A Remembrance - Belgaum & the Fairfield Atlas

Introduction : As usual one day of my week end goes in cleaning the first floor and today the 20^th October 2008 when I was cleaning the attic, I found the railway carton box in which I had two diaries… Running through the pages I found this piece which was titled

 

“A Remembrance “written on 5^th May 2003.I realize that in writing and the vocabulary I have come a long way. This extract has been typed word to word from my diary with thoughts added that I thought were missing.

Walking through the lovely streets of Belgaum today, I remember those days of the year 2001 when my hardships knew no bounds.Myself, Guruprasad, Sajid Khan and Anil Kumar waking up at 6am and starting off to Fairfield Atlas for reconditioning and commissioning of machine tools. Thanks to Mr. Krishna Murthy for giving an opportunity to expertise in the field of maintenance.

Everyday used to be hard and every evening colorful and joy.

I remember the way we had stripped open all the parts of the machine, examining each and every part, washing the parts in diesel patiently and setting all the parts in sequence for further assembly.

Our food at the Company premises used to be horrible-most of the grams what the Hotel manager used to cook, himself did not know the names. The name of the hotel was ‘Ravikiran’.

Many a times for dismantling seized and rusted parts we used a 100mm Diameter * 2000mm diameter long rod as a hammer. The shock of the hammering too had become pleasant to us. After hammering with it I was unable to even lift a glass of water once…Nerves on my hand taken a toll.

On one occasion we mounted anti-vibration pads to machines weighing 8-10 tons with a fork lift of 2.5 tons capacity. The amount of manpower involved and the risk we took when imagined today not only surprises me but also shocks to a great extent One false move and our hands would have been crushed under the 10 ton load of the machine.

When we were scraping the table of Cincinnati Grinder, myself and Guru Prasad had lifted the table nearly 400-500 kg.God knows how we got that strength. Whenever it came to the matter of moving machines, lifting machines and heavy physical work, we were all ahead. 

There was no staying back because we all enjoyed the job and day after day passed making us experts in the field. Dismantling and assembly of critical parts with or without the drawing was no big problem to us.

We used to have a jolly environment at the work spot and our boss. Mr.KK was a gentleman. He never interfered in the job nor even questioned us when we sat joking and chatting in our work spot. He had great respect for the MECHANIC.

As days passed by, our moves became more professional and our analysis was just too good. We were all equally skilled but Khan Bhai was more intelligent than the rest because he had worked in Australia for four years. Right from cleaning the floor to picking up the dust, oil and grease, we all shared equal amount of job.

I don’t know whether you may believe it or not, for many days the stain of the grease and oil hadn’t gone from our hands and we were least bothered. Just for name sake we washed our hands before eating.

At this instance how can I forget the taste of New Niyaz and Suruchi which we frequently visited?

I can never forget the dress that I wore during maintenance-a brown 10^th standard pant or MICO’s grey colored one with grey t-shirt or a black t-shirt upon which in later stages I started to wear MICO foreman overcoat.

The company people were really good natured and provided all the necessary tools until KK purchased a tool kit which I personally maintained. From my training days till date I love cleaning tools and arranging them because they fetched my meals.

The machines we commissioned and reconditioned includes Barber-Colman gear shaper, Gear Shaver, Gear Hobbing,CNC Cincinnati Milacron,CNC and Conventional Warner and Swasey,Healde Internal Grinder,Multispindle Drilling Machine,NC Milling Machine,Pneumatic 3 spindle Horizontal Drilling Machine and Cincinnati Universal Grinding Machine.

We learned to live socially-you for me, me for you. At the end of the days works, Oh! No, many day’s night would have set in by the time we returned from our job. On many occasions our work went up to 16hours when we were determined to finish the task taken up in the morning.

Normally we used to return to Ajit lodge(less of a lodge, more it had become our home) fresh up, change the dress and go roaming through the most unforgettable streets of Belgaum-Khade Bazaar, Ganpath Galli, Kirloskar Road, Maruthi Galli and Station road. 

Even though we roamed through the same streets everyday we never felt bored because it would be colorful everyday and we added to the color by joking and singing on the way.

One more reason why I liked Belgaum was the greenery and the people who were very interesting. On the way to the Company the road on either side was cultivation land, a land so green – that sight! My eyes can never forget. The company itself was located with the background of a mountain and in the month of December the mist and the fog filled Mountain View was a pleasant sight. I always wished to stay on the mountain writing my thoughts and poems and I swear if I get an opportunity I would forget all the world.

At later stages we started to visit internet centers-silicon Valley at the end of Gondali Galli and the Cyber Den in front of Hanuman Temple. We used to be the last leaving customers chatting, chatting and chatting. One more entertainment was cards. We played and played but never got bored.

Initially we worked six days a week and Sunday being a holiday Mr.KK would finance for the movies and the dinner at the New Niyaz.All the stress and strain of the six days were relieved on the seventh day. But some days when we did too much of physical work, we would be so tired that with severe body pain we were unable to move across the bed. But all our pain lasted only the night and again by morning we were soldiers fit for war, lions ready for the attack.

How can I forget Bajrang(Baja),Satish(Satya),Mahindra(Gotia) and Chottu Ustad, who were our maintenance rivals but good friends outside the company premises. We used to enjoy the journey in Fairfield Atlas bus. They shared their views with us and spent some evenings with us. After the days hard work we all assembled at Manik’s Hotel (in front of Fairfield Atlas) for a cup of tea and vadapav.

The rain in Belgaum is very interesting with continuous drizzling through out the day with 5-10 minutes gap in between. Even though initially we hated the rain later on we started to enjoy and with our umbrellas on , we roamed the streets.

The Maharastrian girls were very good looking -nose ring, jasmine flower for the hair and some women in the traditional Maharastrian saree-just wonderful. My Heart has skipped a beat many a times n Belgaum.

Well, it’s all a remembrance today but it was that stage of my life as a working youth with full vigor and charm.

Thanks Belgaum, I learnt life’s most crucial lessons here and will never forget one of my most loving places on earth-BELGAUM.

Once again thanks and bye…

05/05/03

00:05 Hrs