Bramleigh Towers !

Folks,

Dont be confused by the title of this post. Bramleigh Towers Cambridge Academy was the name of the school I attended at Mussoorie from 1963 to 1968. Upto the year 1965 it was known as Rock Cliff Academy (being literally amongst 'rocks' and 'cliffs', just below the 'Gun Hill'). In the year 1965 the school shifted to a sprawling campus near Vincent Hill at the other end of Mussoorie and the name was changed to Bramleigh Towers. The motto of the school was 'From Peak to Peak' - no pun intended, but we did move from peak to peak literally (from Gun Hill to Vincent Hill). The mere fact that I had mentioned the name of my first school in my profile on this blog resulted in me getting in touch with four people who were part of the same school. It was fantastic getting to know my illustrious schoolmates all over again after more than four decades. As of now 5 of us are in touch thanks to the 'Bramleigh' connection.

The following photograph of the picturesque school campus was recently forwarded to me by the famous Mr Ankur Gupta (more about him in a subsequent post !) :

P S. Cant describe the feeling when I saw this photo - nostalgia, travelling back in time, deja vu.... myriad thoughts - remembering faces, thoughts, events, pranks et all. Who says time travel is not possible ??

"Old Men" No More !!

The Commanding Officer in any unit is generally referred to as the 'old man' (behind his back, of course!) by all the other officers. Well this is about to change soon as the following news item will bear testimony :

"Officers to become Col after 15 yrs of service '
New Delhi: In a major decision impacting the age profile of Army, Navy and Air Force commanding officers, the government on Friday fixed 15 years of commissioned service for substantive promotion to the rank of colonel, instead of the existing 20 years. ‘‘The government today fixed 15 years of commissioned service as the minimum qualifying service for substantive promotion to the rank of colonel in the Army, captain in the Navy and group captain in the Air Force. The decision of the government has been received at the Service headquarters,’’ sources said here. Until now, lieutenant colonels in the Army, commanders in the Navy and wing commanders in the Air Force had to put in a cumulative qualifying service of 20 years after commissioning for promotion to substantive colonel and equivalent ranks. However, they became unit commanding officers even with just 16 years of service, as per the cadre management policies of the tri-services, but had to wait for another four years to be confirmed as substantive colonels and to receive the salary of a colonel. In effect, it would mean that there would be no more ‘‘acting’’ ranks of colonel, captain and group captain in the services. TNN

Source : Times of India, New Delhi Edition, dated 02 May 2009

PS : The Indian Armed Forces are going to have 'young' old men now !!

The Key to Your Safety is in Your Hands

Following are some Safety Tips compiled by my colleague Deepak who is our Manager (Safety) at SBG. These were circulated on the occasion of the 'World Safety Day' but I could not upload them earlier owing to minor computer glitch.

WORK PLACE SAFETY
1. Identification of unsafe conditions & practices and taking corrective action is a part of day-to-day work activity.
2. Accidents just don’t happen, unsafe behavior causes accidents.
3. Concentrate on the job that you are doing. Always respect Safety rules & Signs.
4. Before doing any activity, know about it, plan it properly and think about hazards & potential losses.
5. In order to create awareness, always discuss accidents & near misses and its preventive measures to avoid recurrence with all concerned.
6. Avoid short cuts; use the right tool & equipment for doing any job.
7. Make use of Personal Protective Equipment wherever it is required.
8. Make use of Work Permit System for carrying out hazardous type of work
FIRE SAFETY
1. Fuel, Oxygen & Heat together can create a fire. Do not allow heat and fuel coming together as oxygen is present everywhere.
2. Do not carry out any hot work in a high fire hazard area.
3. Learn how to use fire extinguishers. Always maintain easy access to all the fire fighting equipment.
4. Do not smoke in a “No smoking” area. Do not throw lighted cigarette butts. Extinguish them properly.
5. Do not store unwanted and scrap combustible material. Dispose scrap periodically as it is a fire hazard.
ELECTRICAL SAFETY
1. Human body is a good conductor of Electricity. Avoid Wet hands while using electrical appliances.
2. Avoid multi socket connections. Follow the one plug in one socket rule. All appliances should have three-pin plug.
3. Whenever Electrical appliances are not in use, switch them off from main switch.
4. Do not store highly flammable or combustible material on or close to the Electrical appliances.
LPG SAFETY
1. LPG is heavier than air. Leaked LPG has a tendency to sink to the lowest possible level in pits, drains etc.
2. If you smell LPG leakage, do not put on/off any electrical switch. Put off gas supply valve, open windows & doors to allow the gas to escape.
3. Develop a habit of putting off LPG supply valve when not in use, particularly during night and when you are out of the house.
4. LPG is safe when burning but very dangerous when it leaks. Avoid leakage.

Anonymous Comments Galore

One of my friends is posting anonymous comments on my blog in the vain hope that they will be published. All comments are moderated by me and I will publish only those ones which have the name of the author on them. I have mentioned this earlier too when I received some nasty comments on a particular post (reference post 'The Good, The Bad & The Ugly' dated 30th November 2007 - type the name of the post on the search bar and you can read it for good measure). This time round the comments, far from being nasty, are hilarious, but hey - rules are rules and my friends know what an 'OG' guy I am. So dear anonymous commentor ( I know who you are - judging from your अंग्रेज़ी !!) send me a mail me at nandanbisht@gmail.com instead of wasting your time on my blog.

My Favourite Music !!

A couple of days back I stumbled across a cool feature on the blogger homepage which lets you search and save your favourite music on a widget which can be posted to your blog. These music clips are of 30 seconds duration (except for 'featured' ones which are longer) so even though one cannot enjoy the whole song it is a great deal. I got most of my favourite music which still 'rocks'. I am sure people from my generation will agree with me when I say that music of the 70's and the 80's was the greatest EVER. It was a trip down memory lane for me when I heard the clips. I have posted this on the side bar. Just scroll down and click on any title and enjoy continuous 30 second clips of MY favourite music.