fully paid compensatory day off within that week. Maintenance and stores staff attended work on Sundays. So, we three (Kutty,Nayak and self) were always in the factory
Seeing my plight for attending to work, a fellow staff Mr.Anil spared his bi-cycle (He was entitled for factory transport) for me to use till I became eligible for transport.
My day off was always on a working day for others. It helped me in doing my jobs like going to Bank, Post office etc; I also visited Delhi on working days at times, though I could meet people only in their offices and not in their homes.
In my anxiety to learn everything, about Delhi, I made frequent visits covering many places and houses of relatives. I made myself familiar with the geographical conditions and bus routes (Delhi Transport Corporation) On public holidays, I could avail a concession bus ticket for Re.1 for traveling in all routes as many times as possible on that day. This encouraged me to discover many routes from Palam Airport to Shadhra.
On most Sundays, my uncle went to Delhi to meet his friends living in many parts of the city. He visited them on rotation, as it was very difficult to cover all places within the day.
On one Sunday, I went out to buy some vegetables from the nearby vendor. I went to the shop accompanied by another friend, who came for lunch on that day. On that particular day, my regular vendor’s shop was found closed. So, to find if any other shop was open in the neighborhood, I started enquiring with people having other shops in the same lane.
While walking, I accidentally touched a set up displayed along the street. This apparently, belonged to a sweet shop whose owner, also sold poori-baji regularly. Being a U.P Brahmin, he performed rituals before opening the shop or set his oven on fire.
The item I was holding was the brim of his large copper pot with about 50 liters of water. Seeing me holding that, he yelled at the top of his voice, abusing me and accusing me in local dialects of Hindi language. I did not understand a word, but realized something was wrong. Then my friend stepped in and clarified what was his problem with me. The owner yelled, and said that I have polluted his holy water, kept for pooja. He had already purified, and offered that water and was about to start the final ritual. My friend explained to him that I was new to the area and just came from madras and added that I too was Brahmin. On hearing this, the old man said that all madrasis are CHAMARS – meaning all persons from madras are the most backward people. After that he retired to his shop for replacing everything.
The greatest end result was that I became his regular customer in the following months, and at one point I clarified if any one had upset him some time ago, and narrated the incident. Believe me he could not recollect the incident, and could not recognize me either. He regretted that he spoke in haste which he should have avoided in the first place.
I often made it a point to say halo to him whenever I passed by his shop. Our friendship was a very good one. I shifted to (Raj Nagar) a far of colony close to my place of work, in the subsequent years and could not visit him as before. Many years later, I learned that he passed away.
To be continued ----------
Sivasubramaniam
09-09-09
I was among the new staff, joined in the first quarter of 1970.The others were:
K.R.Kutty General Stores
Madavan Nayak Tin sheet stores
Parthasarathy Administration
I was staying at Gandhi Nagar in 1970. This colony was 4 KM from the factory. I was not entitled for transport facility. So I was walking to factory or taking a cycle rickshaw to reach my place of work well before 9AM.
K.R.kutty and Madavan Nayak were staying in a village – Sihani by name- 2 KM from the factory. They also came to work the same was as I did. Their lad lord was one Mr.Thyagi (surname). He was an agriculturist and also maintained scores of buffalos for milk.
Thyagi, always milked the buffalos by 5AM in the morning. He made it a point to spare half a liter of milk for the use by my friends Kutty and Nayak.
On Sundays, I visited them and we spend the day cooking, eating and passing time by discussing familiar matters of the week. We never discussed politics or anything about individuals in the factory. Most of the time, we were wondering about our future in Ghaziabad as the conditions were not very bright. The only positive aspect of our employment was – we worked for a reputed company who paid wages at par with Tatas and Birlas then.
After few months at work, I was entrusted with weekly Maintenance jobs- to done on Sundays when the factory was closed for production.
Those who attended work were entitled for half days salary and a fully paid compensatory day off within that week. Maintenance and stores staff attended work on Sundays. So, we three (Kutty,Nayak and self) were always in the factory
Seeing my plight for attending to work, a fellow staff Mr.Anil spared his bi-cycle (He was entitled for factory transport) for me to use till I became eligible for transport.
My day off was always on a working day for others. It helped me in doing my jobs like going to Bank, Post office etc; I also visited Delhi on working days at times, though I could meet people only in their offices and not in their homes.
In my anxiety to learn everything, about Delhi, I made frequent visits covering many places and houses of relatives. I made myself familiar with the geographical conditions and bus routes (Delhi Transport Corporation) On public holidays, I could avail a concession bus ticket for Re.1 for traveling in all routes as many times as possible on that day. This encouraged me to discover many routes from Palam Airport to Shadhra.
On most Sundays, my uncle went to Delhi to meet his friends living in many parts of the city. He visited them on rotation, as it was very difficult to cover all places within the day.
On one Sunday, I went out to buy some vegetables from the nearby vendor. I went to the shop accompanied by another friend, who came for lunch on that day. On that particular day, my regular vendor’s shop was found closed. So, to find if any other shop was open in the neighborhood, I started enquiring with people having other shops in the same lane.
While walking, I accidentally touched a set up displayed along the street. This apparently, belonged to a sweet shop whose owner, also sold poori-baji regularly. Being a U.P Brahmin, he performed rituals before opening the shop or set his oven on fire.
The item I was holding was the brim of his large copper pot with about 50 liters of water. Seeing me holding that, he yelled at the top of his voice, abusing me and accusing me in local dialects of Hindi language. I did not understand a word, but realized something was wrong. Then my friend stepped in and clarified what was his problem with me. The owner yelled, and said that I have polluted his holy water, kept for pooja. He had already purified, and offered that water and was about to start the final ritual. My friend explained to him that I was new to the area and just came from madras and added that I too was Brahmin. On hearing this, the old man said that all madrasis are CHAMARS – meaning all persons from madras are the most backward people. After that he retired to his shop for replacing everything.
The greatest end result was that I became his regular customer in the following months, and at one point I clarified if any one had upset him some time ago, and narrated the incident. Believe me he could not recollect the incident, and could not recognize me either. He regretted that he spoke in haste which he should have avoided in the first place.
I often made it a point to say halo to him whenever I passed by his shop. Our friendship was a very good one. I shifted to (Raj Nagar) a far of colony close to my place of work, in the subsequent years and could not visit him as before. Many years later, I learned that he passed away.
To be continued ----------
Sivasubramaniam
09-09-09
Full time employment-Part I
Fulltime Employment – First One
Part-1
After attending my full time interview at M/s.Poysha Industrial Company, I went back to my house in Gandhi Nagar. I informed my uncle later in the day that I was selected and advised to join work as of 16-3-1970.
It was Monday, first day of the week, and 15 days to complete the financial year. (Financial Year in India is from FIRST of APRIL to 31st of the next year.
On the first day, I completed formalities related to my job and signed few documents after confirming all the previous submissions. The only document due then was my original appointment letter, which had gone for clearance from Regional General Manager located in New Delhi. This office was in the Nehru House close to Times of India Office and IBM HO.
I was taken thru’ various departments by my boss- Mr.R.C Shah- in-charge-Electrical Maintenance and production of two departments. His full name is ROHIT CHANDULAL SHAH.
My HINDI language proficiency was very poor as I was only familiar with TEXT BOOK HINDI, from exposure in school days. So, I interacted with everyone in English only, with a determination to learn the language to STREET level perfection.
To brief you of the factory set up, it was established in 1967 and was due for expansion. The business was MAKING METAL CANS AND CONTAINERS and the company was stiff competitor to Metal Box – an English company having a factory in Faridabad.
So, I was involved in the maintenance of related machinery / equipments such as – Metal Printing press, Slitters, Body makers, Eccentric presses, Seaming machines, full fledged Tool room and workshops. The expansion related electrical work was entrusted to me by the Management and there was a very good team of electricians employed for the same.
There was a general store, a fully stocked Printing Ink stores, and component stores besides a very large raw material (Tin coated metal sheets) stores.
Everything was set to operate under stringent legal conditions, and confined to strict local regulations, as well. This industry was under PRIORITY status as per the Rules of Central Government. Every document was stamped in RED on the envelope PRIORITY INDUSTRY by the Management.
I understood that this was necessary for easy clearance without abnormal delay by the local authorities concerned.
The team of electricians in the department was just enough to carry out all related jobs in the trade including electrical winding of motors. The Tool room catered for making DIES which was a very sensitive job with precision quality. The production departments needed very much the co-operation and skills contained in the Tool Room engineers and fitters.
There was a full fledged team of MECHANICAL maintenance engineers who were basically for looking after the Metal Printing machines and the industrial ovens under one HOD, while other mechanical maintenance jobs were carried out under my boss. There were other mechanics and fitters for taking care of jobs related to Eccentric Presses, Seamers, and locking machines.
There was another production line involving a long single machine, about 20 meters long – named LX-2 / LX-4 – as identified by the makers of these machines indicating the specification and size.
There was another machine where special cement was used to seal the joints. This was about 10 meters in length. Its name was RFBM – meaning Roll Form Body Maker.
I will explain the process which otherwise will make no sense of the foregoing narrations to strangers who have no exposure to CAN MAKING PROCESS.
Tin coated metal sheets were printed with the logo and descriptions of the item (that will be packed in them by their manufacturers), on outer side and lacquer on the inner side. The lacquer is a protective layer of preservative suitable for the content that will be packed in the container made by the sheet. The temperature for drying the lacquer was much higher and so this coating was given first and then the lithographic printing which required relatively low temperature for drying.
A special metal printing machine was used for lithographic work and a separate coating machine was used for lacquering. Both were in the same lines as the oven is common for drying the sheets with provision for temperature settings accordingly.
In another area, metal sheets were slit as per the size of the container to be made, without upsetting the printed information. Similarly, lids were punched out of metal strips. (Slit by special machines called slitters) Simultaneously; rings were made to suit the lids, and dried with sealants using separate ovens.
The seam machines were used in placing and seaming the ring with the lid. Here you should realize, that the container is already sealed on its top by the can manufacturer, while the user will fill the content from the actual bottom of the container and seal with a plain lid without ring.
The containers were also made of plain sheets with only food lacquer for packing juice by its producers. The sizes were set as per the volume of these containers. Apart from round cans, rectangular containers (1 liter and 5 liters) were also made for packing petroleum products.
The LX-2 and LX-4 machines are fully automated production lines where strips of printed sheets are fed which come out as finished containers at the end line. These machines have stages named; flexing, bending, edging, soldering, seaming and conveyers (on overhead and floor) which rolled them out.
The factory divisions were named by their activity / machinery involved. They were:
Automatic, Semi-automatic, Press, and Printing. Others were Tool room, dispatch and Production Planning Control departments. Purchase department was separate along with stores and accounts. The maintenance departments operated under separate HODs.
All these were under direct control of Works Manager who was stationed within the factory, while the Branch Manager, Controlled everything from New Delhi office. The Delhi office consisted of a fully fledged sales and marketing division and accounts department.
The climate was into summer or receding winter (I joined in March) and I learned the practical side of my engineering qualification.
Within few days, it was Holi – festival of colors. Fortunately, I was not tortured with colors. Over the next years, I noticed that not a single Holi festival ends in peace as there were disputes due to sprinkling of items other than safe color powder which were hard to be removed from the face and body.
The climate played a very important role on performance of equipment. Winter season was free of major breakdowns while
Summer made every one to sweat in maintaining the frequently failing machinery. I opted to work for any number of hours as I have to learn a lot about maintaining the electrical side of all those sophisticated machines. About 80% of the equipment was imported – from USA and Europe. The collaboration was with American Can Company.
There were three Forklifts – one number 2 Ton, operated with diesel while the other two were 1 Ton each operated by traction batteries.
In many areas of work, I was given training in the area of their maintenance which included these Electric fork lifts as well.
My boss – Mr. Shah gave me full freedom in learning and executing my work without any hindrance. Like every new employee I too was exposed to workplace politics at the hands of rank and file staff and at times of HODs.
But, the whole scene changed as I learned more and more of my work and I was everywhere in my job. The biggest privilege was accessing the office of Managers (I mean the Works Manager and Branch Manager) without even knocking the door.
Of few incidents, I have to mention some here, for the sake of its fun and importance. Within few days of joining I was handling all the department activities over seen by Mr.Shah.
I had an electrician by name Singh. (I’m not mentioning his full name for the sake of protection) He was a regular late comer to work. I warned him twice. Every action I represented was promptly conveyed to both my HOD and Administrative Manager, for their information.
Again he came late by a longer delay. I did not allow him to attend work and directed him to personnel department. Simultaneously, I informed by boss as well. My boss came to the department and asked Mr.Singh to leave immediately
You know what happened, he removed all his dress and stood naked for a while, shouting at us in Hindi. The security officer also came running to apprehend Singh, but quickly Singh picked up his boiler suit and ran away jumping through the window there. I never saw until after six months when he came apologizing for all his unholy acts and begged us to reinstate him at work. He was politely shown the Exit. The exit of Singh, created a vacancy for a trainee technician.
Once again, it was me again, to recruit a suitable replacement, so that work does not suffer. By this time, my Hindi language proficiency was improved to more than the street level and I was fully prepared to find a suitable person.
As I mentioned, my electrical technicians were of the best in the trade and very reliable in their jobs. One of them – G.D.Sharma recommended a person by name Rajender Diwakar for the position of Trainee Technician.
I made myself clear to all that indiscipline and incompetence will not be tolerated under any circumstances. I reiterated that assistance and support in doing all jobs will be provided more than necessary but one has to learn with maximum effort.
So, after a long chat and tour of the factory, I decided to recruit this young man – RAJENDER DIWAKAR to fill the position of Trainee technician. R.D is son of a tube well operator in Ghaziabad. He learned the tricks of the trade from his father and neighborhood wiremen. G.D.Sharma’s father was also a line man and a friend of R.D’s father.
I had resistance from the union leader( named NCP) who objected to the recruitment of R.D, and wanted me to take some one recommended by him (the union leader) I flatly refused and told him that I’m responsible for the work done in my department and hence will choose accordingly. Finally, the union leader departed with a smile and became very friendly in the later years (till he was shot dead on 4-1-1981 by some unidentified person)
I loved my job, and stayed at work place for prolonged hours and everyone knew of my nature and working knowledge. There was no one till the last of work who complained of me to any one. I learned a lot in my work place by indulging in all maintenance jobs – irrespective of its nature- electrical, mechanical or both. I worked with technicians to learn my new jobs and they liked my participation. I was always the first one to arrive in my place of work and last one to leave. The head watchman at times asked me if I was staying in the factory guest house as he was seeing me almost at all times. In fact I stayed in the guest house on one occasion.
When I joined Poysha Industrial Company, there were only one each of metal printing press and LX-4.
A second machine – LX-4 was on order to arrive in summer of 1970, from West Germany. The machine arrived but its control panel was soaked in sea water and was beyond any use. The supplier M/s.Krupp Industries West Germany- agreed to air-lift a brand new panel immediately, as the damage was covered under insurance.
By the time the panel arrived, my boss went on his annual leave. The Works Manager- Mr.P.V.Shah- called me for a meeting along with the production Manager. It was decided to go ahead with the installation and commissioning of this new LX-4 machine immediately. I felt very happy as I had the experience of installing transformers and other machines in the previous year though for a short duration.
Please note that Mr.P.V.Shah is a man of extraordinary exposure to CAN INDUSTRY and was a very decent and approachable person for all. He always came to work – 7A.M, from Defence colony in Delhi to factory in Ghaziabad. He assured me and my team of every support in carrying out our job being done for the first time.
I was entrusted with calculation for cables – size and quantity- needed for installing this machine without any difficulty. The purchase Manager- Mr.Madan Lal was very helpful in getting all necessary material for this tough job without delay. For example, it was difficult to get some cable glands initially. Cable was from Siemens. We all worked day in and day out.
The machine was commissioned, just on the day my boss resumed duty after vacation and, he was very pleased of my performance. He said, he was worried if everything will be done properly as we (me and my team) never installed a machine like this. As practiced, the machine was inaugurated / commissioned by one Pooran Singh – token no.1- (meaning the first employee who joined the factory in 1967). Small pooja with breaking of coconuts was performed and we celebrated the occasion. Sweet – in the form of laddu was shared by all.
The following staff was working in the company at the time of my joining duty.
M/s.
T.S.Bhat Branch Manager – worked from NewDelhi
P.V.Shah Works Manager
U.P Nayak HOD – Automatic- Body Makers
Govindan HOD- Semi-Automatic
B.C.Das HOD - PPC
K.M.Das HOD- Admin and Personnel
Lasrado HOD -Tool Room and Press
A.K.Sood HOD - Printing
R.C.Shah HOD - Electrical Maintenance / Production
K.C.Mandal HOD - Printing Maintenance
Mannan HOD – All Stores
Madan Lal HOD - Purchase
Capt.B.Das Chief of Security
I will write more about my employment, with M/s.Poysha Industrial Company in Ghaziabad, in the next part.
V.Sivasubramaniam
09-09-09
Part-1
After attending my full time interview at M/s.Poysha Industrial Company, I went back to my house in Gandhi Nagar. I informed my uncle later in the day that I was selected and advised to join work as of 16-3-1970.
It was Monday, first day of the week, and 15 days to complete the financial year. (Financial Year in India is from FIRST of APRIL to 31st of the next year.
On the first day, I completed formalities related to my job and signed few documents after confirming all the previous submissions. The only document due then was my original appointment letter, which had gone for clearance from Regional General Manager located in New Delhi. This office was in the Nehru House close to Times of India Office and IBM HO.
I was taken thru’ various departments by my boss- Mr.R.C Shah- in-charge-Electrical Maintenance and production of two departments. His full name is ROHIT CHANDULAL SHAH.
My HINDI language proficiency was very poor as I was only familiar with TEXT BOOK HINDI, from exposure in school days. So, I interacted with everyone in English only, with a determination to learn the language to STREET level perfection.
To brief you of the factory set up, it was established in 1967 and was due for expansion. The business was MAKING METAL CANS AND CONTAINERS and the company was stiff competitor to Metal Box – an English company having a factory in Faridabad.
So, I was involved in the maintenance of related machinery / equipments such as – Metal Printing press, Slitters, Body makers, Eccentric presses, Seaming machines, full fledged Tool room and workshops. The expansion related electrical work was entrusted to me by the Management and there was a very good team of electricians employed for the same.
There was a general store, a fully stocked Printing Ink stores, and component stores besides a very large raw material (Tin coated metal sheets) stores.
Everything was set to operate under stringent legal conditions, and confined to strict local regulations, as well. This industry was under PRIORITY status as per the Rules of Central Government. Every document was stamped in RED on the envelope PRIORITY INDUSTRY by the Management.
I understood that this was necessary for easy clearance without abnormal delay by the local authorities concerned.
The team of electricians in the department was just enough to carry out all related jobs in the trade including electrical winding of motors. The Tool room catered for making DIES which was a very sensitive job with precision quality. The production departments needed very much the co-operation and skills contained in the Tool Room engineers and fitters.
There was a full fledged team of MECHANICAL maintenance engineers who were basically for looking after the Metal Printing machines and the industrial ovens under one HOD, while other mechanical maintenance jobs were carried out under my boss. There were other mechanics and fitters for taking care of jobs related to Eccentric Presses, Seamers, and locking machines.
There was another production line involving a long single machine, about 20 meters long – named LX-2 / LX-4 – as identified by the makers of these machines indicating the specification and size.
There was another machine where special cement was used to seal the joints. This was about 10 meters in length. Its name was RFBM – meaning Roll Form Body Maker.
I will explain the process which otherwise will make no sense of the foregoing narrations to strangers who have no exposure to CAN MAKING PROCESS.
Tin coated metal sheets were printed with the logo and descriptions of the item (that will be packed in them by their manufacturers), on outer side and lacquer on the inner side. The lacquer is a protective layer of preservative suitable for the content that will be packed in the container made by the sheet. The temperature for drying the lacquer was much higher and so this coating was given first and then the lithographic printing which required relatively low temperature for drying.
A special metal printing machine was used for lithographic work and a separate coating machine was used for lacquering. Both were in the same lines as the oven is common for drying the sheets with provision for temperature settings accordingly.
In another area, metal sheets were slit as per the size of the container to be made, without upsetting the printed information. Similarly, lids were punched out of metal strips. (Slit by special machines called slitters) Simultaneously; rings were made to suit the lids, and dried with sealants using separate ovens.
The seam machines were used in placing and seaming the ring with the lid. Here you should realize, that the container is already sealed on its top by the can manufacturer, while the user will fill the content from the actual bottom of the container and seal with a plain lid without ring.
The containers were also made of plain sheets with only food lacquer for packing juice by its producers. The sizes were set as per the volume of these containers. Apart from round cans, rectangular containers (1 liter and 5 liters) were also made for packing petroleum products.
The LX-2 and LX-4 machines are fully automated production lines where strips of printed sheets are fed which come out as finished containers at the end line. These machines have stages named; flexing, bending, edging, soldering, seaming and conveyers (on overhead and floor) which rolled them out.
The factory divisions were named by their activity / machinery involved. They were:
Automatic, Semi-automatic, Press, and Printing. Others were Tool room, dispatch and Production Planning Control departments. Purchase department was separate along with stores and accounts. The maintenance departments operated under separate HODs.
All these were under direct control of Works Manager who was stationed within the factory, while the Branch Manager, Controlled everything from New Delhi office. The Delhi office consisted of a fully fledged sales and marketing division and accounts department.
The climate was into summer or receding winter (I joined in March) and I learned the practical side of my engineering qualification.
Within few days, it was Holi – festival of colors. Fortunately, I was not tortured with colors. Over the next years, I noticed that not a single Holi festival ends in peace as there were disputes due to sprinkling of items other than safe color powder which were hard to be removed from the face and body.
The climate played a very important role on performance of equipment. Winter season was free of major breakdowns while
Summer made every one to sweat in maintaining the frequently failing machinery. I opted to work for any number of hours as I have to learn a lot about maintaining the electrical side of all those sophisticated machines. About 80% of the equipment was imported – from USA and Europe. The collaboration was with American Can Company.
There were three Forklifts – one number 2 Ton, operated with diesel while the other two were 1 Ton each operated by traction batteries.
In many areas of work, I was given training in the area of their maintenance which included these Electric fork lifts as well.
My boss – Mr. Shah gave me full freedom in learning and executing my work without any hindrance. Like every new employee I too was exposed to workplace politics at the hands of rank and file staff and at times of HODs.
But, the whole scene changed as I learned more and more of my work and I was everywhere in my job. The biggest privilege was accessing the office of Managers (I mean the Works Manager and Branch Manager) without even knocking the door.
Of few incidents, I have to mention some here, for the sake of its fun and importance. Within few days of joining I was handling all the department activities over seen by Mr.Shah.
I had an electrician by name Singh. (I’m not mentioning his full name for the sake of protection) He was a regular late comer to work. I warned him twice. Every action I represented was promptly conveyed to both my HOD and Administrative Manager, for their information.
Again he came late by a longer delay. I did not allow him to attend work and directed him to personnel department. Simultaneously, I informed by boss as well. My boss came to the department and asked Mr.Singh to leave immediately
You know what happened, he removed all his dress and stood naked for a while, shouting at us in Hindi. The security officer also came running to apprehend Singh, but quickly Singh picked up his boiler suit and ran away jumping through the window there. I never saw until after six months when he came apologizing for all his unholy acts and begged us to reinstate him at work. He was politely shown the Exit. The exit of Singh, created a vacancy for a trainee technician.
Once again, it was me again, to recruit a suitable replacement, so that work does not suffer. By this time, my Hindi language proficiency was improved to more than the street level and I was fully prepared to find a suitable person.
As I mentioned, my electrical technicians were of the best in the trade and very reliable in their jobs. One of them – G.D.Sharma recommended a person by name Rajender Diwakar for the position of Trainee Technician.
I made myself clear to all that indiscipline and incompetence will not be tolerated under any circumstances. I reiterated that assistance and support in doing all jobs will be provided more than necessary but one has to learn with maximum effort.
So, after a long chat and tour of the factory, I decided to recruit this young man – RAJENDER DIWAKAR to fill the position of Trainee technician. R.D is son of a tube well operator in Ghaziabad. He learned the tricks of the trade from his father and neighborhood wiremen. G.D.Sharma’s father was also a line man and a friend of R.D’s father.
I had resistance from the union leader( named NCP) who objected to the recruitment of R.D, and wanted me to take some one recommended by him (the union leader) I flatly refused and told him that I’m responsible for the work done in my department and hence will choose accordingly. Finally, the union leader departed with a smile and became very friendly in the later years (till he was shot dead on 4-1-1981 by some unidentified person)
I loved my job, and stayed at work place for prolonged hours and everyone knew of my nature and working knowledge. There was no one till the last of work who complained of me to any one. I learned a lot in my work place by indulging in all maintenance jobs – irrespective of its nature- electrical, mechanical or both. I worked with technicians to learn my new jobs and they liked my participation. I was always the first one to arrive in my place of work and last one to leave. The head watchman at times asked me if I was staying in the factory guest house as he was seeing me almost at all times. In fact I stayed in the guest house on one occasion.
When I joined Poysha Industrial Company, there were only one each of metal printing press and LX-4.
A second machine – LX-4 was on order to arrive in summer of 1970, from West Germany. The machine arrived but its control panel was soaked in sea water and was beyond any use. The supplier M/s.Krupp Industries West Germany- agreed to air-lift a brand new panel immediately, as the damage was covered under insurance.
By the time the panel arrived, my boss went on his annual leave. The Works Manager- Mr.P.V.Shah- called me for a meeting along with the production Manager. It was decided to go ahead with the installation and commissioning of this new LX-4 machine immediately. I felt very happy as I had the experience of installing transformers and other machines in the previous year though for a short duration.
Please note that Mr.P.V.Shah is a man of extraordinary exposure to CAN INDUSTRY and was a very decent and approachable person for all. He always came to work – 7A.M, from Defence colony in Delhi to factory in Ghaziabad. He assured me and my team of every support in carrying out our job being done for the first time.
I was entrusted with calculation for cables – size and quantity- needed for installing this machine without any difficulty. The purchase Manager- Mr.Madan Lal was very helpful in getting all necessary material for this tough job without delay. For example, it was difficult to get some cable glands initially. Cable was from Siemens. We all worked day in and day out.
The machine was commissioned, just on the day my boss resumed duty after vacation and, he was very pleased of my performance. He said, he was worried if everything will be done properly as we (me and my team) never installed a machine like this. As practiced, the machine was inaugurated / commissioned by one Pooran Singh – token no.1- (meaning the first employee who joined the factory in 1967). Small pooja with breaking of coconuts was performed and we celebrated the occasion. Sweet – in the form of laddu was shared by all.
The following staff was working in the company at the time of my joining duty.
M/s.
T.S.Bhat Branch Manager – worked from NewDelhi
P.V.Shah Works Manager
U.P Nayak HOD – Automatic- Body Makers
Govindan HOD- Semi-Automatic
B.C.Das HOD - PPC
K.M.Das HOD- Admin and Personnel
Lasrado HOD -Tool Room and Press
A.K.Sood HOD - Printing
R.C.Shah HOD - Electrical Maintenance / Production
K.C.Mandal HOD - Printing Maintenance
Mannan HOD – All Stores
Madan Lal HOD - Purchase
Capt.B.Das Chief of Security
I will write more about my employment, with M/s.Poysha Industrial Company in Ghaziabad, in the next part.
V.Sivasubramaniam
09-09-09
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
