Campus to Corporate

“Find a job you like and you add five days to every week.”
~H. Jackson Brown

It was 5th June 2011, packed up with new dreams, exhilarations, thrill, vigor and the zeal to perform, the freshly recruited GET’s of Tata Power made their way out to National Power Training Institute (NPTI) – Faridabad. It was time to step into the new world - a world which has become obsessed about information, speed of delivery and efficiency by multitasking.

When we stepped out of our school, we were cautious about the career but not that much really, thinking that life would be much easier and free, as it was the college time, free from all stringent school rules and daily punishments. Neither homework, nor a bulky bags just a thin notebook and pen. Fewer lectures and more bunks, and having fun all the day with the fellow peers. 4 years passed with the same thoughts and enthusiasm. Now it was time to step into the arena where real people fight it out with their skills, knowledge and experience. Like any person, whether sighted or visually disabled, we all were both nervous and excited about the day. It was very important for each one of us to ensure that we be at par with everyone, that each one of us could do what the others could.

Reporting ourselves to the concerned authorities at NPTI and getting ourselves allotted a room at the premises of NPTI was amusing. Each one us was happy with the accommodation and the food which was served to us. The excitement level kept on rising as and how we started meeting the other GET’s from various colleges across the country. The Corporate HR team was there on the first two days to complete the initial job induction formalities. We were briefed about the 1st year of our association with India’s oldest and largest private sector power company – Tata Power.

Joining an organization which has huge scope to grow and expand and is a company which provides a utopian talent to its employees to augment the vigor with several kinds of exhilarating features, was an important decision and a significant milestone in our life. The work life started off on a very elevated note with a first lecture of training on ‘Coal to Electricity’. The batch comprised of few sparkling electrical engineers, some dazzling civil engineers, a number of gleaming mechanical engineers and also a few bright control and instrumentation engineers. It represented a mixed culture of India because we had people from diverse corners of the nation.

Muddled up with these feelings, the journey to become Power Engineers started, keeping the fortitude of the great ‘Tata Pariwar’ alive forever and ever. The morning and afternoon was spent in the class which the evening was passed in the sports ground. Saturdays were fun, because top management spokespersons of Tata Power would come down to Faridabad to broaden the horizon of knowledge of young GET’s. The sessions always reminded us that Learning is a continuous process and we should crave for learning with application of our knowledge in upliftment of down trodden and betterment of society.

Apart from those classroom lectures we also had some fun filled trips including an amazing trip of one of the 7 wonders of the world – The Taj Mahal. This was followed by a cultural evening which provided an admirable platform to the freshly recruited GET’s of Tata Power to showcase their talent and creativity through a diverse set of cultural performances. But at the end of the day each of us realized that during these 8 weeks at NPTI, we gained more friends than knowledge.

The 8 weeks that we spent at NPTI as an employee of Tata Power made us comprehend that we are the stewards of this company and custodian of a very rich tradition of antiquity with modernization. As we march towards becoming a 25, 000 MW Company by 2017, our role as that of a young GET of Tata Power becomes increasingly important. Now then we have entered into our realistic life, when the Indian economy is growing at a rate of 8.9%, which means a lot of opportunities opening up in Business and Industry. However it’s a big challenge to sustain this economic growth that doesn’t adversely affect the natural assets of our company and our country.

I remember all this vividly because, as it was my first training at Tata Power, it was a challenge for me. The first exercise was a success, however, I presume that this training would help me maintain comfort levels on the subsequent days to come and be successful as a employee of Tata Power.

'Aye' to Anna's Lokpal Bill

“Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today”….Mahatma Gandhi

Virus Detected: CORRUPTION

Sometimes a sense of unrestrained virtue can also challenge democracy. The confrontation, altercation and the campaigns by civil society activists over the Jan Lokpal Bill is a reminder of this uncomfortable truth. It started on 5th April 2011 when a ‘fakir’ whose imperial power is personified and one who is the emissary of idealism – Mr. Anna Hazare went for a fast unto death at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, though the seeds of this movement were sown long ago. Soon this movement was supported by Retired IPS Officer – Dr. Kiran Bedi, RTI Activist – Mr. Arvind Kejriwal and some other known people like Swami Agnivesh, Shri Shri Ravi Shankar and Mallika Sarabhai. No sooner than later, the bill got drafted by Justice Santosh Hegde (former Supreme Court Judge), Prashant Bhushan (Supreme Court Lawyer) and Arvind Kejriwal

This movement is an expression of collective anger of people of India who wish to fight against corruption and the people shoring up for this share a common motto i.e. to curtail the corruption in India.

The integrity of fasting unto death for a political cause in a legitimate democracy has always been a delicate issue. There is something profoundly coercive about fasting unto death. When it is tied to an unparalleled moral eminence, as it is in the case of Anna Hazare, it leads to Unity and awareness. It’s like waking up India from a deep slumber. This is the result of those circumstances, where the tyranny of government is so oppressive and the moral cause at stake is so vital that some such method of protest is called for.

On the other hand the response from our honourable government is disgraceful and appalling. A couple of days back, our cabinet has passed a government’s lokpal draft which has a very constricted and narrow jurisdiction. This draft from the government involves corruption rather than taking out a measure to eradicate it. The government plans to keep the ‘panchayats’ which are the epitomes of corruption, out of the lokpal bill. The government also wishes to keep NREGA and the Public Distribution System out of the lokpal’s supervision when studies have proved that 80% of 30,000 Crores of annual subsidies is siphoned off. The medicine stores in government hospitals, the roads in cities and villages which are constructed and they come back to their previous worst conditions in few days of their construction because of the enormous corruption involved in it, is also out of lokpal’s custody. The municipal corruption, the Adarsh housing scam, the Common Wealth Games Scam, Reddy Brothers Scam, Mining Scam, Cash for Vote Scam, Yamuna Expressway scam and all others have been placed out of Government’s Jan Lokpal’s Bill super view.

The government’s hunger doesn’t stop here. It also says that out Honourable Prime Minister is out of Jan Lokpal Bill’s guardianship. The MP’s are not answerable as per Jan Lokpal Bill. Our MLA’s are outside government’s lokpal, the ‘surpanchs’ are outside government’s lokpal, Muncipal counselors are outside government’s lokpal, all state government employees across the country are outside government’s lokpal, All groups – B, C and D grades of central government employees are outside government’s lokpal. Now here I stand firm and tall to question our government that ‘What is inside Government’s Lokpal…?’

Today if the government is adamant, we need to become more. To fight against this cause our ‘fakir’ has promised to once again go for fasting unto death from 16th August, 2011. And extending support to social activist Anna Hazare over Lokpal Bill issue, Mumbai's famous dabba-walas have said that there would be no service on August 16, the day our Anna proposes to start his hunger strike. When a survey was conducted in various cities across the country maximum people favoured the Jan Lokpal Bill. In Nagpur, 81 percent spoke in favour, in Mumbai, it was 95 per cent. Social activist and Gandhian Anna Hazare has himself said: “If people’s views are not taken into account then it’s not a democracy; 85-86 per cent people agree with us on every issue, so does Kapil Sibal really represent the people or their views in his constituency?”

Today corruption has become a challenge. And public agitation is required to shame government. The people associated with this movement for India against Corruption have set examples of sacrifice and integrity that lesser mortals can scarcely hope to emulate. In this age of cynicism, these sacrifices should cause all of us to introspect.