manedge

Seven years ago, on 24th July 2010, I was taking a small nostalgic trip of my own. Having spent 20 years in different sections of the Power System Department of Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP), SAIL, I thought it would be pertinent to re-visit those places where I had worked. Post-lunch I had to join the Education Department as Senior Principal of BSP Senior Secondary School, Sector-10 (SSS-10) - which later turned out to be the most remarkable phase of not only my career but also my personal life. I started the day by finally handing over the last technical assignment to my boss in the morning. I decided to go over to Sub-Station-4 (Pump House-2) which was one of my first areas along with Blast Furnaces when I joined the then Distribution Networks Department in August 1990. A trip to MSDS-I Control Room where I had spent six years as Shift In-Charge and 11 months as Shift Manager ( a newly created post in 2007) was like a pilgrimage. In fact when I was on night shift duty in the Plant Con...

The recent India-Australia Test Cricket Series was literally a great clash. The Australians, and that included Suderland and the top journos chose to target Kohli. Their game plan was simple. Attack the top player and skipper and you will floor the Indians. And they successfully did. On a doctored pitch that suited O'Keefe more than a tired Ashwin-Jadeja combine, they beat India in three days at Pune. Except for Rahul, no one showed any temperament to 'wall' the Aussie attack. The win emboldened the Aussies, even leading to Steve Smith's famous 'brain-fade' at Bengaluru. But when Kohli questioned the cheats - Smith and Handscomb, it was a return to the 1976-77 Bedi's expose of Lever using his vaseline-soaked handkerchief used as a headband to polish the ball. The Aussie media including the ACB supremo were aghast. How dare a brown man question the post-truth that Smith wanted, if not the world, but the Indians to believe? That triggered the ugly Aussie wa...

As I got into my car, about to leave , I heard the roar of students to the tune of liting music. This was the customary celebration post the Annual Day 2015 of BSP Senior Secondary School, Sector-10 (SSS-10), Bhilai, which I just witnessed as a guest for the first time. A year after I had joined SSS-10, we had coined the title ABHIVYANJAN for the Annual Day function of the school. A Sanskrit term, it means 'a bouquet of maulti-faceted offerings'. Till then, the function was called Annual Prize-Giving Day. We thought we needed to have a proper title for it. So suggestions were invited from students and teachers. After going through many short and sweet titles, we settled for this rather long but all encompassing one, which in a way is a bouquet of a variety of facets and talent - academic and co-curricular achievements and cultural presentations, apart from the exhibition of of scientific models/charts, and a new section on Humanities introduced in 2014. The highlight for A...

With the last of the Nobels of 2017 having been declared, here's a look back at my post from October 2015: Every year, for the last three decades, the first fortnight of October has a special place in my yearly calendar. It is the time when the coveted Nobel Prizes are announced. The fortnight ends with the prestigious Man Booker Prize. As soon as the announcement of prizes begins, I jot down the names of the Nobel Laureates in my latest notepad. It all comes to an end with the Booker. Though it would be difficult for me to collect all my notes, as I haven't kept them carefully, technology can help me get the entire list whenever I want. There is some sort of thrill and excitement in recording the 'discoveries'. The awards always have a message. For example, this year's Nobel Peace Prize to the Tunisian Quartet is an excellent endorsement of how political systemic change can be brought about with a synergy of efforts from business interests as well as civil s...

Suddenly there has been a surfeit of acts of intolerance. Rationalists are killed for questioning ideologies, people are butchered over choice of food, ideologues are smeared with black paint for assisting a 'traitor'...and the list goes on. What I am worried is that the younger generation suddenly has 'role models' that no society needs. We have become a nation of 2-minute quick-fixers, who have an answer for everything.