How I Met a Great Manager !

Residential Accommodation Problem
We had joined Rourkela Steel in 1965. After two years when our training was supposed to have been completed, we were asked to leave the hostel. There were no houses etc available, but the new batch was expected and every one was trying to push us out.
There was a junior engineers forum and we asked the GM for an appointment to make him aware of our problems. We got the date and time. Four people were selected to go for the meeting. As was going to happen regularly, on the appointed time only I reached. I was asked to wait in a room. Within a few minutes the GM walked in , followed by a person with a note book, I learnt later that he was the DGM(P).
He asked me what the problem was. I told him that there is no place to go after leaving hostel, even in old Rourkela. That was all I ever said in that meeting. He turned to the DGM(P) and started taking decisions.

-- How many flats in G Block Sector 2 are vacant? Allot two '65 batch people per flat.

-- The Iranian flats, are they still vacant? Iranians are not coming, allot these flats to '66 batch people.

-- How many houses in different sectors are not functional? Get them repaired immediately and start allotting them as they get ready.

-- Start the allotment by seniority tomorrow, and ask the concerned department to start the repairs also.

We started getting flats the next day, we spent a great time with friends in G Block, and then I got allotted in Sector 20.

This was clarity of priorities, decision making etc. This was the then GM, Shri RP Sinha. We would be learning much more in times to come, specially how to involve people of all levels.

Rourkela Steel- How My Morning Tea Got Resolved!

Sector 20 - How My Morning Tea Problem Got Resolved
I was maintaining Coke Ovens in Rourkela, a very tough job, used to come back with coal powder from head to toe, if I came back at all.
To get an idea let me tell you about my colleague Mr. Bhopatkar, a couple of years my senior, looking after Coal Yard and Wagon Tippler. Once he reached home to find the house locked. No one was there. Then a neighbor came out and told him that his family has gone home to Pune, as you were hardly coming home, here is the key.

My job was even tougher. That night I reached late, was alone as my wife had gone home, went as usual to have a bath first, came out looking human and had something to eat and conked off to sleep. My milk wala came at 5 am us usual, I took it and put it on gas and just then the phone rang. I shouted and fired the shift chap, I cannot even get sleep on Sunday, told him what has to be done and waited for the progress report. Decided again to go early, and in disgust fell off to sleep. I must have been in deep sleep, then I heard tapping on my window, and people talking to each other. One lady, my neighbor, was telling the other that I knew he would commit suicide one day and something like this would happen! I jumped out of bed having overslept and found the house full of black smoke. I opened the window , then one lady said "are you ok mr. Misra?" I opened all the doors and windows and all my neighbors, much relieved that I was alive, came in and inspected how I was doing it. Then one of them entered the kitchen and found the cause, burnt milk, and put off the gas. By that time some smoke was flowing out and after making sure that I won't try suicide again, started going back for their Sunday work. Then the nice lady , Mrs Sawhney, just behind my house , came back. What time do you take tea? Till your wife comes back I will send you your cup. I was so grateful, thanked her. Then my next door lady came, they were Telgu and very nice people, she said please tell the milkman to give the milk in my house, I will boil it and send it to you ! Just managed to hide my happiness and thanked her.

I love Rourkela, all the people and best neighbors in the world! Have lost touch with my next door neighbor, they visited us in Ahmedabad, and always try to meet Sawhney Saheb when I am in Delhi!

Water Diviner in Hyderabad

It was my first visit to our Chicken Feed Factory. It was mid eighties and Hyderabad was just getting into news for leader in supply of poultry. I had learnt a little bit about feed, poultry farms from our Nutritionist, Operations Head and Marketing guys. I was new to all this, being a vegetarian.
The important thing that stuck to my mind was that the key ingredient is dried fish and when stored in gunny bags more than six high in the godown, can automatically catch fire.
After going around the factory and other routine things I inspected the godown. They were stored properly. Then I asked them in case there is fire how do you tackle it? Their reply shocked me. There is no water. They had tried to put bore well at many places but no water was there. I too looked around pretending to be an expert, HO guys are supposed to know everything. Then I talked of getting a water diviner but they all were very skeptical . I was too but our job is to find solutions and be ready for emergencies. In the office I took out a news paper cutting from my file. I had read about it in a newspaper and had kept it out of curiosity. I had seen many unusual things in South , including Sai Baba, Vastu Shastra etc and I was learning.
I gave the water diviner a ring and told him our problems. He said come at 6am tomorrow, and I will come with you after I complete my morning Pooja. He was a Brahmin with horizontal teeka and as a very special gesture, allowed me to go into his Pooja room. On the roof they showed me a complete om sign formed by a reflected light but I could not see any source even after much scrutiny. I was told it has been there for a long time, they had no idea how it came about.
The diviner walked around in the factory. Then he opened his bag and took out a pair of leather gloves. My suspicions took a jump, a great Brahmin wearing leather gloves! Then he took out a one inch diameter copper rod bent in U shape with extended ends to hold by hand. He held in in his gloved hand started walking. I watched his hand very carefully, he would pretend to have felt some thing, then he will say something, collect his few hundred rupees and go off. Suddenly the copper rod started rotating furiously, as if a 40 HP motor has been switched on! He immediately stepped back, sweating profusely. I knew then about the leather gloves, his hand would have got burnt!
He rested for a few minutes, wiped his sweat and went to the same spot. The rod again whirled violently and he stepped back. He then checked other places and finally came to the same place. Then he took out a plastic bottle filled with ganges water, tied it to the copper rod and it again it whirled, he tried several times with more bottles, wrote something down and finally told me the depth at which the water is available.
I tried to do that but nothing happened! I went and dropped him home, he invited me to come again. Wish I had the time. Later, water was found there on second drilling, to my great relief.
I had read about water divining in Wild West novels where some take a Y shaped dried branch of a tree and walk in the same way holding two sides and the third gets pulled by gravity where water may be there. Later I met an expert in Bangalore who used to hang a rudraksh on a string, and if water is there it's starts rotating clock wise fairly fast. I tried that too. It worked.
I belong to the category of people who do more than just talk, how do I set an example to youngsters, that there are people who solve problems.
My juniors had a great regard for me, the seniors went against me. They had not been taught all that!

How I Made Floating Fish Feed

One morning while coming to office, I got out of the lift and was walking towards our main entrance when I felt a hand on my shoulder. It could Only be the chairman of the Company, coming out of the other lift. He did that when he wanted something urgently, and would give all the help needed. This time he asked me to come to his office.

There he told me that there was a great demand for a bigger fish, farmed in the coastal Andhra and Tamil Nadu.They were active type and jumped out and ate floating things. We wanted to make floating fish feed suitable for them. They had received quotations from UK for equipment to produce them for 20 crores and more. This was just not feasible. Can you do something about this?

My Company had a sense of humour, giving a vegetarian chap like me charge of animal feeds among other things. We took the feeds from about 50,000 tons per annum to around 3 lakh tons. I invented cow feed with 45% molasses, which made the cows love that, chicken feed, Hyderabad had just started coming into news, feed for shrimps which has to lie at the bottom of the pond for a long time without dissolving etc

Now it was floating fish feed.

I looked around, talked to experts, but they knew about feed but not much about the equipment. That night I was cooking nutri nuggets, something that had come recently in the market, I had bought a packet out of curiosity. I put it in pressure cooker with some vegetables and went for my bath etc. When I opened the cooker, it was floating on the surface. I took one nugget out and checked. It was soft and It was still a nugget. I thought it will break up if I kept it under pressure for more time. After several attempts it remained the same. Then I had my dinner. The nutri nugget was chewy and tasty. I looked at the packet to see the ingredients. It was mostly protein. At around 2 am the thought came to me , is this what we are looking for?

In the morning, I went to my nutrition and fish feed expert. He checked the ingredients he said the floating fish feed will also be high protein like this one. I went to see the chairman and asked him about the makers of this product. He said I know the chaps and will talk to him, and after talking to them that he asked me to visit the factory. I took a car and went and saw the process of high pressure extrusion, how it pops out at a high temperature. The factory head told me that their capacity is under ulilized and carry out our trial any time.

I consulted our feed specialist and got the our factory to mix a bag of the required ingredients. Next morning I took the bag to the factory and got our nuggets made. We just fed the mix in the high pressure screw extractor and watched the floating fish feed popping out . We tested it in water. It did not melt, it always floated.

Next morning I kept a sample packet of fish feed on the chairman's table.

It was a stunning cost saving job, but it looked so simple, very few appreciated me.