The City Of Others

Long back in 1989,a young lad Kumar who arrived fresh from Kashmir after graduated from University of kashmir had a dream to be a successful entrepreneur.Prior to this he was associated with an automobile company in Ropar district of Terrorists torn state of Punjab.
An indiscriminate killings of labourers,one evening, in the premises of automobile company by unknown terrorists had shaken the confidence of most of the employees then at that company and many decided to leave the concern and search job somewhere else than the capital city of Punjab.

That is how Kumar also forced to leave that concern and his dream job of being associated with automobile production where he was becoming slowly and slowly professionally famous as Production engineer.

One morning he himself alongwith other friends was in The capital city of Delhi.Of course the city was not as crowded as today and had the population of around 70 lakhs .Most of the private job unlike today was grabed by the south indians.They had the image of simple,honest and hard workers.It was very easy to get a job and thereafter a shelter on rent.People from rest of India, especially from North,north east and eastern part were given least priority with regard to job and a residence on rent.

It took many years to change this mind set of Delhite affluent people and finally share of rest of the Indians in that pie increased to the extent that they were totally replaced today.
Struggle is the part of the life.Life too take a shape with those sweet and sour memory.No one must have complain with their life as it progressed and Kumar too find himself sometimes with the stream and sometimes against the stream in the life struggle and was moving slowly and slowly towards his goal.Soon he got an offer from India’s new aviation company and joined leaving behind the bad memory of Ropar and started searching shelter in Delhi.Soon he settled in heart of the city in INA colony.

It was a dream come true for a small town boy who finally got a job in the capital city of India.He feels proud of himself, back his hometown he had an image of a successful person.But the struggle does not end here.Big cities have their own problems.Everyday he has to travel more than 20 to 25 km by the city bus(DTC bus).It was really difficult to get into the DTC bus whose both fwd and rear doors bulging with hanging people by its door rod and nearby window.Soon he too find the way how to get into and even started enjoying the huge rush inside and sometimes the proximity of a young girl in that crowd.

There was always a chance to meet person of your choice if you are in the bus of a particular number at a specific time.Friendship develops with few as a frequent traveller of a DTC Bus but in the long way of the life they were finally forgotten and loose the track of them.City also increased manifolds in these 20 years.Once it seems sensitive,had emotions and recognises their residents become self centered,emotionless and even the next door residents is unaware of the happening to their neighbour.
He was happy to be in this city as he found as their home place similar to his small town.Small town has its own peculiarity of being very sensitive,you will be recognised in every part of the town wherever you go.People were concerned and recognises you.I find the same quality of Delhi till the end of 90s but soon changes were very fast,high rise buildings,change of mode of transportation from Cycle and motorcycle to a four Wheeler and so the attitude of people.The cost of life increases many times.Each member of the family started engaging oneself to earn to meet their both ends.Kumar was also not different.He also succeed in the life slowly and got what a common middle class dream to own.But in this process he found himself amongst the city of stones.No mercy ,no emotion,No recognition of one’s existence.Living his life as it is to be lived with.The progress and success in ones life is truley ones own,no one is there to recognise share and praise. One live or die who cares in this city.Everyone has its own problems,he is busy finding the solution.Each one has its own hypothetical pride and proud of his achievements though when he suffers in life and no one asked his whereabout ,he realises and analyses of so called success in the city of others.One spent more years of his life in this city than their own town but still struggle to being accepted in such mega city.Such cities never accept outsider and at the end you realises it is better to be back in your town amongst your own people.

I still cherish the memory of my neighbour where i stayed 20 years back,care and emotions exhibited by those in yesteryears.Running behind a fast moving DTC Bus to get into and the satisfaction after getting into the bus and so on.....

SECOND NIGHT OF NIGHT SHIFT

It was my second night of cold and windy night of 3^rd week of March when I found myself very difficult to climb down those 15 steps of aerobridges stairs of C31R at 02:32am.I sensed something abnormal for myself and immediately inform my SI about my deteriorating health and states that it seems that I will not be in a position to attend my morning duty.

Again after attending the arrival of aircraft 017 at 04:30am and then getting this aircraft ready for flight 879 at 07:05 I found myself totally tired meanwhile I got my reliever at 06:55am.

As usual after night shift I immediately fall asleep at home but this time I did not get up till 1900 hrs when my wife realizes something wrong. She forcibly tried to wake me up then I found that I was not in a position to walk also. During this period I had a conversation with one of my old friends who on phone might have realizes something wrong and rush back to my home around 20:30.He took me to Bensup Hospital, in spite of repetitive instruction to get me admit I asked to advise me medicine if possible. Finally I was not admitted and medicine was prescribed to me. I was back home by 22:30.

Due to cold I was diagnosed as a severe throat infection which was due being diabetic. My immunity level was very low. Any way medicine works but there was no energy left for me. I just could not get up for two consecutive days.

We all settle in this mega city as a unit family having wife and kids, if the head of the family fall sick, everything goes haywire. We all are dependent on our office colleague and friends.

I narrated this story to one of my group mate so that he should inform SI about my seriousness and do the needful. This was duly done and I did not receive any call from SI.

At 12:30 pm I got call from Man power planning asking yes, when are you joining? I replied not yet as I am unable to walk even. He replied that you have to report within two days otherwise you require all those certificates etc.

Back to my home town 1000miles away from here, listening to my status, my old mother (Above the age group of 90) fall sick cursing every moment to god why she is alive if his younger son is lying in bed.

Strange to our colleague and my friends, no one calls back to me and enquired about my status. Even the one who helped me to take me to the hospital never enquired my status of its own. Even engineers from my group did not bother to enquire. No call from SI.

We felt strange & alone in this mega city where billions of people are staying out of their own home town.

Finally I just happened to listen this songs from SAFAR

                  Tujhko chalna hoga,tujhko chalna hoga,

                  Jeevan kahin bhi thahrta nahi ha,Andhi se  toofan se darta nahi hai,

                  Tu na chalega to chal degi rahen,manzil ko tarsengi teri nigahe,

                  Tujhko chalna hoga 2

I got up and get ready to attend my 2^nd afternoon shift. Let us see what next.

Patience & Eradicating corruption

Not even a single party in India sincere for the bill which Anna and the rest common Indian are willing for. 64 years after the freedom, all the social problems are still here to stay while many other neighboring countries are much ahead of ours.

By now we have accustomed to live our life in this situation, tired of and left complaining. This has become a part of our life and we know now how to live with it.

Corruption and corrupt people have mingled in such a way that now it is difficult to segregate them. We ourselves forcing our people to get corrupt and he is no one other than our own brother/cousin so and so.

Lower cadre of employee who were supposed to be under LOKPAL BILL and to be followed the guidelines for the compliance of any job as per citizen charter and that needs patience. The patience is the nucleolus in eradicating corruption which Indians do not have. It is the impatience of ours which aggravate corruption.

We just can’t stand in a queue and keep leaning forward/backward or sideways. Immediately we will lose our patience and start searching short cut path to get our job done. The moment we are in queue we behave as if we are one of the busiest people in this world. Restless, BP shoots up within 15 minutes and touches upper band. We want our job to be done within no time and start getting ourselves involved in unfair means, searching people who can get their job done by hook or crook.

Is not it this impatience which has inspired these officials to indulge in doing job by unfair means? We are also corrupt as enforcing them to get one’s job done out of turn.

Group C & D employees are the very first step/chain of corruption which no one in the government really wants to break as the huge amount of money flows from lower to the top through these officials.

Government does not have the will power otherwise it was not difficult to achieve food, shelter and clothing after 64 years freedom. Most of the billionaire in the world reside in India and are Indian but still half of the Indians are struggling for the 2^nd meal in a day.

Why does it take 64 years to place a food security bill, Pension bill, LOKPAL Bill, Citizen Charter and whistle blower bill? Hopefully it is once again half hearted and may be Government again going to deceive commoner Indian as being reiterated by Sh Anna Hazare.

Apart from all these bills which may be placed in LS & RS; if not today may be tomorrow and passed also but it is we who have to learn to be patience, disciplined and courageous enough to not to inspire such act in future. It is important in eradicating corruption from our society.

PEOPLE,POWER & ITS PRUDENT USE

People who blessed with power over the period forget that never things last in this universe forever and so the power too. God was kind enough to a soul who was entrusted with power to help those who are deprived of many things in life by means of the beholders of power. One can say it is God who connects to the deprived one in the society through him.

Power always associated with proud and this finally causes to commit mistake one after another to pull a powerful person back to ground. The cycle goes on. No one escapes from this cycle. Neither KANSA nor RAVANA was escaped in past.

Power/energy flows from high potential to low. Potential energy at higher level never survived for a long and it tries to vanish at the lower level as early as possible.

This is true to every person and one forget what he does is not going to last forever.

Powerful person must realise that it is a phase which has a certain time factor associated with it. In another term; one can say power is a function of time and it last for a longer period if power is used prudently for upliftment of people who are dependent upon him.

Manyways to punish aviation engineer

Many of us put in several years as AME, anyone can easily understand that how easy is to punish an Engineer? We can have any shortcoming any where in the system i.e doing series of inspections to a final departure in line maintenance , blame it as a fault of engineer, punish them and get a reward of being a good manager, get set of going one more step further in career progression. Punish engineer for none of his but any one else faults. Never implement any methodology to curb it again in future. Close the case by punishing a poor engineer.  

Lack of synchronisation and a phase difference of various departments at a time of departure may cause a lapse for which anyone from interfacing departments, eg a cleaner to commercial; toilet flusher from GSD to a helper in engineering, late arrival of crew to a missing baggage etc, be responsible but engineer must have an magical eye and a wand to curb such things in time else he will be taken for a task. Such incidents do give managerial cadres to sharpen their skill and an opportunity for adding another feather in their cap & profile.

Our stbd. engine is exposed to get damage any time by our loader as most of the trolley does not have lock neither it is placed properly and loading is done without supervision. Engineers keep praying that nothing wrong should happen unless he will be in trouble. No one bother for such lapses except him.

Allotment of multiple departures to engineers with a gap of 20 to 25 mts is an art of a good managerial technique but failing to attend and manage the departures is a fault of engineer as he is not responsive and liable to penalised for the delay.

GSD personnel who are responsible for flushing toilet & potable water often do not reach in time to the A/C but delay caused due this engineer will be questioned and he will be asked why he did not give call to Sic and/or foreman. Many a times he has to show the dialled call as a proof.

Delay due last minute bay change (No code is allotted), no feed back to engineers in this regard by sic is in vogue now a days. Any delay on this account, again engineer has to reply why he was not there in time, Sic is not responsible for this. It is you who has to find out from anywhere; where the A/C was parked finally.

Final fuel figure conveyed to engineer only after departure, providing fuel slip is out of fashion but delay caused due more, less fuel or late arrival of bowsers, engineer is answerable.

Incidents at the time of push back of the aircraft caused mainly due rest less pilots who pressurises down to tech/engineer to do it fast, use of low HP tow tractor, high speed taxying, improper communication between cockpit and crew, it will be engineer who will be de rostered first.

Working with improper equipments and tools with no light in night, any mishap due fatigue or untrained technicians, it is engineer whose licence will be suspended; no one is questioned for the lapses. 

Aero bridge operators of GMR are naïve and untrained, damage caused to A/C doors due their mistakes, it will be engineer whose licence will be suspended.

Incidents caused due GMR operator failing to install GPU or GCU results in a circular advising engineer and technician to monitor & install above equipments and will be responsible for their lapses.

Ironically the same management never bother if we point out the faults of others for which aircraft was delayed above 5 mts to an hrs and say forget it, it was not ours. However engineers have to give explanation for a delay of even few single minutes and it will be wired so that entire airport will come to know about this delay.

May be many more such occasions in day to day job of an aviation engineer exist where he become victim of somebody else faults but this is a high time where management, regulatory body and HR must evolve with a system to reduce human fatigue and develop a technique to recognise system failure and take the corrective measures rather punishing who caused the failure.

FACING A HARDSHIP

After the advent of transistors in early1950s and there after software electronic gadgets like calculator, computer, laptop, tablets to smart phone; we witnessed a remarkable changed in day to day maintenance activities. There was a time when we had a huge set of aircraft manuals which were referred to do the maintenance of the aircraft. These manuals were placed in a big room; was called technical library.

Hard copies of manuals were replaced by film and then softer version in the form of PDF and more recently to an advance program by Airbus as Air@Nav.

A big library converges to a working table with a PC. It was a huge saving in terms of space, ecology and undoubtedly user friendly.

After introducing NRC & CRS it was emphasized to mention the AMM/TSM Task referred during the maintenance of aircraft and its system, we fail to do so.

Four set of computers in our line maintenance have been kept on well designed working table but Air@Nav has expired and needs to be uploaded since months. It was brought into the notice of everyone but uploading is still awaited. In absence of printer, referring the task during maintenance is really a very difficult task.

In absence of Manuals (Current and updated), does our LM approved for maintenance activities as per CAR?

Inspections (PF to 400 hrs) are a continuous process of Line related job but one can not find copy of LO, WI and 400 Hrs Inspection schedule. There is not a single set of special inspection schedule in line maintenance.

Who will do such small job which is a day to day affair in line maintenance? How long engineer alone will face hardship just because their fellow workers who have been entrusted with such jobs are non performer?

Few staffs (Non technical) posted at LM for passing information to SIC regarding the availability of aircraft, arrival/departure i.e ETA of aircrafts, and taking fuel figure of the flight are totally unreliable. They are non serious and unaccountable. Every day one or another engineer come into trap of their mistake but till date no one is being taken for a task except engineer.

Do we really need such staffs in LM?

LM also needs to be installed two big screens dedicated for arrival and departure related information. SIC must get an email for fuel figure so that one who is passing this figure will be directly accountable for ones mistakes. The copy of fuel figure to be kept along with the allotment sheet from where engineer can get the fuel for flight. Any change in fuel figure must be followed by mail and telephonic conversation with SIC.

Few such things may be taken into account to improve further. We have the potential and we can do this.

THE THEORY OF ELASTICITY

Recent thrust to increase OTP has undoubtedly shown an upward trend in increasing OTP for the 1^st half of October too by 90.14% after Sept., 2011. This was possible because employees who were supposed to work towards increasing the performance were not behaving in a responsible way. A slight tightness at this end showed the remarkable result whereby OTP jumps from 70 to 90%.

The same theory does not hold true for Engineering. We are already stretched to the elastic limit and further force will break or transform us into plastic range. The irony is with our own bosses who fail to understand this simple theory which we have read numerous times (Theory of elasticity) till we perform our job as engineer.

In the industry elsewhere in the world, a component is removed to install whereas in our organisation this process does not hold good as we remove twice before installing the component. To elaborate this, we remove (a sub standard as per CAR) component from grounded aircraft to install it on the aircraft intended to rectify by removing its own faulty component.

The recent fleet of A 320 family aircraft are flying with multiple snags under MEL for want of spares. No one knows why we have not maintained the minimum standard level of inventory to maintain the fleet so much so that recent groundings are the result of low or no inventory.

Today we are not only struggling for float engines and its modules but spares like HMU, ECU and many more such component. No engineers are responsible for this but the one who is accountable are always spared.

If we still fail to sense gravity of situation about the optimum investment in engineering for procurement of spares, humiliating engineers by withdrawing all their facilities slowly and slowly; forcing them to compromise with the inspection procedure with respect to time and spares, future is bleak and we may face more grounding and cancellations in future throwing the trend of improvement haywire.

Recent grounding of SCB, EPB & SCE may be the result of unavailability of spares and were avoidable.

To keep the performance trend continuously upward, it is of utmost importance to take care the sentiments of engineers and their plights, availability of spares and its placement, proper tools and equipments.