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.

WORLD DAY FOR SAFETY & HEALTH AT WORK- 28 April 2009

The International Labour Organization marks its World day for Safety and Health at work on 28th April every year. World day is an international campaign to promote safe, healthy and decent work all over the world. We celebrated this day at Saud Bahwan Group with a series of events which included administration of the 'safety pledge', display of safety banners/posters at prominent locations, exhibition of safety equipment and a full fledged mock evacuation drill.

Similiar programmes were conducted at all our branches/sub locations all over Oman. The event evoked a lot of enthusiasm and was celebrated with wholehearted participation by all the employees. Following are some photos clicked on the occasion :

A poster at the 'Security Control Room'

Administration of the Safety pledge at Toyota Service.
Safety pledge ceremony at the Security Control Room

'Samosas' after the event (courtesy Deepak)

Safety & Security team after the mock drill

Facility Physical Security Management - Best Facility

By the end of March I had visited all the company facilities at various places all over Oman. There are hundreds of properties of varying sizes and functions at different locations viz : showrooms, warehouses, vehicle yards, workshops etc. The best facility from the physical security point of view, in my opinion, is a warehouse, the pictures of which are appended below.

The entry/exit gate with remote controlled dual

barriers for vehicular traffic. Personnel and visitor

entry is through the security control room at the

left which contains all the access control systems.

The boundary wall (9 feet) with a chain link fence

topped with barbed wire(3 feet) running

all around the facility.Hydrant pipes along the boundary wall with outlets

at various places. All outlets have a box with two

hose reels and a branch pipe/nozzle.A view of the warehouse from outside. Protective

lighting all around is with metal halide lamps which

have a long life and replicate sunlight best

(these are the types used at sports stadiums). Overground hydrant pipes and lighting poles can be

seen in this photo. Underground water pipes do not

last long owing to the high salt content in the soil.Drain holes along the boundary wall secured

with a tamper proof wire mesh.

In addition to the above the facility has an excellent fire prevention and fire fighting system consisting of dual water tanks with dual fire pumps. A fire alarm system, sprinkler system, manual call points, alarm bells outside at regular intervals, break glass units etc. This is one facility which I found conforming to most of the principles of facility physical security management.

Internet Connection - At Last !!

At long last I got my broadband connection through Omantel a couple of days back. I had applied for the same on 19 January 2009. This was made possible by some intense follow up by my colleagues in our telecon dept as well as some lobbying by friends. While I was cribbing about this state of affairs to the guys who had come to install the peripherals, all the response I could elicit was "Mabrook" ( which means "मुबारक हो !" or "Congratulations"). It seems folks who had applied for a home connection as far back in August 2008 are yet to get it.

The ADSL modem (which I had to purchase by paying cash) cost 26 Rials (or Rs 3380/-), installation cost is 10 Rials and the monthly rental is 12 Rials. Wait, the best is yet to come, the icing on the cake is the free download/upload I get. I am entitled to a grand 1 GB of free download/upload per MONTH !! Yes, you read that right - 1GB per month. Beyond that I will be charged at 1 Rial per GB of download/upload. Even e-mail attachments count towards this.

The other fantastic discovery I made is that a host of websites are blocked (not just the 'pondy' ones, which can be expected). Voice over Internet Telephony (VoIP) sites like 'skype' are also blocked (there go my dreams of anticipated long chats with my better half !)

Some friends here who are enjoying this luxury tell me that their bills are in the range of 30 Rials per month if they behave themselves and refrain from spending too much time on the net.

All this is thanks to the monopoly of the sole service provider. Well, since beggars cannot be choosers, here I am, blogging from the cosy confines of my residence. It is better than trudging to the nearest cyber cafe, waiting for my turn on the PC and finally paying the exhorbitant fee and counting my steps back.

Birthday Bash !!

On 31st March I took my colleagues out for lunch and did not let it out that it was my birthday. We went to a restuarant nearby and one of the guys who knew let the cat out of the bag (the bum !!). Well, after lunch we came back to office and went about our business as usual. I got a call at 5.00 PM to reach the Security Control Room (my office being a short distance away) asap. Imagine my surprise when I saw everyone gathered over there waiting for me to cut the cake (which they had arranged at short notice). I was overwhelmed and my day was made ! I enjoyed every minute that day.
I would also like to thank all my friends and well wishers who had sent me e-cards, mails, wished me on this blog, sent me SMSs and even called me up. A big THANK YOU to all you folks.
Following are some pics which were shot on that day.

Settling down for lunch at TFC (not to be confused

with KFC) - Trivandrum Fried Chicken ! Howzzat ?

Fareed, self, Paresh, Santosh, Mahfoodh (hidden),
Nashib, Deepak and Ismail.

At the office after hogging the cake.

Santosh (hidden), Mahfoodh, Nashib, self,

Paresh and Deepak

Khalid, Ismail, Santosh and me.

Recession in Oman !

The effects of recession are now being felt in this part of the world too. Of course, things are not as bad as in some other countries. It is not that folks do not have money to spend – just that everyone seems to be adopting a ‘wait and watch’ stance. As far as the automobile sector is concerned, people are waiting for prices to fall, which is a remote possibility. This posture was fuelled by American carmakers slashing their prices in the face of possible financial ruin. Japanese and Korean car manufacturers seemingly have no such ideas. The price of crude, which is now witnessing an upswing, is also an important factor in this game. As per the market buzz if the price stabilizes at around $ 60/- per barrel it will auger well for the economy here.
In order to ensure that their bottomlines are not dented too much private companies have started adopting the following measures :
1. Putting fresh recruitments on hold.
2. Downsizing the workforce -shedding excess baggage and non-performing assets.
3. Adopting cost cutting measures.
4. Encouraging overtime and multi-tasking rather than adding manpower.
It remains to be seen as to how long this state will last !!