Music to the ears

Yesterday (22nd Feb'09), I woke up around 6.30am but as usual was still lying on the bed... (I normally wake up early, but do not get up until I feel like ;)... some times I doze off again too). As I was lying on my bed and thinking about the previous evening - the get-together of the ex-L&Tites from Mysore, trying to recollect everyone's face, trying to visualise how they looked while I had seen them at L&T and how they have changed over the years etc... something disturbed my thought process and "visuals" blurred and faded into the day light... Though I was distracted / disturbed, I was pleasantly surprised with what I had just heard... something I had not heard in a long time in Bangalore... I could not believe my ears. I was woken up from the "slide show" by some chirping outside the window. I immediately sprang up from the bed and peeped out. I had indeed heard it right. Now, I could not believe my eyes... I saw a few sparrows happily chirping and eating some grains from the terrace of the opposite house. I have probably not spotted a sparrow in Bangalore in the past 5-6 years. These little cute and chirpy birds that used to frequent my home so often during my school days had slowly faded away from the city life. A few years ago I was reading an article on the "missing" sparrows in cities and thats when I realised that I could not recollect when I had last seen a sparrow. Bangalore has literally chased away these tiny chirpy friends. The increase in vehicular population, the pollution, the reduction in greenary, the expansion of concrete jungles and the cutting down of trees all around had literally chased the sparrows out of Bangalore. As if all these were not sufficient, I understand that the ever increasing mobile network / signals have added to it. Thats why my joy knew no bounds when I woke to the chirping of these good old cute little friends... (I did spot sparrows recently... a couple of weeks ago, but unfortunately not in Bangalore). How I wish we were more considerate to the other living beings around us.... :(

Ex-L&Tites Get-together

The L&T Bond

The L&T-ites at Mysore Works, especially the ones who were there during the 90s had a unique bonding and shared a fantastic camaraderie. So much so, even years after quitting the company, the bond still remains... Just that every one got lost in their own world and had probably lost touch on a day to day basis. With the advancement of technology, the most powerful medium of communication - Internet was put to best use by a certain Mr. Ramachandra S. He created the yahoo group for ex-L&Tites and the group is now growing, both through the internet and through word of mouth publicity. With the numbers growing and with most of the group being in Bangalore, it was a nice initiative to have a meeting arranged for all the members a couple of years ago. That meeting triggered a mini revolution and we had a get together last year. As usual, this year too it was Ramachandra and Shankar Ganesh who initiated the get together of the ex-L&Tites from Mysore works.

L&T in my blood

.....L&T has always had a special place in my heart and has had a big role in shaping my personality. For me L&T is the place where I made maximum friends and also enjoyed the most. Normally, any person would say that their college life was the best part of their life. In my case, the initial years of my life at L&T was just an extension of college but I was more independent and had the freedom to do lot of things that I would not otherwise been able to. Without any second thoughts I would admit that for me, life at L&T was much better than my college days. At college I was more of a silent, timid, introvert kind of a character, so much so that I even carried the tag "Gandhi"... a term used for people who are very silent, studious etc. I guess, my life at L&T changed all that and I have always had very fond memories of my association with people in L&T Mysore. At the time I quit L&T, internet and emails were not as popular and I did not even "own" an email ID. I used to be constant touch with a few people and a few others through them. Even many years after I quit L&T, when ever I see the L&T logo, I used to feel a rush of blood and used to get goose bumps. It was like my eyes were trained to "hunt" for the L&T logo anywhere I move around. This is where I learnt a lot of things in life and also about my own potentials. So, I was eagerly looking forward to this get together, as it was a fantastic opportunity to catch up with old friends and senior colleagues.

The Prelude

Ram and Shankar set the ball rolling... Soon LNK joined them and volunteered to take initiative in getting the things organized. When we met last year, we had a whopping strength of over 75 people attending the get together with even people travelling all the way from Mumbai (Narendra Upadhyay and Anil Prasad) and Chennai (LNK) to attend this. It was a HUGE success with everyone sharing their experiences post and during the L&T Mysore days. So this time around we expected a even bigger crowd. But that was not to be... the response was luke warm, LNK, myself and a couple of others even tried to push people... we had this discussion on whether we should meet at Bangalore or at Mysore, with family or without family. Even a polling was done to decide the place, date and whether to make it a family affair. But even this did not bring about any positive result. At one stage it was even suggested that we should call off this for now. Then, finally the date was fixed for 21st Feb'09 while the venue was yet to be decided. LNK took the onus onto himself to keep track of "who is in and who is not". A few days later, the venue was finalised (Canopy on II floor of Public Utility Building, M.G Road, Bangalore). The responses were still slowly trickling in. LNK religiously updated the "score card" and sent it out frequently along with his repeated appeals to join hands and make this event a success. I tried to get in touch with a few in person and was happy that I could pull in a couple of them. The head count was just over 30 with 3 more days to go. But, I guess, it was like the proverbial "last lap" where there was a sudden burst of energy and on the D-day we anticiapted a strength of 50. On the day 54 people turned out.

The D-Day

21st Feb'09 - It was a hectic day for me as I was supposed to visit my in-laws which is about 25km from home. I started the day "early" at around 9.45am and was on the bike with my better half and the little ones tagging along. I was eagerly waiting for the evening and soon I set for the joy ride re-tracing the route that I travelled in the morning. On the way, I get a call from Reena. She said it was just a courtesy call and told me that she heard about the L&T meet that was to happen some time "around this time". (I had actually seen Shri's mail (Shrinath Inamdar) confirming that Reena would be attending and I was wondering if she actually goofed up the date). I informed her that I was on the way and it was not too late as she still had the time to come over. Finally I managed to reach the place. As I was climbing the stairs to reach the second floor, I could hear familiar voices from upstairs, I could distinctly hear LNK, Shankar Ganesh and a voice that really surprised me (it was Reena's voice). When I reached the venue, a few of them were already there - LNK, Geetha, Ram, Shankar, Shri, Preetha, Reena, Umashankar etc... I gave a surprised look at Reena and she said "Flop show". Later I got to know that Reena and Preetha had come along with Shri and she had actually called me from his car. They wanted to play a prank on me and had "cooked up" some story and wanted to lay the trap for me. Unfortunately, it became a flopshow because I mentioned that I knew that she had confirmed her attendance for the event. Now, what was the prank or the story... I am not aware (Reena is yet to tell me)... probably she would write it in her own blog I suppose :)

And the ball set rolling....
Geetha (Subramanian) as always was the most active, chirpy, the loudest and the ever enthusiatic person. I was probably seeing her after 12-13 years. It was time to re-live the "Mysore days". Slowly people started flowing in... I could recognise most of them. It was fun, with everyone smiling from "ear to ear" and greeting each other. It was nice to note what time had done to most of us... especially people like me who had transformed from one "all rounder" (Cricket days, KVS memorial ...) to another form of an "all rounder" (looking round from all sides)... Ram and Shankar entrusted me the job of the "Accounts Manager" and I was incharge of "collections". Finally, the formal session started... with a self intro and what each one of us were doing etc. then followed by dinner. Dinner time was when everyone moved around meeting each other and updating each other etc. It was really nice to know how some of us had started on our own and doing well too. It was a very nice feeling to catch up with some good
old friends whom I had not met for ages - KNM, Manju Davis, Rajeshwari, Vasuki, Pattan shetty, Srinivas, Krishnamurthy, JD, Baindoor, Veerappan, Vasanth, Girish, Rajmohan, Narasimhan etc and some very senior colleagues like SAR, VTR, Rammohan, BP, Ramdhas (the man who needs two business cards - One to write his name, designation and company details and the other, just to write in his qualifications. I always visualise an "annexure" to his business card) etc etc etc. I had a whale of a time. Rajesh N, with whom I had closely worked during his stint at HDD and later at QA (where he was my boss, before he moved to Novell), was always a very nice person but I always thought that he was a very serious man. Over the years, when the density on his "top floor" had reduced I guess he decided to shave it off and sport a "goatie", with the looks of a DON straight out of a Bollywood flick... Now I found him to be a person with an excellent sense of humor (maybe he was always like this, but I had not seen this side of his personality) or maybe age has made him more wise and witty :)

All good things have to come to an end...
Soon, it was time to say good bye... I would have liked to stay for some more time, but then I had to travel all the way back to Peenya and so I had to hurry. After handing over the "collections" to Ram and Shankar, I started with the good byes...

Shankar, Ram, LNK - Thanks for all you efforts and making sure that this event was not canceled. I am signing off, looking forward to the next one which I am expecting it to be a BIG event... hopefully in Mysore and with families. THREE CHEERS to the Organisers!!!

My first encounter with Veerappan

Yesterday (17th Jan'09), was the Sports Day for the Junior Division students at my daughter's school. The one thing I like about her school is that the teachers ensure that every student participates in one thing or the other. My daughter was part of a dance and also the "Hoopla race". The children's events were followed by some fun events for parents and teachers. After the events as I was leaving with my wife and kids, I met a friend of mine... whom I have not met in ages... We were colleagues at L&T Mysore works. His children were studying in the same school. We quickly exchanged updates, our numbers and promised to meet soon and bid good bye. This chance meeting took me back to my "Mysore days"......
.... I had joined L&T Mysore in 1992 and if my memory is right, the incident that I am describing below probably occured in 1992 or 1993. It was the time when Veerappan was always in the news and was very much active... (Who doesn't know Veerappan... the dreaded Sandalwood smuggler and Poacher). At L&T, I was part of the Electronics QC department at that time. I was responsible for inspection of all the semiconductor devices that are used in various departments. Every other members of the team had work related to specific departments like DMP, Medical, T.Com, FDD/HDD etc. My work involved testing of semiconductor devices for all these departments (with the exception of FDD/HDD departments). So, I used to get calls from all these departements to enquire if a particular IC / transistor / diode or any such components has been tested and sent to the stores. We being in QC, had friends in all the departments. I was familiar with almost everyone in the production departments as I interact with them very often. One day a call came to my department asking for me... As usual it was Phadke (Diwakar Phadke was a colleague who used to inspect non-semiconductor items for Medical department) who picked the call. He shouted for me.... "Suri, call for you". I went to the phone and answered the call... I knew it was someone from the "Materials" department or Manju (Manjunath was almost always at my desk and he used to take the items as soon as I finish testing ... his items were always high priority for him) from TCom department or someone else from the other production departments who were waiting for one of their items. I said "Hello, Suresh here..." (I was expecting someone to say...Is 74LS138 ready? or 74HC139 ready? or when will the diode consignment be cleared? etc...). But what I heard from the other end, shocked and surprised me... The unfamiliar voice said..."Hello Suresh, this is Veerappan"... My head went reeling for a second... (Veerappan?? why would Veerappan call me?? Veerappan was in news around this time). I knew someone was playing a prank on me.... but it was not a familiar voice and thats what surprised me... I blurted out... "Yes, what is it regarding?" Veerappan replied, "I heard that the "Kontron" consignment has been inspected and I wanted to pick some ICs." I said "Okay, you can pick them up... but bring some Sandalwood when you come over" as I knew someone was playing a prank on me. After couple of minutes, a person walked into my department and asked - "Excuse me, who is Suresh?" Invariably, everyone who comes to my department used to first talk to me as my seat was just at the entrance of the department. (I had seen this person a couple of times in the medical department as we pass the departement when we guys used to go for lunch. But I did not know his name). I said "I am Suresh. What can I do for you?". This figure in front of me streched his hand and introduced himself - "Hi Suresh, I am Veerappan". This time my head really went reeling and was also embarassed. I asked for sandalwood assuming that someone who I know was playing a prank on me... and here is a person standing in front of me in flesh and blood and his name is Veerappan. I apologised to him for asking him to get sandalwood and told him that I assumed it was someone palying a prank on me. He took the items that were required and went away. That was my first encounter with Veerappan.
Over a period of time we became friends due to more frequent interactions. Then, I moved out of Mysore works (moved to the Cement Marketing division in Chennai) and he too moved out of L&T... I guess he probably joined GE...
During all these years, once in a while I used to remember my first "encounter" with Veerappan and smile to myself not knowing where Veerappan is now settled. Until I saw him at the Sports Day of my daughter. Yes, it was the same Veerappan that I met at the school. And to my surprise, he lives very very close to my home and his office is even closer which is at a "stone throw's" distance. I am hoping to have more frequent "encounters" with this "warm and friendly" Veerappan...
(P.S: There is another funny incident which is related to the dreaded Veerappan. I shall write about that later).

The Speaker Phone

The day was "Thiruvathira" (10th Jan) something similar / equivalent of "Karva chaut" observed in North India. It was a quiet Saturday afternoon. Mom and wife were observing a fast. After a late lunch, I was trying to make myself busy browsing through some old photographs and burning them on to a DVD. Kids were asleep and in the midst of burning the CD, I heard a beep from the UPS and I was shattered. That was my first ever attempt at burning a DVD with my DVD writer (though I had bought it more than an year ago) and almost 50 percent of the burning process was complete. The beep from my UPS indicated that the power had failed and my UPS had a back up of only 10-15 minutes. Apart from the time spent on getting the photos together and burning it, the DVD would go waste if the burning is not completed. I was just praying and hoping that the power would be back within the next 10 minutes. I waited with crossed fingers after switching off the monitor (I believe that, switching off the monitor increases the UPS stand by time by a couple of minutes). I was hoping against hope that the power would be back and thats when I heard the continuous beep from the UPS... an indication that its battery is dying... and then it happened... My computer had shutdown... and I lost the DVD :(
Then I went downstairs and was browsing through the newspaper... my wife was busy folding the clothes, mom was doing something in the kitchen, dad was busy with his "self-created home projects" and thats when the phone went trring trring... I was the nearest to the phone and so I attended it..'. The voice from the other end said "Hello". (It was a familiar voice but I was not able to recognise it immediately). I said a "hello" and the voice said... "This is Stephen here..." and I recognised his voice and I said "Hi this is Suresh here". "Is Uncle there (referring to my dad)?" I said "Yes, just a minute...hold on..." and shouted for my dad who was busy in his room. He came out of the room with some tools in one hand and a plastic pipe in the other. He carefully placed everything on the sofa and as he stretched his hand to take the receiver from me he asked "Stephen??" and I was shocked wondering how did he know that Stephen was on the line... He took the receiver and answered the call, but the line got disconnected. I was still in a state of shock trying to figure out how dad managed to know that Stephen was the person who called. My dad said "the line got disconnected.." and probably reading my mind (maybe the shock was written all over my face)... he continued... "I could hear his voice loud and clear". ("He could hear Stephen's voice???, how is that possible?") I thought to myself as I was waiting for Stephen to call back. Then I "realised" that while picking the call, I had "accidentally" hit the "Speaker" button and thats how dad heard Stephen's voice. As I was telling dad that I might have hit the "Speaker" button by mistake, the phone rang again. As soon as I picked up "Stepehen asked, "Is no one at home?" and I said "Yes, everyone is here" (If no one was there how did I pick the phone?? I thought). This time I too could hear his voice loud and clear apart from the voice through the ear piece. This time I was sure that I had not hit the "Speaker" button and when I saw the keypad, the "Speaker" indicator was OFF. Suddenly I realised that I was listening to his "real" voice and I cut the line and I heard him say in his "real" voice "I am at your door"... I opened the door to see Stephen and his family standing there :)
Then I realised why this confusion had occured. Stephen rang the bell for quite some time and there was no response... (How could anyone respond??? There was no power you see). And everyone were busy in their own world and so no one heard anyone opening the gate. Since there was no response, Stephen tried our phone to check if we were not at home. As I was answering the phone, my dad was just coming out of his room which is close to the front door. So, I was hearing Stephen from the "receiver of the phone" while my dad had actually heard Stephen's voice at the door, but did not realise that it was from the front door. Stephen on the other hand thought I am going to open the door when he heard me say "Just a minute... hold on" and so disconnected the line. I was waiting for him to call and he was waiting for me to open the door. Since I did not open the door even after almost a minute, he called again... Thats when we came to know about the "secret" of the speaker phone...