The BHN Experience...

The events of yesterday remind me of another such experience when I felt a good deal of pressure. The story goes back to the days when I was working with L&T.
We were on a hydro testing mission of newly installed oil and gas pipelines. Taking the ship from Platform to platform, we were carrying out testing one after the other.

We were at BHN.... yes... the same one that was destroyed during this rainy season. During the course of testing we had left some material at previous places of testing. So I got down to BHN along with some crew members to carry out the preparatory work for testing. And the ship left to collect that material from other platforms. We knew it would take long before the ship returns so we had adequate food provisions with us too.

We had finished work at the lowermost deck. (it is lust 3-4 meters above sea level...tyaala spider deck ki sailor deck ase kahitari naav asate... aata aathavat nahi...). we were just roaming around and chatting while we were waiting for the ship to come back. One of the crew members was a fat man. At one place the grating was badly corroded. And he happened to put his foot there (oh lord Murphy...).

The grating gave away and he was laying there with one foot gone inside. We pulled him up. His testicles were badly hit. So to ease his pain we carried out the basic exercises like making him bend.... and all. After some time he felt good and we were back to chatting.

After around an hour he was in severe pain. And it was becoming unbearable. Now we were at the lowest level. The only way to go upper decks where we could take help from ONGC doctors was either to go upstairs and call them or to take the man upstairs. I was not feeling like leaving him and going upstairs to search the doctor. It would have been late. And the man was certainly not in a position to go upstairs.

I was the in charge of the crew and onus was on me to decide the further course. I went to the barge of some other company that was working there too for some other project. I met the doctor there and asked for help. He agreed and so we took the injured man to that barge. The doctor him some medicines and tea and asked to rest for some time on the barge. But the pain was not easing and to our horror we found that his testicles were growing in size.

Now the doctor was under pressure. He was afraid that the man would certainly die. He did not wanted him to die him on the barge and then get involved in further inquiries. So he asked me to move him from the barge immediately.

Now there was nowhere to go....
It was not possible to take him up in the BHN complex..... Our ship was at least 2 hours away.... and the only available shelter...this barge was not allowing to stay.
I thought for a min. about what to do then I went to the radio room of the barge and called the BHN control room asking for medical evacuation chopper.

Thankfully the barge had a helipad. I still remember the time.... after completion of all formalities the chopper left at 4 55 pm. I then called my boss in Powai on radio and informed him about the accident. He immediately went to Juhu aerodrome to take care of further things.

Later that night we came to know that he was admitted to Nanavati Hospital where the operation had begun at 6 00 pm. His life was saved.
A delay of an hour... and he would have been dead....

Ajab Desh Ajab Niyam...

20 Oct 2005... I was supposed to return to India from Saudi Arabia. Seat Booking confirm-reconfirm zale hote. Sakali 9 00 chi flight. Savayee pramane mi sakali (ki bhalyaa pahate!!!) savva saha la Jeddah airport var hajar hoto. Arthaat airport paryant cha pravaas pan as usual smooth navhata. Rastyaat ek don thikaani nehami pramane bags ughadun dakhavavyaa lagalyaa hotyaa. Hyaa tight security cha parinaam mhanoon Aajkaal mi sudhaarlo aahe. Airport madhye ghuse paryant bag la kulup lavatach nahi :-)

Boarding pass ghetala....luggage submit kele... avadhe sopaskaar urakalyaavar mi Immigration counter var gelo. I gave him the documents & passport. To my surprice he said you can not leave country at this moment. Your visa is expired. First get it extended and then you can leave the country.

I was 101% sure that I was well within my visa expiry. I was leaving after 4 months whereas my visa was for 6 months. So I showed him the slip where it said validity 6 months and then showed him the stamp on passport for date of entering the country.
As a response that guy pointed to some Arabic script on the slip and said as per this your visa is expired. Arthaat haa sarvaa prakaar thoda modakyaa todakyaa english madhye aani thoda sign language madhye challa hota.

I met his boss. Thankfully his boss was ok with English. He looked at the record on his monitor. Saw the name of the sponsor and then his way of talking changed (tase aamhi mothyaa lokaanche pahune...) he just said there is something wrong with your visa stamping. Just contact the officers from National Commercial Bank and they will take care of it after which you can leave.

I asked if there was some way out... so he went to his boss with me who again was “English Maafi” (don’t know english) kind of person. So the final outcome was that i can not leave the country today.

As a last resort I called my friend from bank Naveen who had a good experience of staying in Saudi Arabia, and asked for his advice. He told that just get luggage out and come back. “Wahaan pe kuchh nahi hone wala.”

So I asked the officer what I need to do now to cancel the ticket and get luggage back. He gave enough instructions about where to go and what to do and I was able to get through all that stuff. I got luggage back after flight departure and was back to hotel. In between i had some hard time explaining this scenario back home.

I had a word with bank project manager. He said check out for flight bookings after Saturday. The rules here keep on changing and we will get this matter cleared on Saturday and then u leave. This was ok. But today on 21st Oct I have a bigger problem in front of me.

All the economy class reservations are full till Nov. 10.... Yesterday was last available reservation. Now I have 3 options left. Wait till Nov. 10 and then go back..... Or get ticket upgraded to First class.... Or try for ticket from some other airlines.

First option is virtually ruled out because I desperately want to be home before 28th Oct. The second and third option can be tried. But here again the second option will require that i pay the diff. of fare from my pocket since I m not entitled for first class travel as per company rules. Getting seat with another airline was also a very faint possibility because this is month of Ramadan and a lot of people are going back to India on vacation because the last week of Ramadan is a week long holiday.

Now i must wait till Saturday because Thursday and Friday are holidays here. And check out of latest available reservation after the visa matter is cleared, prepared to shell out some extra money for first class seat.

But somehow when I look back at yesterday’s incidents...it makes me believe there is a good reason behind everything that happens. It was good that this thing happened on 20th... now I have 7-8 days to fall back. If this was on 25 or 26 then there were high chances that i would have missed Diwali because by then the Ramadan holidays would have started. Also now i know the procedure of canceling the ticket after getting boarding pass and procedures taking the luggage out of the cargo bay. And most of all, i would never have thought of traveling by first class (at least in immediate future) if not for this situation

Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward
-- Vernon Law

Experience is not what happens to you; it's what you do with what happens to you.
--Aldus Huxley

Parting Ways...

Parvaa Nishant cha email pahila... about last day at Infosys Bangalore. He left for Infosys Pune. One more parting of ways... Now it feels like I am habituated to this ritual because i did not feel too bad that after working together for two years and being good friends, the relation entered a phase where we don’t even know when next we will see each other.

Hyaa prakaracha pahila anubhav shala sodatana aala. Tyanantar tharavik kalane tyaachi punaravrutti hot rahili. Diploma..L&t....Degree... and now this latest venture Infy... Pratyek tappyaavar naveen mitra milale. Kahi kaal aamhi ekatra rahilo mag punhaa raste vegvegale zale. Kadhi me marga badalala tar kadhi etarani.

Pan yacha artha asa nahi ki maitree sampali. Tithe maitreeche ek nave parva suru zale. Pratyaaksha bhet sodali tar baki sarv tasech rahile. And this is what matters to me.

What is friendship? In my opinion at a very primitive level if we see... friendship is nothing but an agreement about at least not to harm each other in any way... if not support. The ones who support each other are the ones we call close friends.

This reminds me of Bush’s sentence... “For us... or Against us” this sentence put people on border in the “against” party by saying if u r not for us, u r against us. But friendship says “against us... or for us” which puts the people on border into “for us” because of “at least not to harm” fundaa.

Most of the times we all are forced together by circumstances.... some common task or whatever. And during the course we find that we can relate to some people more than others. the most imp binding factor initially is the mutual common goals or interests.

But what happens when those common interests are over? Pure materialistic point of view, there is practically no reason for the friendship to continue. And “at least not to harm” type of relationships end here. A few remain... they are the ones of “support” kind.... the ones we generally find ourselves emotionally closer to.

Once friendship aquires this new dimention, we remain friends because we choose to remain as friends of each other. Kuthalehi bandhan asnate. Sagala raji khushi cha mamala asato. Aapan samorchyaala jase asel tase sweekarto.

Aapan ek mekaancha aadar karaayla shikato. Because we become fully aware that we practically we do not need each other. Everyone is independent. So we learn to recognize each others personal freedom. And there is a very big change in behavior with each other.
Even when we give advice... sometimes we say “mala ase vatate.... bagh tula jase thik vatel tyaapramane kar” this may look a common sentence... but it demonstrates a full recognition and respect for other person’s personal freedom.

Sometimes we move away pursuing our own goals... and there is little time for friends. We don’t happen to meet for years. But the in some corner of mind the friendship remains and when we meet again we r able to move ahead from the point where we parted as if nothing happened. I believe it is this distance that sometimes keeps friendship alive...

Earthquake Aftershocks on CNN

All news channels are currently flooded with news about the Worst South Asian Earthquake in past more than 100 years... and so does CNN... my only TV news source now a day... :-( here are some observations....

The short interview of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was good example opportunism in my opinion. In his speech he put whole emphasize on “Cargo Helicopters” and gave all reasons for it. Speech made direct request to US... and after speech was about to get over he made a brief mention of other things.....Tents...Blankets...and Medicines... Of course there is absolute need of Heavy Cargo Choppers given the in accessibility of mountain areas but... how does is sound to put that thing forward ahead of essential things and stressing it more than everything else?

I have never seen the weather forecast on CNN giving any information about Middle East... or SAARC countries....or South America. Their world begins with US... then Europe... then Africa... and then directly to Japan and eastern China coast. But thanks to the quake.... now every now and then one happens to see the weather forecast for India and Pakistan; of course at the expense of Africa...

During business news Asian markets means NIKKEI, Hang Seng and Straits. There is no place for BSE on the main screen... it only appears in the right corner small scroll bar. KSE (Karachi Stock Exchange) is nowhere.... but again... now we occasionally see these two indexes too... mainly when they discuss financial impacts and all.....

The most interesting observation is about “The Building”...“Margallah Towers” in Islamabad. All Initial news was concentrated about the collapse of one wing of this building complex. All video footage showed this building only. As if all the 18000-19000 casualties (till that time) were all buried under the rubble of this building. And as if all rescue efforts were carried out at the same “Ground Zero”. I wonder if this collapse brought back the Sep 11 memories back... and so it was at the center of the news.

But more interesting than the news focus was the analysis of the building collapse. Because out of a whole complex of many 10 storey buildings; only one collapsed. That too was the newest one. The analysis began with fundamental reasons like negligence of seismic forces during structure design or Faulty architecture etc and it concluded with more common causes like Faulty workmanship and use of substandard materials by the construction company. This is something we are all familiar with.

This highlights the grave danger Mumbai is in. When we see around many such substandard Buildings I can not even dream of similar quake in Mumbai. I m sure the toll will be much higher in this single city that the entire toll of this current quake.

One should not forget that Mumbai and Thane area is situated near fault lines and has a “Good” history of quakes and a fairly high risk given the quality of construction. Just go through the Presentation at above link and the projections of deaths and injuries it makes. When you read above link you may require help of these links on MMI and MSK

Garv Se Kaho Hum Non Veg Hai...

Kaal TV var Chachi 420 lagala hota.... it nicely showcased hatred of a pure vegetarian family for a Non Vegetarian persons. We come across such examples in real life some time or the other.

Why it is so? I don’t want to get into eternal debate between veg and non veg.... I m a Pure Non Veg... Here when I say veg or nonveg... it is about “eating habits of civilized humans...” otherwise aapan sarv “Non Veg” category madhye aahot... irrespective of what kind of food we eat. (Think from a cannibal’s or say tiger’s point of view :-))

Non veg banane hi mazyaa mate human evolution chi ek mahatvaachi payari mhatali pahije. Karan aapan food chain madhye ek level var gelo.... or I will say top laa jaaun basaloy.

Samajaat sagale lok “Uchha” starachyaa mage asataat... let it be social status... or financial status...or job... whatever.... but this may be the only “Uccha” status that some people look down to mostly from religious point of view.

In practical life there are a lot of advantages of being Non vegetarian. No one is “Pure Non Vegetarian” because most of all the other ingredients used in cooking are “Vegetarian”. So in that sense all Non Veg people are actually omnivorous.

This means a non veg person has a lot more choices for food... a lot more chance of survival under extreme circumstances. Forget extreme... just have a look at Middle East as well as Far East like China... Taiwan... and u will realize how difficult life becomes if u r not cooking for your self or have some special cooking arrangements.

You go into any restaurant. Look at menu for veg dishes. Most of the dishes are made of either aaloo...mutter....palak... paneer... with some onions... tomato’s here n there. No matter what name they give.... ingredients are same.

Now just have a look at Non veg menu... u have chicken... u have mutton.... then look at fish side.... and u have a lot more choices available. Depending upon ur beliefs u can have pork...beef....also. Or if u r in China or Taiwan... the array is still larger bcos now it includes snakes... grasshoppers... frogs etc etc...

I don’t like the dual standards the veg ppl follow when they call milk as veg. In my opinion if milk can go as Veg... Then blood of animals taken out without killing them should also pass as Veg... I don’t think process of taking blood will hurt the animal more than milking with a machine....

For me the non veg eating habit symbolizes the survival of the fittest. Humans are the fittest and we are just enjoying that.... so Garv Se Kaho Hum NonVeg Hai....

Upavaas

Aaaj var ubhyaa aayushyaat mala upavaas ha prakaar kadhich jamala nahiye. Jamala nahi... ki patala nahi mhanoon jamavoon gheta aala nahi nakki sangane kathin aahe, but the bottom line is that mi kadhi upavaas kela nahi.

They say on TV...Sunday ho yaa Monday... roj khao ande.....Mazyaa babtit matra hi slogan next stage la pohochaliye.... next stage mhange.. andyaachi next stage.... kombadi... baher asalo ki kombadi... ghari asalo ki maase...

Jar kadhi mi ghari asane aani kuthali tari ekadashi asane hyaa donhi goshati ekatra zalyaa...Tar kadhi kadhi mag sampoora shakahari banave lagate... (nahitar upashi rahave lagel....shevati Aadhi potoba mag Vithoba...) as far as I understand... the flow is like from Nonveg... to Veg... And at the top Upavaas if u want t become (or at least show that u r ) “Dharmik” so in that sense hyaa chaturthyaa aani ekadashi chyaa divashi mi dharmiktechyaa thoda faar javalpaas phatakto. Tar shevati kaay tar aamhi Gatari pan joraat karnaar.... aani nantar Shravan pan palnaar nahi....

He sagale ramayan sanganyaa magacha uddesh kaay? Tar sadhyaa ek mothi ghatana ghadtey.... mazyaavar chakka upavaas karaaychi vel aaliye.....to pan forcefully....
May be this was “devine” ;-) reason behind my being held back here....

Sadhyaa ekade Ramadan chaloo aahe... the country being a hardcore Islamic country,
It is law that no one (irrespective of whether Muslim or not) should eat or drink during the day. If caught... it is offence and one goes to jail.

Mazyaa upavasacha ekandar etihaas baghata... mala shankaa vatat hoti ki kase kaay jamnaar he udyog mhanoon. But results of last 3 days show that I m doing fine. At least I am able to manage.

Tyaat sadhyaa Navaratri chaloo ahet. So my Upavaas can very well be counted as Navaratri Upavaas. Only thing is that unlike others, i have skipped the middle step of being “Shakahari” and there is direct jump from NonVeg to Upavaas.... so sadhyaa mi roj Kombadi khaaun upavaas sodato :-)

I think The Goddess should be fine with it. Kadhi navhe to porgaa upavaas kartoy... to pan kadkadit upavaas...pani suddha na peeta.... mag tyaala avadhi soot dyaayla kahich harkat nasavi...aaj kaal aapalyaa kade upavas mhatala ki lokana pahili khichadi havi asate. Ugaach nahi “Ekadashi aani duppat khashi” mhanat.

Hyaa asalyaa vatavarnaat jar koni kadkadit upavaas kar asel to use itana incentive to milana hi chhahiye....After all aaj kal discounts aur free gifts ka jamana hai.
what say? ;-)

Bhaarataat Parataayche Force Analysis...

     I m really feeling anxious about returning to India these days...
     There are three forces acting on my mind at this moment... (Shevati boloon chaloon Mechanical.... :-)) The first force is the repulsive force between me and Saudi Arabia. The direction of force is such that it causes me to move away from Saudi Arabia....in the direction towards India.

     First force acting is the repulsive one caused by extended stay in this stupid country. I really have no words for people who can think of blocking Blogger.com for entire country. I m bored of Saudi Arabia.. I m bored of this client office and stupid people here. The internal politics between these Arabs at client place goes to such a low level that sometimes I think even school children in India have far more maturity than these dumb skulls. I m simply fed up and just want to move out of this country.

     The second force is the force of attraction between me and India. Now this force is actually a resultant of various components like,

1. I have not spent time with my parents for a long period


2. I have misses absolutely all the festivals this year... right from Holi... till Ganapati... and I don't want to miss Dasara & Diwali.


3. There are a lot of functions being arranged to celebrate the Golden Jubilee year of my school... I miss my friends...


4. Above all... I miss the our free liberal society.... the Secular democratic Atmosphere...after spending so much time in this religious autocratic country (exactly 180 deg.) I m longing for breath of freedom.

This second force is also acting such as to cause me move towards India.

     The third force is the one balancing these two forces and is responsible to maintain the equilibrium of the system and hence still make me stay here. This force is the order from my boss to extend my stay :-( it acts from Bangalore towards Saudi Arabia. This force is much stronger in magnitude than the above two forces at this moment.

     Sandhyaakaal pasoon ugaachach.."Ne Majase Ne..." aathavatey... Savarkaaranchyaa manaat kaay talmal asel he gane lihile tevhaa.... tyaacha lahanasa kaa hoena pan anubhav yetoy sadhyaa...

     But somehow in last 25 years I have learned that whatever happens... happens for good...or like they say "not getting what u want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck" aage aage dekhate hai... hota hai kya...

     8th madhye astaana Pu La Deshpaandyaancha ek dhadaa hota...tyaat tyaana library madhye basun choroon pustake vachaaychi savay asate. Aani ekada librarian baheroon lock lavoon nighun jato asa prasanga hota... tyaa dhadyaachyaa shevati
"Swayampaak gharaat kondalele manjar daar ughadlyaavar jase dhoom palat sutate tasa mi palalo" ase kahitari vakyaa hote.

The moment this third force vanishes.... mazi avastha kahi faar vegali asel ase vatat naahi....