“ Help Help Help” a voice from ladies toilet

Well this drama happened when we were in 5th semester Mechanical Engineering.

Characters: Abhishek, Guru, Amit, Ishwar, DJ…

Location: College Library (Clite), BVB Engineering College Hubli

It was one fine afternoon, when all of us were sitting in the library doing some assignment. Hey hang on, before I move further first let me give you a feel of our library, It has mainly 2 sections, one is reading and other is open space where in people discuss world wide happenings and college gossips. On that day, as most of the students were attending their classses, we could hardly see anyone in the library. We all mech guys were sitting around a study table and talking some crap. Somewhere from the background I heard a faint voice “Help Help”. Initially the voice was not that clear. I said to my friends ‘hey I heard someone calling for help..!!!’ Guru said “what, are you crazy! we did not hear any such voice". Others nodded supporting guru. There was silence for a moment and we guys continued what we were doing. But after some time the voice “Help Help” became more intense. And this time we all heard it. With anastonished look, we gazed each other in surpise. Abhya and guru said together “where the hell is this voice coming from?”. We started looking but there was no one around. Suddenly the voice became more intense and directed us to a place named “Ladies Toilet”. Later we moved in front of the toilet door, to confirm whether the voice is from inside. Finally a strong voice broke out from inside “Help Help”. And certainly it was a girl’s voice. Now the big question in front of us was what to do? Enter girls toilet or call someone. But abhishek said lets go inside and check out. I think it was abhya who took the call and opened the ladies toilet door. We were kind of worried like what might have happened inside and upon that entering a ladies toilet is not a comfortable situation as well. After entering we discovered that a girl was locked inside a bathroom from past half an hour. She was trying very hard to open the lock, but couldn’t succeed and thus was shouting for help from long time. Also she was crying. We calmed her saying that nothing will happen just cool down. First we gave her some instruction saying “Be calm and try opening the knob rotating in clockwise and anticlockwise direction”, she tried it and said “no it’s not coming”. Then suddenly abhishek started kicking the door furiously, thinking that the door lock will get open (something like bollywood movie scenes). I don’t know what went on his head, but he kicked really very hard. Hearing the door banging sound, the girl started crying again. Mean while I and guru checked the lock mechanism of another door. So finally we asked her to try rotating the knob anticlockwise and at the end of rotation apply some extra jerk (jimmy). She tried and finally the door popped out. The girl ran out of the bathroom with full velocity and disappeared.

Moral: Kicking doors like bollywood style doesn’t help.

"Ranichenamma-6589" my friday night fever..!!!

No no its not an disco-tech or any night club, but sure it a happening place for most of the grad's from Hubli-Dharwad on friday night. Its a train running from Bangalore-Hubli and Hubli-Bangalore. First let me tell something about Hubli-Dharwad for the readers who dont know much about it. Well Hubli-Dharwad are two big North-Karnataka cities. Around 450 Kms from Bangalore. Thousands of graduates from this region are working in Bangalore, the so called Silicon Valley of India. And one of the most popular train to this place is our Ranichennamma express. Since the journey from Bangalore-Hubli is over night, its very convenient for majority of the people to leave Bangalore on Friday night and come back to Bangalore on monday morning by the same train.

Alright the story is not that simple as narrated like come to station take a ticket and hop on. To get a reservation in this train one has to plan his journey well one month in advance. Later the Gold Rush, oops I mean the train rush phenomenon starts right from the friday morning. The train leaves exactly at 9.15pm and for a person like me who works in whitefield, its like taking a bet...!!! First somehow manage to get away from office as early as possible, for this be alert the whole day and finish the work ASAP. Later come home (airport road), collect the baggage and catch hold of an auto... convincing a auto driver to come railway station is like asking him to do me a favour... and in return he says "Saarr tumba traffikuu saarr, 200 nur rupaiya agathe saarr" (Sir too much traffic, it will be Rs.200 to drop)... " le nim aggi * nann train ticketye 215 aythi, math na nenaga 200 kodbeak yean???...*nim aggi manas valag (My train ticket itself is around Rs.215 and I should pay you 200 bucks to reach station???) Alright DJ some how consoles him to settle at 100 bucks (average till now). And by the time DJ does all this exercise it will be around 7.45pm... now the next step is to beat the traffic and reach the station ASAP... wait a minute beat traffic...great...!!! how you do it?? is that your question... sorry I lied till now I am not able to beat this traffic no matter how many short cuts I have taken. Ha thrice I was successful in over coming the deadly traffic jam by getting down at Hudson circle from auto and walked straight 2 kms to reach station... :-) Ya sometime its pretty much possible to clear the traffic in this way... and later on the platform its like a DDLG scene, i mean catching a running train... I dont know how the people of electronicity manage to reach station... anyway DJ somehow gets into the train... and here starts the next phase of journey... I always book my ticket through online website... now whenever I choose option of Upper Berth n book the ticket... this psycho website most of the time gives me a berth number 70....!!! Now do you have any idea of what the berth number 70 mean? well its a shit berth close to the door n near stinking toilets... yak...!!! I do the reservation well in advance but again I get the berth 70... sometime I dont understand who the hell has designed the online website... would like to kill him in the same boggie toilet... And near the door space, its like a living room for the people.... My god people come in and go out like freaking jerks... they dont carry one or two bags, the whole godown will be with them... when the train starts one can see all different n weird kind of people... some people start staring at others as if they are from any other alien world, some will be in their own deep thinking as if this is their last journey in life... mean while one can hear all the latest rings tones of mobile from all the corners of the boggie... people discuss their whole family stories over the phone and trust me sometime while listening, one gets involved into their story and start feeling the character too.... by seeing so many people in the train n station I recall my school days essay writing, our hindi teacher used to ask us to write a essay on "Janasankya Vispot" (Population Explosion).... and now I realize it very clearly...!!! As the sleeping time approaches, its time for berth negotiation... few people who are not happy tend to negotiate with others for suitable berth... before sleeping people squeeze in all their bags under their head and leg so that bags are safe... first of all the berths are small n upon that ever available space is squeezed in with their baggages... and as the midnight approaches all kinds of high decibel snoring sound are heard from different compartments... and if you are lucky even some faint n loud farting is also heard... yak

But trust me its fun n the joy of going home over looks all these facts... I travel almost everytime by this train to Hubli and I come across various different experience... this train carries all sorts of people from rich to poor... no caste no bar... all these people have to sleep in the same coach, sharing the same ambiance... and its a perfect example for unity in diversity...

And above all the best part of this train is that, I tend to meet whole lot of college friends... these people never meet personally in Bangalore but happen to meet in this train... if one takes a walk from boggie 1 to 9 then its sure that he is gonne catchup with one or the other batchmates... well this is the journey of ranichennamma express, train number 6589.

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"This posting is dedicated to all the frequent travellers of Ranichenamma express and lovely people of North Karnataka region..."

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Hope you enjoyed reading and please do share your own unique experience about this train journey below... :-)

More then 100 years of Mechanical background family...!!!

From my childhood I always wondered about my family history. Many questions like, who were our great grand parents and forefathers? what did they do for leaving? how was their life? from which part of India did they belong? Such were a huge bunch of questions which always boggled me from my childhood days. I don’t know how many people really do care about this kind of stuff, but for me knowing these facts gives more meaning to my life and my existence. Thus this made me to ask huge bunch of questions to my parents, relatives, senior members of family and finally was able to trace our family history up to 18th century approximately.

Ours is a Hindu Maratha Chitraghar family, specifically called as “Somavansha Arya Kshatriyas”. From ancient time this particular caste was always known for fine arts and metal work. The fine art includes making of Ganesh Idols, Gauri Idols and paintings. Metal work includes making metal horse shoes, metal rings for bullock cart wheels, etc. Our family fore fathers were originally from Solhapur (Maharashtra). During early or middle of 18th Century they migrated from Solhapur to northern part of Karnataka in search of better work and living. After touring some places they finally settled in Hubli. Before I go further, let me put my family tree,

Shri. Yellappa Jadhav ( born app 1820) migrated from Solhapur to Hubli (1850).
Smt. Sitabai Jadhav

Shri. Ramchandrappa Jadhav (app 1850)
Smt. Hirubai Jadhav

Shri Tippanna Jadhav (1880-1941)
Smt. Putalabai

Shankarao Jadhav( 1920-1973)
Ambakka Jadhav

Ganpatrao Jadhav (1947)
Nirmala Jadhav

Deepak Jadhav (1982) Sundeep Jadhav(1987)

I was able to trace information about my forefather work and living up to 1880. Let me start with my dad’s grandfather Tippanna Jadhav (Early 1900). He did not had any formal school education as such but started his career in early age as a supervisor in a mechanical industry. The name of the company was GODKE INDUSTRIES. It was in Old Hubli. Later he moved to Diesel Engine Power house station. It was a private station named Amate and Company. He served for a period of approximately 10 years. During this time Hubli came under Bombay Board. After working for some good years, he left the job and started automobile workshop at backyard of his house in Kamripeth. Hubli during this time was very small. And Kamripeth was an important integral part of Hubli. Many Maratha and Pategars families resided in this area. Later his son Shankarao Jadhav i.e my dad’s father joined the MSEB (Mysore State Electricity Board) as maintenance engineer. His qualification was 8th standard. His father had engine maintenance workshop in the backyard of the house thus he gained good mechanical experience from his father. During this time, the Jog Fall Dam was not yet built and there was no hydro power station near by to supply the electricity; two big diesel engine generators of Mysore State Electricity Board which were located in Hubli supplied the electricity to the entire Hubli Dharwad houses. And Shankarao Jadhav was in charge of maintenance work of these two Diesel Engines Generators. These were two big mammoth engines operating 24/7 one after the other. MSEB had bough this engine from England.

After some years in our Kamripeth workshop, Tippanna Jadhav (my dad’s grandfather) bought an imported lathe machine form Bombay. The specialty of this lathe was that the chuck was rotated by a foot operated pedal, same like a sewing machine. On this lathe machine he carried out machining work, such as fine threading operation for camera lens cover, projector lens cover, small machined parts of wall clocks, and balance wheel for watches. The manufactured parts were supplied to Bombay market. During this time even HMT, Kirloskar had not yet developed lathes for such fine threading operation. Simultaneously in the workshop even he carried out the repair works of oil engines of rice mills, oil mills and cotton ginning factory. During 1950’s Hubli was known for good cotton ginning mills, rice mills and oil mills. These mills required diesel engines to supply the power. Repair work involved engine crank grinding. This was a special work done from hand. The crank was supported on a V bed rotated by hand. The grinding followed by polishing work of crank was done from a hand held grinding material along with polish paper. Dial gauges were used for measurements and the parts were accurately finished. Our workshop was the only one in entire dharwad region to do this kind of specialized work. Even pedestal gun metal bearings were manufactured in this workshop. Casting of metal was done to make the pedestal bearings. Cast ingots were converted into engine piston rings. Also cylinder head seat were machined with the same above pedestal lathe. Other repair works involved valve grinding and complete assembly/testing of the engine for the customers. Our customers involved oil factories, ginning mills, cinema theatre generators. During this time the job work was all hand made. All the lathes were turned on hand/leg operated pedal wheels. In the due course hot tube ignition engine were brought, which were run by waste crude oils such as kerosene. This engine was used to power another Manchester lathe (famous lathe of that time) which was bought from Calcutta. Now instead of peddling, power was supplied to lathe from the hot tube ignition engine. While narrating the story my father always takes a pride to make a statement about his grand father that Tippanna Jadhav drove a imported car from Calcutta to Gadag. Mr. Manavi a ginning factor owner from Gadag had bought the car and Tippanna Jadhav drove the car from Calcutta to Gadag. And it was the first imported car to be brought in dharwad region. Maximum speed of the car was 20 miles/hr.

The hot tube ignition engine which was used to power the lathe machine in the workshop was also used to generate AC power for entire streets in Kamripeth. He supplied the electricity for the neighboring streets in Kamripeth. During this time there was no good electric grid connectivity around this area. A small bulb was glowed in each house, somewhere around 20 to 25 bulbs were lit in the streets by this engine. May be this was the first time that people of this area received electricity. For all these service he did not charged single paise from the neighbours. And this was done in the late evening time when the workshop was closed. My dad says that during this time the streets were lighted with a kerosene lanterns hanging over a wooden pole. A municipality servant used to come everyday in the evening to light those kerosene lamps.

My Grand father, i.e my dad’s father Shankarao Jadhav, later took care of installation and maintenance work of diesel engines at various parts of Karnataka on behalf of Mysore State Electricity Board. Since the work shop was located right behind our house, my dad too received very good exposure to the mechanical industry right from his childhood. Later he did his schooling in polytechnic school and finished his Diploma in Mechanical Engineering. By this time (1970 ) the Jadhav family was quite big in number. And these Jadhav’s were known in the entire dharwad region for their superior automobile engine repair work. My dad got married in 1979. My mom is from Ramdurgakar Family, another big maratha family originally from Bagalkot. And I was born in 1982. Even I was lucky enough to spend my childhood years in our Kamripeth house and work shop. I still remember my childhood days playing with the pistons and valves at the backyard workshop making my hands dirty with grease and oil. It was in the early 1990’s when the big Jadhav families started splitting from Kamripeth house. Suddenly the house started appearing small and slowly people started moving out. By that time my dad had applied for an industrial shed in the Gokul Road Industrial Area, finally he was allocated with Industrial Shed. Here in the new industry he continued the same old engine reconditioning work and simultaneously started manufacturing work. And that’s how my dad’s industry ONKAR INDUSTRIES was born. Now in this industry various parts of ball valves are manufactured and are supplied to Microfinish Ball Valves Limited. Even the engine recondition work is still done to keep our old traditional work alive. My dad’s brothers too have their own small manufacturing industries along with the same traditional work. The workshop and the house in Kamripeth no longer exist now. All the machines are moved out from the workshop. But still our great grand father’s foot operated lathe machine is kept in our uncle’s workshop for a static display. And the dial gauge which I mentioned above is with me:-)

Being born and brought up in such a family, it’s natural that I too was thrown open to mechanical gadgets from my childhood. And that’s how my interest and passion made me to opt Mechanical Engineering. And my brother too is completing his Automobile Engineering.

My forefathers were born; they played their role and are gone. Their work is highly appreciable given the amount of resource and knowledge these people had during that time. Slowly generation after generation memory fades out. The skilled work done by these people are forgotten. For others these people may mean nothing, but for me they are the benchmarks. Thus in their memory and as a token of respect, I write this blog to keep their work and name alive.