Road to Career-Thrivikamji
and Baskaran go to Dehradun, Aug. 1965 .
In 1965 May or early June or so, and after the M.Sc
results were announced, I was indeed happy and thrilled about the
prospects of getting a very decent job in one of the professional organizations
employing fresh PGs in Geology from the
colleges and Universities. Even in those days in spite of being a very lowly
organization those days, ONGC was a good employer, especially because it was
autonomous. The largest employer on the other hand was the Geological survey of
India.
My class mates all decided
first to go to the employment exchange to register as job seekers especially in
the field of Geology. In fact for some reason, in August 65, I and Bhaskaran
(B.K.Nair hailing from Vellanad) to the NE of Trivandrum, were called for an
interview for the post of Senior Technical Assistant (Geology) in the ONGC and
the excitement for both of us was that Commission would reimburse the
travelling allowance.
We decided to go for the
interview in Dehradun. It was a pretty
long train journey in the II class coach. We took the Madras mail leaving TVC
around 7:00 am in the morning to reach Madras the next day morning. The train
chugged along the beautiful Quilon-Shencotta segment of the meter gauge through
several tunnels before emerging into the plains adjoining Shencotta around 4:00
pm. From there on, train zipped through the various big and several small
stations finally to stop at Madras Egmore. From the Egmore station we hopped
into the electric train to Park station opposite of Madras Central. There
around 12 o’clock or so we got into Grand Trunk express to New Delhi- another
long haul taking nearly 40 hr or so.
We were very confident
about ourselves and were unconcerned about the uncertainties of the trip and
that too a maiden trip on our own. There were jawans in the coach and some
Malayalees too. These guys were very helpful and properly guided us especially
to run to the dining car for the three meals. The coaches those days were not
vestibuled from one end to the other. Only upper most classes were that way
connected to the dining car. Instead, we got our meals served in the coach from
the dining car by the food vendors. On occasions the kitchen will run out of
prepared food and occasionally even drinking water.
Anyway, finally around
morning we reached New Delhi crossing the Akbar and Tilak bridges. But our next
Train to Dehrdun was from the neighboring old Delhi station. Reaching that
station, even though it is our first trip, was quite easy. The jawan crowd was
always there to help us and guide and lead us correctly. We got into a II class
coach (that is where we saw some empty seats), and proceeded to Dehradun say by
the evening. The train reached Dehradun by the next day early hours. PKRN had
suggested that there is a Birla Choultry in Dehradun that any Tonga (a one
horse drawn wagon) man will take you safely. The attraction is that you do not
pay any room rent as you slept in the verandah like place in front of a mini
ward-robe fitted to the wall. But to be on the safe side one must use own lock
and key to prevent possible burglary. Otherwise it is comfortable and safe
place.
In the afternoon the duo
went out to locate the ONGC HQ. It was a large compound that ONGC had with
several two story frame houses and inside a mango orchard. We tried to pick some attractive looking
mango fruit boldly to chew. There was no problem from any quarters on account
of it. But when we started jumping to catch the low hanging frits we were
apprehended, and of curse warned not to repeat it. We said sorry and
escaped.
One other thing we enjoyed
in Dehradun was the indoor roller skating rings, where college age and affluent
boys and girls teamed up for roller skating. They were unlike in the deep south
in Trivandrum holding hands and walking around tightly in the hall. Well the
girls were good looking and of course at our age and their age all girls have
good looks where ever we chose to look. We also found time to sit through two
or three Hindi movies in the local theatre.
I believe on the third day
the appointed day for the interview, we dressed up and walked over to the ONGC
main office. We were promptly asked to go to canteen for breakfast, against
coupons that were given to us. We also filled in certain forms as desired by
one of the staffers. We finished all that and then waiting in the guest room to
be called to appear before the selection committee. Even by one o clock, the
interview did not happen. But then one staffer asked us to for lunch – courtesy
of ONGC. After lunch we loitered back to the guest room again,. But then to our
surprise our TA was disbursed by the office.
On our prompting only the
office realized that the interview did not happen. Then they rushed through the
process of putting together a selection committee. Around four I think I was
asked to go in. I went in. I was greeted by the chair and I in my turn greeted
the chair and members. Some questions were put to me. It was not at all a tough
session. After 20 min or so I finished and it Baskaran’s turn. He also came
back rather quickly say in 15 min. We were informed by the office that the
result will be informed to us by registered post within a month or so.
The interview process was
so light that we thought perhaps they already have posted the fellows or
identified the persons and our appearing for the interview was just some
formality so that they can complete the appointment process.
Anyway, in spite of the
outcome of the interview, both of us decided to go to Mussorie, a hill station
in the lower Himalayas. We took a morning bus to the hill station to reach
there by about 11 O clock. We walked around the streets, ate jilebi from the
street side shops and did lot of window shopping. We probably missed our lunch
but not hungry though. The sunset is at about 8 pm as the winter was just
around the corner. The presence of sun in the sky deceived us from the real
time of the day. On realizing that chillness was setting in we discovered that
the last bus to the Dehradun town is just passed by and we missed it. Then it
is a field day for the taxis. The resnts were way high in several hundreds.
There was no question of sleeping in the bus station premises as we were ill
equipped for the cold night. We had only one choice left, get into a taxi and
go to choultry. The cabbie charged Rs.150/- per person. Both of us got in. As
the car wound down to the hair pin curves to the plains, the fare came down to
as low as 50 rupees per head. We got annoyed by the fact that we were plainly
cheated. But no point in complaining anyway.
Anyway we safely got back
to the choultry and bundled up to a good night’s sleep. The following day by
noon we got back to Dehradun train station to catch a train to New delhi- an
overnight journey. Roughly, we were away from home for about seven days. We
already made plans to see New Delhi in Panikkers Travel bus and to Agra to see
the Taj again by a Panikkers Travel bus. On nights we slept in the platform no
1 of New Delhi station. All that we had to pay way was like five rupee per day
to some police personnel. They took care of our hold-all luggage during our
absence. We did not have cameras of any sort. After the Delhi darsan and Taj
visit we promptly boarded a south bound train to reach Bhopal the following day
to spend couple more days with Baskaran’s elder brother who those days worked
in the Bhopal Steel Plant or so.
We lived in Bhopal for
about four days and then started our homeward journey. Bhaskaran’s brother saw
us off in t he station. On the third day of departure from Bhopal we we were
back in Trivandrum in the evening by Madras mail to Trivandrum.
His and my parents were
furious and agonized about our failure to contact with the families at least by
letters. In fact the families were totally upset about the black out for about
16 days or so from the day of our departure. The family rage subsided the
moment they got to see our live faces and bodies.
The final outcome of the
interview was that we were not elected. The communication arrived promptly
after a fortnight or so after our reaching home. That was no shaker of our
minds. We had other things on our future path of life in the waiting. Yet it
was a rich and rewarding experience and adventure. Anyway thanks to the ONGC.
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