Devastation - Eye witness

Sep 06

The year was 2001. All the world was still celebrating the advent of the new millennium. Post Mortem of the past century was still being done by the world . The print and visual media was dissecting everything from politics to people to achievements by people and various other landmarks - be it in sports , acting , discoveries inventions, media, crime, hospitality, diseases, population , family , weather, space , relationships, matrimony - the list was endless. In one corner of the world in general and India in particular events were unfolding which were soon to have a devastating effect on the entire Indian subcontinent. The tectonic plates were clashing against each other and it was a disaster waiting to happen. On 26th January 2001 the the 52nd Republic day an earthquake of the magnitude measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale occurred at Bhuj and the nearby town of Bachau . Gujarat and the nearby Ahmadabad were also affected. More than 30000 (official)people lost their lives and about 167000 people were injured. Around 300000 people along with children were rendered home less. More than 21 districts were affected while four districts of Bhuj and around were the worst affected. 3000 people in bhuj were killed in this earthquake. The administration was caught totally unawares. The relief agencies all around the world in general and India in particular swung into action immediately. They provided relief saved lives and tried to ameliorate the sufferings of the people all round.

One of the first organisations which swung into action was the Indian Army. This is the story of the Indian Army in action.This is the story of  one of my friends who was posted in Bhuj at that point of time. A first hand account of the occurrances and the sequence of action thereafter. A few days prior my friend was posted out of Bhuj and was in the process of moving out. His house was packed and he was loading his truck to leave.Let us hear the story as told by my friend...

The First Signs

 The previous evening We had started preparing for the Republic Day Celebrations in the mess. It is a custom in the Army that we invite the Junior Commissioned Officers to the Mess as a part of the day long festivities. It was in this regard that I had gone to the mess to decorate the mess in the evening. Having completed the task I left for home. The next morning, at around 0830 hrs. having completed my breakfast I stepped outside. The place was eerily silent and there were no birds in the sky. All the chirruping and the general hubbub was absent. Of course this I remembered only on hindsight. What was evident was the general silence. At around 0840 hrs. I found my neighbour's dog running hell for leather and the master following soon after. As he was passing my house it was 0842 hrs. That was when I felt the first violent tremors . Even standing outside I could feel the tremors. I quickly ran into my house and pulled out my wife and child. We kept standing outside and saw the whole world turn topsy turvy. Within some time it was evident that this was no ordinary occurance . The garrison got active almost immediately.

In those days the mobile phone was not yet widely used . We were still in communication only on landline. Due to the earthquake all the lines were down and so was electricity. So the good old system of dispatch riders and runners was activated. All this did not prevent the garrison from being activated in 45 mins. The army was on the roads at that time. We thought we would be home by the evening  - that was not to be.When our troops went to Bhuj  we were shocked beyond belief. The buildings had fallen like a pack of cards . There was wide spread destruction and devastation all round. What was heart rending was the entire town was strewn with dead bodies. It was a horrible sight - something which I will never forget all my life.

The Rescue

After hurried consultations we decided that our priority was not the dead but the living who might still be buried under the debris . Somewhere someone lying under the concrete pieces was still hanging on to the hope that they would somehow survive this nightmare and wake up to the world as they knew it before 0842 hrs. on 26th January 2001. Bhuj was such a big area, how would we go about the job? We distributed the town into sectors and allotted it to the various sub groups. Then there was the problem of tools and heavy machinery. We put all we had into action and also anything and everything available in our homes . Most of the town was abandoned and some implements were 'borrowed' from there. We started working with inborn urgency. Many people who had to go on leave for parent's operation , sister's marriage, own marriage and a multitude of other problems forgot all about these problems. I am proud to say that not one person in the garrison asked for leave .The job at hand was all important - every thing else took a backseat . We started working feverishly and we rescued countless number of people. There is that satisfaction in seeing that look of relief on a person's face when he has cheated death. But what is more reassuring is the gratefulness that a person expresses when he is saved from certain death. For the next 96 hrs. we worked to this end and were hugely successful. Other rescue teams from Indian subcontinent and foreign countries joined in about 72 hrs.

An Incident

The time passed by and soon the 96 hrs. deadline was drawing to an end. We were just about winding down and going back . Not one of the persons slept or had a wash or thought about food. The finding of people under the debris fueled us on. But the extreme stress and strain was telling on us. I had just given the order for falling back to the barracks, when one of the officers came running to me . " Sir" he said " I can hear some noise from under the debris over there" pointing to a fallen building. I was impatient and attributed it to the tiredness. However one could not take a chance and what was a bit more of digging if it meant saving someone? We got down to work - imagine our surprise when we found a young boy - alive and well. Holding him in my arms I felt a lot of pleasure and satisfaction. The redeeming feature was the child felt as if he had woken up from sleep. He wanted a thums up. And we provided it by breaking into a deserted kirana shop. This particular incident gives me thrills even to this day.

The Dead

By now the dead were making their presence felt. The bodies were starting to rot and smelling away to glory. If we did not do something there might be widespread epidemic in the area. There was no requirement to search for these bodies. They were all over the place. People require a closure. So we started publicizing the fact, and a lot of bodies were claimed. But this was only a minimum number. We photographed the unclaimed bodies and started disposing them as we felt that further delay was not humanly possible. Soon we exhausted all the wood that was available and we had no option but bury them. We ensured that the people were disposed off as per their religion as far as possible.

The AfterMath

It was a wearying ten days and it left us all emotionally and physically exhausted. For the next month the tremors were felt throughout the region. The next six months were spent under  tentage. Water was supplied to us in tankers and at best it was brackish and muddy. We were cooking on fires and washing clothes by hand. The stink of rotting flesh refused to go away. Along the way we recovered a lot of cash jewellery amounting to crores of rupees. I suppose you have to have a natural disaster to flush out all the black money...We handed it over to the police. Of course it also attracted a lot of thieves who had to be dealt with summarily. One thing I remember was the recovery of thousands of bottles of liquor in this state of Gandhiji . Chivas regal, black label , Red Label, Blue Label - to name a few - again handed over to the civil administration...Post the earthquake we were employed in rebuilding. After sometime we humans have a short memory span. It is fourteen years since this devastation - now no one remembers - hope this refreshes peoples' memory...

A TRIBUTE

Sep 05

GURU GOBIND DONO KHADE' HAIN; KAAKAE'LAGOON PAI:
BALIHAARI GURU AAPNON GOBIND DIYO MILAAYE

Guru and Govind were both were standing. I was in a dilemma as to whose feet I should touch in obeisance. The dilemma was resolved when I knew that I should pay obeisance to my guru because my Guru was instrumental in my knowing Govind (GOD).

This famous doha by Kabir about sums up our respect for our gurus. Further

Gurur Brahma Gurur Vishnu Gurur devo Maheshwara;
Gurur Saakshaat ParaBrahma Tasmai Shri Guruve' Namaha .

And further

HAPPY TEACHERS DAY
We Thank all our teachers at ASCI for their patience and understanding in helping us in gaining knowledge for easing into civil life . We hope to Continue this fruitful association in the future ...

Suicidal Transformation

Sep 03

            I hope that the other events of the day do not get over shadowed by the momentous occasion where the hard work put in by Group Captain GJ Rao  in bringing out the blueprint for the prevention of suicide in the state of Telangana. He worked assiduously and sincerely on this document. I remember his telling me that nothing is more reprehensible than a person driven to this extreme measure of taking his life as a recourse to solving his problems. " In this world with so many people in all walks of life, it is indeed very sad that the cry of a desperate person who is at the most looking for sympathy and understanding if not help reflects very poorly on the populace in general and us educated persons in particular "." I feel that if it is within my power to help ameliorate the condition of such people , I will be  very fortunate". I and many of us I am sure reflect these feelings of GJ Rao - the only difference is that he went ahead and did something about it . Since the time we first met in June, he has been at it day and night . In the process he met many people , read many documents , pored over books and finally came up with this document which I am sure that if adopted by the state government will go a long way in preserving valuable human life - for has it not been said “Suicide doesn’t end the chances of life getting worse, it eliminates the possibility of it ever getting any better.” – Unknown 

Group Captain GJ Rao presenting the Suicide Note to CM KC Rao

'Bangaru Telangana 'Exhibited By All

The CM acknowledging The Work Put In By Group Captain GJ Rao

            We are all proud of you GJ Rao You came with a purpose on this course and achieved it in style. It is our sincere wish that this model of yours gets adopted in other states also. We hope that you will be instrumental either directly or indirectly in saving many lives. 

            The day started as usual with our classes beginning at 0900H in the morning. After a long hiatus and dealing with obdurate doctors in the hospital Perumal rejoined us for the classes. When he started asking doubts we realised what was missing from the class - the lively giving and taking between the instructors and Perumal which was just for our information. 

            Our apparel group of Sivaram, Prasad and myself were deep into the deciphering the provisioning , stocking and placing of various branded clothes and other items in the shops and why they were placed there for retailing. It never occurred  to us to beard the lion in its den - ask the shop manager the reason for this placement. In the process we spent the entire morning preparing the presentation, prior to lunch.

            We quickly completed the lunch - a quite lunch - there was no untoward noise of people shouting. The process - we were told was on hold till Monday, on humanitarian grounds.

We were looking forward to the class in the afternoon by Prof Swarnalata. For us the switch from the regulated life of the uniform to the different one in civvies was becoming more and more inevitable and real as the days pass by...In fact there is a joke amongst us that whosoever celebrates his birthday, will retire at the end of that month.We had to be ready for this eventuality..

            Prof Swarnalata was precisely there for that purpose - to prepare us for our transition . "It is a dog's world out there "she said - "in fact dogs have it better, there is lot of uncertainty and you have to look out for yourself ; If you are not prepared then you are in for a rude shock". Her shocking us into reality was good and she made an excellent job of it . Relating from real life incidents , movies and all other sources at her disposal she is slowly but surely working on us in preparing for life after uniform - and again who better than Prof Swarnalata who herself has successfully made this transformation? We enjoy her classes and look forward to more 'Gyan' in the near future ....

Mixed Bag

Sep 02.
            With Prof Sachendra there is no telling as to how the class will go. He is sincere , a genuine teacher and he feels that he has not done a day's job if the student has not understood the import of his teaching. And so as usual he was as enthusiastic to teach us as we were to learn. A few weeks back I had said that Prof Paramita Das was mentally on  a different wave length when she was directing another course in addition to teaching us. It only ensured that we did not suffer because of this pre occupation . It was similar with Prof Sachendra. In his preoccupation was the desire to see that the class did not suffer. His capacity to plan his class meticulously is tremendous. The labour he put in to ensure the success of the class was immeasurable. and his effective capacity was 100%.  Today one of the reasons of his preoccupation was that Mr M Gopalkrishna was the guest lecturer in his other group. Mr Gopal Krishna was to lecture on corporate governance.

             Mr Gopal Krishna Joined Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1962.He had the Distinction of securing 100% marks in the Law Examination for IAS Probationers.After working under the Governments of Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Government of India,he retired as CMD of Rural Electrification Corporation in the rank of Secretary to the Govt. of India. He was also Chairman, SCOPE, [the Standing Conference of Public Enterprises], the apex body for 246 Public Sector Undertakings under the Government of India. Academically , he graduated  in Science and Law,did Advanced Management at Banff School of Management, Canada.  Presented papers at several International Conferences on Energy, Minerals and Rural Development. he was elected as Vice Chairman of International Lead Zinc Study Group of the UN for 1991-92and was  Senior Consultant to UNDP, ADB, DFID etc.He is on the Guest Faculty at ASCI, National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie,Dr MCR HRD Institute, Hyderabad, Hyderabad Central University, Institutith ions like NAARM, JNIDB, Institution of Engineers, etc., and several Management Colleges. With qualifications such as these  we were anxious to attend the lecture by Mr Gopal krishna.

Mr M Gopal Krishna

Prof Sachendra kindly surrendered a chunk of his day long class to facilitate our attendance of the lecture.The lecture proved to be an eye opener as far as corporate governance was concerned . He was as is now true of all guest lecturers are concerned , quoting from the scriptures liberally and to good effect. His speech was not only illuminating but was also a morale booster and we started believing in the ending of his lecture which was I CAN DO. Having been boosted as far as our morale was concerned , we also started believing in the fact that our second innings was very much possible in the civvie street. His words that to make everything successful we needed to ensure that our gnana shakti, kriya shakti, icchha diksha and prana shakti were on the right track were imbibed by us in their totality.

The lecture being over we headed back to our class for the final two sessions with Prof Sachendra, who , now that the lecture was over was in a much more relaxed state. His class on decision tree being concluded we headed back home. GJ Rao has finally completed his study on suicide and the paper has gone to the printers for publication. We wish him all the success with it being accepted in the government where I am sure if implemented will benefit a lot of people who at present have no formal counselling as far as this problem is concerned.

Marathon Man

Sep  01
Khush hai zamana aaj pehli taariq hai - the singer sang - then to reinforce the message he again sang - Khush hai zamaana aaj pehli taariq hai - and just when you thought that the message had got home - he again repeated - khush hai zamana aaj pehli taariq hai - and then he ran out of ideas and sang - pehli taariq hai , pehli taariq hai...
Talk was on about the Hyderabad marathon . Only on the 30th of august the Hyderabad marathon was run . When I asked my course mates about running the marathon the replies I got were :-
Banerjee - No way . I have done enough of running; there is no need to prove myself.
Sivaram - Not my cup of tea. In any case I am part of the Marshalling team on bicycles for the marathon .
Prasad. - Nannu yemaina pichha kukka karichinda? (Do  you think a mad dog bit me( that I should be running marathon?) )

Sandhya - I really have no time for running- what with my being busy at various other jobs.. otherwise I would have definitely run the race
Jagpal - Paagal hai kya? ( Short and sweet and upto the point.)
The only guy who did run was Himanshu. Since the beginning of the course in June he has been practicing hard. Cutting back on carbohydrates. not eating sweets , consciously cutting down weight, and single mindedly concentrating on the final day. He did a tremendous job and completed half marathon in about 2h 15m-30 mins ( I think) . He did well and we are all proud of this achievement of a member of ARMSASCI. He is all pumped up to do the same in the next marathon which we think will be the Boston Marathon  - for that is where he will be in the near future.He is the Marathon Man of the day. More than 4000 runners participated in the run at Hyderabad . As the people become more aware of the benefits of running I am sure that the participation will increase ten fold.  

 After the excitement of the Marathon got over we all got down to analysing the Retail markets of apparels and the electronic goods and deciding which brand was leading the market. Our effort was rewarded with appreciation by our Prof , Malini Reddy. I don't know about the other group but team Sivaram ( Apparels) went to the three retail stores that we had identified as the market leaders of the retail. The entire afternoon was devoted to this exercise. Our first stop was West side which is part of the Trent group. The location was ideal - at  the Somajiguda X roads . It had adequate parking and the parking was convenient in that it had two levels of the basement of parking. While there was not much to speak about on the window display, the interiors were another matter altogether . Right from the basement the signposting to the ground floor of the mall was well done . The store had adequate ambience and the first impression was favourable. The ground floor was dedicated to men's apparel footwear and baked goods . Almost all brands were represented. There was music in the back ground and it did not jar upon the ears. All items were within easy reach and where they were not a salesman was present to help out. In fact there was one person who stuck like a leech to us till we moved to the first floor which was devoted to the ladies garments , lingerie and home furniture. Why furniture with lady's garments was beyond us . There were billing counters on all the floors. The next floor had books - a rarity in any shop along with the stationary and toys . The store was good.

Shoppers stop had an IPad at the entrance to give feed back. But try as much as we did we could not get in to post our comments . This privilege was reserved for the first citizens or loyal shoppers. Like west side they also had basement parking but again no valet facility. We attribute this to the slack hour that we visited both the places. Shoppers stop had a larger variety of both clothes and cosmetics and watches and jewelry  - not to talk about the section devoted entirely to the infants.  But unlike west side the items were highly priced and there were no bakery products and furniture. The space was rather constricted compared to west side and the presence of salespersons was minimal. Overall the ambience was rather good and the store had something for everyone in the stipulated range. Seems that this store catered to high income group. One thing here was that there was a section for crockery and cutlery.
 We visited the Pantaloons in the evening . Since there was no let up in the traffic . The advent of Metro has affected the Pantaloon outlet the most. Whatever parking space it had earlier has
been eaten up by the road. They had valet parking.I remember earlier about five years earlier when visiting pantaloons was easy. But now it is an exercise in itself. A person who is coming from the Hyderabad side would rather visit shoppers stop than pantaloons , because of the traffic restrictions . The ambience is good the products are good and priced for the economically reasonable people but the traffic restrictions and parking space are slowly but surely killing business .


This about sums up our first unsupervised field trip to assess the retail conditions among the top three players of  fashion apparel.

Sunday Biryani

Aug30

         People have been telling me, requesting me to write about some things which I thought were funny. So rather than start poking fun or relating incidents which I thought were funny ( The other day Prof Swarnalata was talking about how people's perceptionof what you have said may even lead to destroyed relationships) I thought that I will start off with myself.
          I intend to give opportunity to everyone I know In ASCI to relate Five FUNNY THINGS THAT THEY EXPERIENCED IN LIFE once every sunday. This will help lighten the mood of everyone and it is also a purge of self when you share this with someone else. This will be titled SUNDAY BIRYANI.  You can write about anything on earth - except what the society deems Taboo - but in a lighter vein. It is fun to share and I am sure that there will be enthusiastic response. So here I go with the first five things (Funny in my life)
1.         When I was in class II , I liked going to school because the teacher was a cute Parsi lady and she wore skirts( Not that that was funny) . Any how the joke is about a classmate of mine who gave me a cream biscuit in the break. As the day progressed we had a disagreement and he wanted his biscuit back. Well the only way to return it was to vomit  the stomach contents- and that is what I did...
2.         In spite of getting thrashed for practical jokes ( Parents did not skimp those days - they believed in the dictum of  ' Spare the rod and spoil the child'.) It was in class nine when being taught binary arithmetic that one of my class mates was taken up by ones and zeros. In a loud voice he kept shouting 111101101010... and so on, incessantly- until the teacher came and slapped him saying " Idhar main accounts karne ki koshish kar raha hoon aur mere accounts mein sirf one aur zero aa raha hai - chhup ho jaa".
3.         To get into the services one undergoes a battery of tests. These include written tests, after clearing the written one has to prepare for the Services selection Board where tests include physical, mental aptitude , psychological tests and finally  the interview where having made it we were standing outside in the garden for the president's interview. This also had a lot of weightage. While waiting,I saw a pipe jutting out of the ground, with a faucet. Being of inquisitive nature - or fidgety nature - take your pick, I turned on the faucet. What i did not expect was the pressure with which the water gushed out and wet my shirt totally. It was a defining moment, I was panic stricken. Another candidate came out from the interview, we exchanged shirts and as they say - the rest is history. My saviour did not get selected and it had nothing to do with my wet shirt...
4.         Time passed we grew up trained hard - training was not funny - graduated and joined our battalions. In 1984 we moved North east to train for counter insurgency. The move and the training thereafter was tough and back breaking. The oppressive weather did not help and the jungles were full of under growth. Our mission was to capture an enemy hideout. It was when we were close to the hideout when the company commander cautioned us against making any sort of sound. We were waiting to spring the ambush. It was dark and there was silence all round - which was broken by one of the boys - who was so tired that he started snoring loudly and ruined the surprise. Thank God it was training.
5.         One gets these urges sometimes. " Act in haste and repent at leisure" are some of the things that come to my mind. In March '87 when on leave I was returning late from a dinner at a friend's place on scooter. It was 2'0' clockin the night. I had this desire to close my eyes to see if I could go straight on the scooter; I found that I could not when I veered right and hit a culvert, flew over and crashed my knee against a steel pipe in the nala below. I found that my knee cap broke into many pieces, when I could not stand. Next scene hospital ER . The nursing staff( Male )  at the ER were to carry me to the ambulance for going for the X-Ray. While loading into the ambulance they dropped me on the ambulance steps - Result? - a serious gash on the eye and a bruised Ego. The matter did not end there. That day the orthopaedic surgeon came to check on me. Date for operation was set for the next day. By evening the same doctor suffered a Heart - Attack and was admitted in the hospital along with me... These things happen. The upside is I met my wife to be because of the accident - but that is another story.
               

Legalities and Self Analysis

Aug 27

Court cases are costly and can last several generations - not to talk about the money, the effort, the stress and the heartburn involved. There is also a lot of frustration among the people with regard to the slowness of the wheels of justice. You may even end up feeling that the wheels are square. How do we obviate the need for such lengthy cases and a heavy backlog of cases in the courts? At present there are as many as one crore cases pending in the courts. There is a shortage of judges . There are less than half the judges available in the courts . The perceived slowness of justice is because the courts are short staffed.  Indeed it was a revelation as to how people got old on cases in which the children grow up and leave home , spouses die , someone commits suicide ( I hope GJ Rao is listening) and more often than not the compensation is granted to the  the aggrieved party when it really matters very less. How do we overcome this problem?

Dr Poondla Bhaskar Mohan was our visiting Prof from International Council for Alternative Dispute Resolution. He was addressing our combined class of Contract Management and Services Officers . For the next two hours we learnt all about the Lok Adaalats, courts of Law , how elders helped resolve the disputes and how through the third party help of Mediation, conciliation and Arbitration one can bring disputes in civil law to a speedy closure . I was reminded of my favorite Mythology the Mahabharat , in which all these methods were employed to prevent war but did not happen and hence total annihilation of the kauravas . Of course while employing all these methods now , all one can finally do is approach the court of law. Certain things which we believed of the law proved totally contrary to our expectations. Though Dr BabuMohan hastened to assure us that the courtof law , more often than not, got it right in the end. His repertoire of case studies in which he was involved personally made the other wise mundane class lively , interesting and educative.

Prof  Swarnalata's class was an entirely different kettle of fish. I still remember meeting her on 08Jun, when we kicked off the course . " You look very serious " She said to me and in the same breath she said " it would help if you smile once in a while". For the next two months our only contact with her was in the dining room during lunch when we wished her good afternoon every day without fail. Finally after going through various subjects , it was her turn to teach us about communication skills. In the beginning like fencers we were probing - or rather getting to know each other. Her questions were in a way to help us discover ourselves . Where did we study? How was our childhood ? ( It was fine) . Any defining moment? ( After a pause - " Let me see- there were quite a few defining moments..". ) Which school did we study in? ( Central School, St Patrick's , Many schools - My father had a transferable job, Army School, Little Flower { only for boys - adjustment with the girls may be difficult} St Francis {the instructor's school/ college - Justification - All round were boys schools} Did we have many friends? Were we popular ? ( Never thought about it) How many friends did we have? ( I started counting them Now - found out that I hardly had many). Which branch of the service were we involved in ? How many years of service? ( 4 people 30yrs + ,two 10 yrs) Those with more service -mostly critical - and those with less service relatively untouched by the rigidness of  behavior of the forces.

All this was proved by enacting a small play in which the youngster who did not complete the task at hand and was suitably urged  by the senior to complete the job in time- Interpretation - Parent (Critical ) Adult/ child the reaction of the junior who did not complete the task in time . Conclusion task best done in adult - adult interaction. A few pointers with regard to the body language and vocal inflections . How the overall posture played an important part in delivering the right message to the recipient. Real and artificial smile and how to differentiate the same....

 By now the class atmosphere was beginning to thaw. Under the expert probing by Prof Swarnalata the participants were becoming more animated. The probe continued in form of self analysis  questionnaire and exchanging of the self analysis instrument with your neighbour to see how he assessed you. Was there divergence in our perception and what aspects we were to improve to ensure that our communication skills stood the test of time and interviews (when we went in for interviews for our jobs in our next innings) I must confess that under the expert tutelage of Prof Swarnalata we (I) learnt a lot about ourselves and our course-mates.  Prof Swarnalata's class was interesting and revealing and it was with great reluctance that we had to end the class. Family commitments beckoned and of course the time for the class was at the end. We are thoroughly impressed with her and hope to pick up pointers about life which we had hitherto-fore not paid much attention to... In the end she labelled us as per the mythological characters Jagpal- Karna, Prasad - Bhishma, Himanshu - Arjuna, Sivaram- Krishna , Sandhya - Kunti and me....