Beas Tragedy-Who is to Blame?

On 8th June 2014, two buses carrying students and few faculty members of VNR Vignana Jyothi Intitute of Engineering & Technology, Hyderabad on an excursion to Manali, Himachal Pradesh halted at a place near Thalot on NH-21. They were on their way back to Mandi. NH-21 runs almost parallel to River Beas right from Manali to Mandi. The distance between the river and the road varies from a few metres when one gets a exotic view of the river to a few hundred metres when the river is not visible from the road.

So it was that fateful evening when the visitors decided to take a few pictures as close to the river. A few calls exchanged between the travellers of the two buses and the buses stopped near Larji Hydro Power Project (LHPP). Apparently the water seemed to be the closest from this point. However as per media reports the students still had to descend nearly 15 metres to reach water.
Further 15 kms downstream is Pandoh Dam.

About a km upstream at the LHPP the power generation unit received a phone call from the control room in Simla to cut down production from 126MW to 68MW. One generation unit was shut down but then the water level started rising in the reservoir. Further upstream at Aut, it touched the NH-21. Therefore the dam authorities decided to release some water into the river to avoid damage to the Project. The gates were opened at about 6.20pm. The dammed waters gushed out.

The students were totally engrossed in clicking photographs and other fun activities typical to such a young group. Suddenly they found themselves in rising waters. It was all over in 2-3 minutes. 24 young lives washed away. 24 families lose the cynosure of their eyes. How many of these lives had the hopes of their family pinned on them for a better life?

The politicians were quick to get into the act of taking credit for relief work. It was quite disgusting to see the one upmanship being played out between the TRS chief and Telengana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao and the Andhra CM N Chandrababu Naidu. The HP CM spitting out his two bits asking reporters to check the political leanings of those criticising the lack of warning before the water was released only adds to the disgust. A full scale blame game is on.

Whatever be the outcome of the blame game,what are we doing to prevent such an occurrence taking place again? There are some urgent steps that need to be taken at various levels namely the government,society, educational institutions and most important at the family level.

The government and its departments must be having their standard operating procedures (SOP) to guide the operations. The authorities have to ensure that the staff follows these SOP.

Having said this,there is also a need to identify and mark prospective dangerous areas. Or at least identify the nature of risk/danger and take steps to mitigate the impact. e,g. the Forest Dept has put up numerous boards announcing the presence of tigers in the forests surrounding Kerwa Dam in Bhopal. The visitors are warned and hence they are cautious. Go to any safety conscious project site and you will see warning boards. Cordoning off such areas are also part of safety measures, as in the Metro sites.

While it may not be feasible to cordon the access from the road to the river in this case,warning boards along the road on NH-21 near the river informing the public of the danger in going to the river could have imposed caution on these young free spirited souls and they would have still been with us.

At the educational institutes, inputs on the likely risks to be faced during an excursion should form part of any detailed briefing before the excursion. As someone commented somewhere on the social media that having lived the first 20 years of his life in Himachal, he would never have gone close to the river and more so at 6.30 in the evening when the light is failing. The author goes on to say that he is aware of the flash floods in rivers in the mountains. Creating such awareness in the visiting students could have saved their lives.

We need to inculcate, instill ,imbue into the national consciousness a healthy regard for safety norms. Inculcating safety consciousness in school children from a very early age. But that is possible only if the parents themselves are aware and 'intelligent' enough to impart such education to their children.It distresses me to see even grandfathers with their little grandchild standing in front on the scooter and driving on the wrong side of the road only to avoid driving a few hundred metres extra. The number of parents who drive in this manner is huge.One doesn't need to submit proof to substantiate this point. Minors barely 40 inches tall can be seen driving two wheelers with impunity and the dash of a professional racer in every town/city.

Observe any group of picnickers at a water body. Most of them want to get into the water without understanding the dangers inherent to that place. Every now and then we read reports of minors drowning in water filled quarries.

Why can't we teach our children to be careful? I hope the teachers accompanying the students tried to dissuade the students from going too close to the river. Only subsequent enquiries and time will bring this out. But even if they did, would the students have listened? I have my doubts. Because we have failed to teach them to be safety conscious.

While we can leave the institutions to do their part, we as citizens can start with ourselves becoming safety conscious and imbuing it in our children or those in our charge as the first step.

  

Random Cooking-Bloody Mary Mutton

I enjoy the times when i have unrestricted access to the kitchen. No that does not imply that i enjoy when my better half is away. Honestly. All it means that once in a while when the kids insist that i cook, do i get this unrestricted access.

One fine sunny winter morn, I was reading a novel set in the British Raj times.The 'propah' Memsahib, the 'Burra Sahib' with his penchant for immaculate dressing and dining was driven by a keen desire to embrace Mughlai food.And the cook, the eternally ephemeral Inamdeen. I drifted off to slumber land  and was ushered in to the Burra Sahib's dining room. The Burra Sahib was shouting at Inamdeen, who had failed to set aside the delectable mutton dish he had prepared earlier for the household for the Burra Sahib. "Bloody, meri mutton kha  gaya tum."

I woke up with a start. "Bloody Mary Mutton". What an idea!! Checked the freezer. Mutton was in stock. Checked the bar, vodka was still there.Did   No tomato juice. Not a problem. Plenty of tomatoes. Got down to business!!
Pureed the tomatoes while the mutton was on a merry-go-round in the micrwave. This experience would leave it sweaty and thawed. Soften it for the what i was going to do with it. So would it be with the tomatoes. Aah!! but what about my poor parched throat? It too must be satiated. And my poor arms, which are used to a translatory motion in the longitudinal plane. Lifting a glass with increasingly reducing weight and then again gaining weight. What about their exercise?  There were half a dozen beer cans inside. As the information travelled from my optical nerves through the complex system of synapses, I could hear my throat heave a sigh of relief and my arm tingle in anticipation. The finger tips twitched with joy at the prospect of holding the chilled beer can!!
By the time i opened a can, the mutton had thawed and the puree was ready.
Marinated the mutton in vodka (120ml), tomato puree and the usual spices. Did not forget to add salt.
Dealing with three cans took about an hour or so and i was back in service of the mutton-mix.
Heated a pan with two spoons of oil, tej patta, cloves, cardamom and some chopped onions.
Stirred till the onions were brown. Then put the mutton-mix in the pan and turned the flame low. Covered the pan with a lid. Forgot to put chillies. Opened the lid and put about 10 green chillies.
Went back to stir the mix in between couple of sips. In fact i was functioning like a metronome. Four sips, stir for five minutes. Four sips, stir for five minutes.
Each sip took two seconds and the time interval between successive sips was two minutes. In each sip i took in about 20ml. Thats about 22 sips for a 440ml can!!
To cut it short, the mutton-mix was on fire for about an hour and a half. The colour was brownish red. Brown from the onions and spices, red from the tomatoes. So much for Mendellian laws.
By the time three beer cans had found their way to the trash can, the meat was cooked. Soft and succulent and fiery.
The kids were back from the market and were hungry. Fried some chicken nuggets for them ( they have resisted from sampling the delights of mutton cooked by self). My wife is very fond of my cooking... Actually which wife wouldn't be!! Not by my cooking but by their respective husband's cooking for them.
So we had Bloody Mary Mutton with parathas and chicken nuggets!!!

Reorientating for second innings-Defence personnel

Defence personnel are released from service at a comparatively early age. On an average, officers hang their uniform at the age of 54. It is earlier for those seeking premature release. For JCOs it varies between 45 to 48 years and for NCOs it is between 35 to 40 years. Now this is the age when people in other professions are approaching their peak and we have these armed forces personnel ‘retiring’. It is that phase of life when the children are growing and expenses are the maximum on meeting their requirements. Education, helping them settle into a career and marriage is the foremost concern. Quite a few of us adopt a passive attitude and reconcile ourselves to not having a ‘second innings’. Over the past few years, the economic pressures have been forcing ex-servicemen to seek re-employment in the civil street after retirement. However not many of our ex-servicemen prepare themselves for this. An attempt has been made in this article to highlight the various steps that need to be taken at organizational, local and personal level to be gainfully employed after retirement. The article focuses only on PBOR. As an HR consultant I meet a number of ex-servicemen who are looking for a job. In most cases, the attitude when they step out of uniform is one which can be called casual and unrealistic. This is a result of ignorance about what works outside. Plus the financial cushion available at that time makes them complacent. What saddens me is that over a period of time as the funds received at retirement deplete, they become cynical and lose their ‘spark’. Having said that, I must acknowledge that the PBOR retiring from the Air Force and the Navy are better equipped to deal with life after retirement. This largely has to do with their better educational background and service conditions including skills acquired. To that extent people from the Corps of Engineers, Signals or EME do better than those from Infantry or Artillery. This is largely due to the skills that they acquired in service are needed outside too. Quite a few of them are absorbed in the infrastructure field. Let us now examine the basic skills required for firstly getting into a second career and the steps that need to be taken at personal and organizational level to make the transition smooth. Skills Required and Actions at Personal Level a. Computer Skills. In this day and age of technological advancement, a large number of PBOR retiring are not able to operate a computer. They do not have an email id also. I, personally have created email ids for a number of such ex-servicemen who came to meet me. There is a need for them to be conversant with the basics of MS Office. In case a JCO/ NCO is looking at a position as a Security Officer, it is expected that he should be capable of sending reports on mail. This report requires knowing Excel and typing a covering letter involves knowing MS Word. b. Basic Record Keeping Skills. The PBOR should be familiar with basic record keeping. This is one area in which they are strong, having done duties of Mess NCO or Canteen NCO or other regimental assignments. However they need to learn to adapt that knowledge to the present work. c. Be mentally prepared to deal with uncertainties. In the Army we get used to certain predictability especially at the PBOR level. If there is problem, a deviation,the “Sahab ko bataa diya” syndrome must be curbed. PBOR must learn to deal with problems themselves. That is the need outside. d. A flexible approach to work timings. A number of PBOR who come looking for a job want that their duty timings should not exceed 8 hours and be sacrosanct. Unfortunately, that is not realistic in the outside world. There are duties which have fixed timings, but then the pay is also fixed. The scope for growth is also fixed. e. Prepare yourself and be positive. Starting a second career can be mentally and emotionally challenging. Therefore we have to prepare ourselves for the shock. Do not be disheartened by setbacks or the feeling that ‘nothing seems to be happening’. We have to make things happen. f. No Comparisons. Do not compare yourself with other ex-servicemen. While in the services, the ground conditions would have been similar for everyone. The focus was on team work. Out in the civil world it is different. Each one us is an individual and we have to bank on our own uniqueness and our own skill sets. And we have to find or form our own support group. Do not lose heart by comparing yourself with others. In fact draw inspiration from them. Examine what is it that they are doing differently which has contributed to their success. g. Introspection and Self Assessment. Each one of us needs to introspect and carry out a self assessment. We must ask ourselves the following questions:- i. What are the skills that I possess? ii. What is their relevance outside? Which industry needs these skills? iii. With my current skill set, would I be satisfied with the salary I’ll get or should I upgrade myself and then enter the job market? iv. Would I be happy doing this job or am I doing it out of compulsion? This question may seem odd but it helps us identify our real motive for taking up a job and then we can deal with it appropriately. To further elaborate, I may take up a job that is not paying very well but it is adding to my kitty. Simultaneously I would take steps to upgrade myself and having done that, would look for a better paying assignment. h. Upholding Military Ethos even after Retirement The military man must continue to uphold the military ethos even after retirement. This is a challenge for quite a few of our people. To put it simply, with the ‘danda’ missing, they find themselves incapable of governing themselves. Their discipline and conduct which was impeccable till a few months ago, goes for a toss. Our honesty, integrity and disciplined approach is respected in the civil street and are our strongest points. We must not abandon them. Organizational Measures The DGR is doing an yeomen service in helping ex-servicemen settle into a second career. However to give a fillip to their efforts, the following steps seem very important to me. a. Having an Aptitude Assessment Centre and Career Counselors at each regimental centre. In conjunction with DIPR, an Assessment Centre could be established at each regimental centre. When the person goes for the discharge process, this assessment centre can help him in finding his aptitude and latent skills that would be useful in civil street. Then along with a career counselor, the person could examine various career options open to him. This would prepare him suitably for a smooth transition. The degree of disillusionment would go down. b. Computer Training. All units must ensure that people proceeding on pension have been trained on MS Office and can do basic operations. It must be incorporated in the check list for people proceeding on discharge. c. Promote Ex-servicemen Groups. The DGR could make formal cognizance of various Ex-servicemen groups active in most cities and towns. Members of these groups are capable of providing critical and substantive support towards resettlement efforts. As a matter of fact they are already doing so by employing ex-servicemen in their organizations. However their efforts need to be coordinated. The DGR should facilitate, without seeming to exercise control, all these groups coming on a common platform and sharing information about employment opportunities. Yes, there would be a need to shed the ‘seniority syndrome’ and ‘egos’ for this platform to function effectively. Inter-services rivalry or past individual conflicts will have to be forgotten. It should be a platform for promoting other ex-servicemen and not for personal advancement. d. Timing of Resettlement Courses. Presently, most of the PBOR or even officers undergo the resettlement training while still in service. At this time the realities of retirement have not been understood by them. As a result the course is perceived as an opportunity to spend time at home and ‘relax’. The courses are subscribed to by the PBOR on the basis of the convenience of location of the training institute and not on what their aptitude demands. The focus for these courses has to shift from convenience to learning value. I feel that if PBOR attend a resettlement course after proceeding on pension, there will be two benefits. Firstly, they will be more serious about learning and secondly their availability in the units will increase. Conclusion. The popular refrain of people proceeding on pension say 25 years back was, “Sahab, bahaut kaaam kar liya. Ab ghar jaa kar khet samhaloonga”. The families and the land-holdings have fragmented. ‘Khet samhalna’ is no longer a viable economic option, save for few. The current economic scenario and increasing urbanization has thrown up the need for ex-servicemen to quickly adapt themselves to the civil street. This would entail deep introspection and reorientation of skill sets. There is also an urgent need to strengthen the organizational measures and initiation of ‘out-of-the-box’ solutions to effectively help ex-servicemen settle in a second career. Having said the above, I see a silver lining in the fact that the problem of resettlement will be less acute when PBOR recruited after 1995 start coming up for retirement. They would be better tuned to harsh realities of the outside world and be more adaptive.

Incident at Nyoma camp, Ladakh-11May12

The incident at Nyoma camp involving a fracas between officers and jawan is symptomatic of the changes tearing at the cultural fabric of the Indian Army. It would not be presumptuous to say that that it is not the last incident of its kind if urgent measures are not taken.


The incident needs to be examined in the following contexts before we explore the measures that need to be taken :-
a. Diminishing gap between the backgrounds of officers and jawans.
b. Conduct of officers and ladies.
c. Effective command vs failure of command.

The gap between the backgrounds of the officers and the jawans has rapidly diminished. The intake into the officer cadre is no more from the ‘elite’ or the ‘educated’ class only as it was sat three decades ago. Earlier, a large percentage of officer’s children use to follow their father’s footsteps into the armed forces. Now that space has been occupied by children of Junior Commissioned Officers/ Other Ranks. This has been made possible by the urgent and necessary steps taken by the armed forces to make quality education available to children of JCOs/Ors by way of establishing Army Schools and other institutes. These children are driven by the natural ambition of achieving a better station in life than their father did. There are other children who join the army as a jawan.

Now imagine a hypothetical situation wherein two boys are studying in the same class. Both have a crush on the same girl but she likes only one. One kid gets through the entrance exam and joins the NDA. The other boy, who was liked by the girl, could not get through the entrance test and his father gets him enrolled as a jawan with the hope that he can work his way to a commission while in the army.

The first boy comes to the unit as a lieutenant after getting commissioned. The second boy is serving in the same unit as a jawan. What will be the relationship between the two?

Their secret ‘crush’ in the meanwhile has gone through college and her father gets her married to the officer. The other man is crestfallen. Potential for personal conflict spilling into the professional domain?

Having said that, the issue is much more complex. It is about reduced tolerance of indiscreet acts committed by officers, amongst the other ranks. I remember the time when as young officers we acted rashly a number of times but the jawan continued to look up to us and was very unquestioning. The gap in our educational and social backgrounds had a lot to do with this. Now with a large number of officers and jawans coming from similar backgrounds, the gap is indistinguishable. The unquestioning attitude has given way to expressing dissent. The onus is now on the officer to win the respect of men under him by way of his professional conduct. He cannot take it for granted.

The actions of officers are deeply scrutinized and questioned by the men under his command. An officer’s conduct has to be above board at all times. This responsibility devolves on to officers’ families also. They have to conduct themselves in a manner that does not give reason for anybody to take liberties or invite opprobrium. This includes the way they dress, talk and conduct themselves in public or at home where the ‘sahayak’ is present. Unfortunately, many of our young ladies are not adequately made aware of this responsibility and they behave as college-going students would do. There is a need to sensitize them about what is appropriate conduct in the context of the armed forces.

A few officers’ families staying in non-family stations/ field-areas was a privilege and it was not questioned earlier. But given the present socio-economic aspirations, the jawan has started resenting this privilege and questions as to why he cannot keep his family too. Such thought process often leads to frustration resulting in unacceptable behavior. Therefore, the commanders at all levels will have to revisit this aspect and a uniform policy implemented. There can be no exceptions.

There are greater demands being placed on the commanding officer in terms of man-management. The aspiration and expectation levels are very high all around. The commanding officer has to be and seen to be above perceived partisan interests. He needs to know the pulse of the men under his command including his officers.

In this particular incident, the Commanding Officer did well to intervene but was not effective. Only the court of inquiry will bring out whether the act of young officers beating up the jawan for misbehaving with a Major’s wife was one of spontaneous outburst or the culmination of a series of misdemeanors on part of the jawan which were not appropriately addressed earlier. If it was the latter, it would be clear case of failure of command.

The court of inquiry would certainly bring out the causes of the incidence and exemplary punishment meted out to those found guilty.

The Army also needs to do serious introspection and come up with a code of conduct keeping the present socio-economic realities in mind. And as always the onus lies with those in command, at all levels. The officer cadre has its task cut out for itself.

RTE Act- More issues

The upholding of the RTE Act by the Supreme Court has been a shot in the arm for the HRD ministry. However, instead of ushering in a 'licence raj' wherein only private institutions are held accountable, the government should do some soul-searching too.

The focus currently appears to be on the responsibility that private schools have to share by admitting 25% of students at the entry level. There are two issues related to this that I wish to bring out.

Firstly, there is ambiguity in the definition of 'entry level'. Most of the schools have their entry at the KG level. Let us assume that they have 4 sections with 40 students each. The intake of students from economically weak sections would be 40 in this case (25% as per RTE).

Schools would be well within the law if they start a pre-school with only one section with say 40 students. Then they would have to admit only 10 students from the poor sections of the society. 4 sections continue to function from the KG level onwards with new admissions. This is a situation wherein pre-school is the de-jure entry level and KG is the de- facto entry level.

The second point that I wish to highlight is that when admitting children from economically weaker backgrounds under the RTE, the government is only making the class rooms and the infrastructure available to these children. But a school is much more. It is an entire socio-economic-academic system. Have we given a thought about what psychological and financial impact will studying in an affluent school have on the child and the parent. The RTE has ensured entry, but who will pay for the school trips or dresses to be bought for annual day or the birthday parties of classmates. A child at the age of 5 or 6 or even 10 is too young to understand the financial implications of these. In trying to keep up with the classmates, the parents of the child are likely to suffer severe financial strain or the child is likely to grow up with a deep sense of inferiority. Where then would the RTE lead us to?
Let us not close our eyes to these practical issues which almost every parent experiences.

Instead of getting into a debate with the private schools and trying to enforce the rules for them, government should examine its own performance on the educational front. The government should focus on improving the facilities in government-aided schools, quality of teachers and act as an enabler for improving the educational environment. The only focus should be on ways to improve the standard of schooling, teaching and learning, not just for the poor and underprivileged children but all children.

Enhancing Employability. Whose baby is it?

An industry-academia interaction was organised by Rajiv Gandhi Technical University, Bhopal on April 10th & 11th.The issue of enhancing the employability of our graduates was addressed from all perspectives. It was aptly called "MANTHAN".

The initiative taken by the University is indeed laudable. The large participation of industry representatives was an indication that the everyone is siezed with this concern and we should hope for some synergetic actions from the industry and the academia.

I happened to attend the inaugural session and found the remarks of one of the key speakers to be a little out of tune. He mentioned that "training is the job of the academia and not the industry". This remark could have evoked a sense of consternation in the minds of the audience, but for the fact that training is considered a critical aspect in the organisation that the speaker heads. Considerable investments are made for training the employees.

Another speaker, head of an infrastructure company was very candid when he said that " it is not only our need to train the employees in order to ensure our own growth,it is also our responsibility". He went on to point out that "there should be greater cross movement of people from the industry to academics and vice-versa". As of now, the academic world is insulated from reality which is evident from our teaching curriculum which has not evolved with time.


The answer to the question ' Enhancing employability. Whose baby is it?' is both, the industry and the academia. The industry has to work more closely with the academia and the latter has to be receptive to the changing needs of the industry and dynamic enough to modify their curriculum as per the needs.

Academic institutions in the US have very strong linkages with the industry and that is perhaps why top quality research leading to product development is the norm there. In order to maintain the growth of the economy, Indian industry will have to collaborate with the academic institutions in order to get the right material at the entry level and will have to continue investing in training the employee in order to enhance his productivity and the growth of the organisation. Statistics show that organisations which have invested in employee-training have sustained their growth while others were like comets.


The step by the HRD ministry to affiliate regional ITIs with the co-located industrial units is a step in the right direction. But a lot more still needs to be done.

Democracy at Work

Last evening, 27th Dec, while surfing the channels i chanced upon Lok Sabha TV. Time 9.45 pm.
The honourable House was in the process of passing the Lokpal Bill. Mr Pranab Mukherjee was at his parliamentary best. Interspersed with rhetoric, he chided the opposition for disrupting the functioning of the Parliament and took delight in rebuking Mr Yashwant Sinha on his "PM's farewell speech" remark.
Dr Manmohan Singh looked positively out of place and wishing that he were not there. His body language was closed as if he had been asked by the 'High Command' to sit tight and stay quiet.
Anoushka, my thirteen year old, had been pestering me to change the channel but got a lecture on the landmark occasion she was witnessing!
Soon the voting started on the various clauses and amendments.
It was quite a charade. The Honourable Speaker trying to maintain order in the House. The members seemed to be enjoying every bit of it, shouting 'AYE' or 'NO' as the proposals were brought up by the Speaker. Mrs Meira Kumar reminded me of a Cheshire cat, sans its whiskers, well coiffeured, smiling yet trying to look stern and passing/rejecting the proposals based on the noise made by the 'ayes' and the 'noes'.
She went on and on "...I think the 'ayes' have it, the 'ayes' have it. ....", or "... I think the 'noes' have it, the 'noes' have it...."
Anoushka was enjoying herself mimicking her. I looked at the clock. It was nearly eleven pm. I told Anoushka to go off to sleep.
"Papa, this is better that any serial on TV. It is so much more entertaining. Please let me watch for some more time."
Not willing to see the mockery of parliamentary proceedings and the proceedings being mocked at by genx, i switched off the TV.