Col K Thammayya Udupa (Retd)

An everlasting memory of my childhood, spent in Bhilai during the 1960s, is of my father taking the night-shift report. Appa was in the foundry and pattern shop of the Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP). The foundry met the requirement of all types of metal castings — ferrous and non-ferrous — of the BSP. The pattern shop produces the patterns required by the foundry. Each morning, Appa would receive a telephone call from the foundry night-shift in charge. The report would cover all activities during night shift. There was a standard template — how many castings, the types, the tonnage of the metal cast and so on. Specific incidents meriting Appa’s attention, breakdowns and deviations from the normal would be discussed.

Listening to the report, I learnt about foundry products like ingot moulds and bottom plates, but my favourite was the ‘pig casting mould’. I learnt that it was not a mould to cast a pig, but one in which the pig iron produced in the blast furnace is cast. Although I had never spoken to, or seen most of the shift in charges, I was used to their reporting habits. One in charge was so loud on the telephone that Appa kept the handset a few inches away. Even I could hear him rattling off the production figures at lightning speed. He was said to be a no-nonsense engineer who went about his duties in a professional manner and achieved the production targets laid down for his shift, with minimum fuss. The conversation would occasionally extend beyond the report. Like Appa, he was a voracious reader. If there was a new book to be read, this was the time for discussion on it.

Then there was one who had all the time in the world. He would ask if Appa had had his coffee, would he be attending so-and-so event that evening, etc. Appa would patiently coax him into revealing the production figures. He would speak softly, mention a few figures and again digress. Appa would again bring him on track, only to be told, ‘There are some shortfalls.’

The nickname of one engineer was Mr PlusOne. No target was beyond him. Every morning, when he would give the report, it would be laid-down-target-plus-one in every category. His positivity was contagious. Appa would be very cheerful after taking the report from him, saying that Mr PlusOne was a problem solver. He was a bundle of energy and there was never a ‘no’ from him. Appa’s final comment would be, ‘He is like an Army man’, the ultimate accolade he could bestow on anyone. As a child from a non-Army family, growing up in the non-Army environment of Bhilai, I would be intrigued by this comment. Years later, after I joined the Army, it was always my endeavour to live up to the image which Appa had of an Army man.