Blog # 47 Dated: 17 June 2022 (See Blog # 74 for details contained in this Blog)

 Dear, ...........,

Namaskar. In my last blog, I wrote in what conditions and circumstances, I first took the exams for the recognised examining body. It would on completion grant me a Grad.I.T.E certificate. Grad I.T.E. meant, Graduate Institution of Telecommunication Engineers. There was another parallel but very old examining body those days called AMIE. AMIE was mostly in Civil, Mechanical and Electrical streams of study. After I started my studies for Grad.I.T.E, the examining body did some changes in the subjects and introduced more papers. They called the new degree as Grad.I.E.E.E. (Graduate Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineering.) After I cleared the first paper, the fear of exams and my feeling of inferiority evaporated. I decided to next concentrate on appearing for four papers. I bought books and would study almost round the clock. Even in office, I would take my books and study most of the time. In one month I would prepare for one paper thoroughly. Thern I would start for the other paper in the next month. While this was happening, I got involved in the accident at Transmitter (my face and hand burning - already described in my blog on 06 June). The exams date was getting close. I had to go to Jammu for the exams as there was no examining centre at Srinagar. I was having difficulty writing with my hand because of injuries sustained during the accident. Frequent skin softening cream had to be frequently applied to relieve pain during the process of writing. I sat for the exams on the due date and performed well. The results were declared. I had cleared three out of four papers. Mr. Krisnamurthy had by then left Srinagar but he had seen the results. He sent me a letter congratulating me for my progress.

I decided to appear for four more papers (Three new ones plus one which I had failed in my previous attempt.) But here was a hurdle about which I was fearful. It was the drawing paper. I was used to see my elder brothers engineering drawings sheets. His drawings were excellent. The remarks of his teachers on the drawings were great. There would be no mistake and the lines would be drawn in very clean manner. My brother would always tell me that my drawing skills were very poor and in fact it was that way. But I had to pass the Drawing paper. He helped me by referring  me to one of his teachers (Mr. Moza) I met him and he agreed to coach me two times a week. I was to go to his house at 8 AM. I went to his house on the first scheduled day at the appointed time with a book that he had recommended. He explained the first chapter. Then he asked me to make a drawing and come to him with the homework done. On my way back home, I bought some A2 Sized plain paper sheets and ordinary geometry instruments. In no time, I completed the drawing. Then I studied the next three chapters on my own and did three more drawings. With all these I went to Mr. Moza for the second class of the week. I remember that he was still sleeping when I reached his house. His wife prepared the place for the coaching hurriedly. Mr. Moza came and started looking at the drawings that I had made. He found that I had done them correctly but were not drawn on a proper drawing sheet of A0 Size. He also pointed out that I had not drawn the margins on the sheet. He also was not happy about my lettering. I noted the points. Then he started teaching me the second chapter. I requested him to move to the fifth one because I had already done three chapters without him. I told him that I was in a hurry to complete the course. He taught me the fifth chapter. By the time it was to be the third session with him, I had completed the book. I knew how to draw but had not actually drawn properly. I would roughly practice how to draw the lines at home without actually drawing them professionally. I told him after the third session that I would be reading and practicing on my own and thanked him for his guidance. I bought another book on machine drawing and learnt from that too. Till then I had not ever used a proper drawing board and a Tee and proper drawing accessories.

On the day of the exams, my brother arranged a drawing board plus Tee for me in Jammu. I picked it up a day before the exams and dropped it back at a predetermined location after the exams was over. I did well. The questions set in the paper were a deviation from the past. On my return to Srinagar after the exams, I met Mr. Moza and showed him the question paper. I told him that I had done well and hoped to pass the paper. After the results were out, I received the result sheet. I had passed the Drawing paper. I again went to Mr. Moza and informed him. I thanked him for his help. He later met my brother and conveyed appreciation for my hard work. He told him that when he had seen the question paper, he was sure that I must have failed although I had showed confidence.      

This was my third six monthly test. By the end of first two tests, I had grown confident. I found passing much easier than I had imagined. It was so because some staff from Delhi who would pose as experts in the office would repeatedly fail in clearing the exams. I persuaded my friend Mr. Omkar Nath who was so good in dealing with technical issues in office to also sit for the exams. He was not ready and was not prepared to study. At my repeated requests, he gave in. I helped him with books and study material. I helped him especially with Engineering Maths. He was also with me when we  had to appear in my third six monthly tests. The day the maths paper appearance was there, there was a stir in the hall after the question paper was distributed. The questions were unexpected for everyone. It appeared that there would be a boycott. Omkar Noth Jee was also confused looking up at the paper. He sought permission from the invigilator to smoke. The permission was granted. He smoked while I had started working at answering the questions. I spoke to him in hushed tone that he should calm down and remember what he normally knew. In the commotion with others shouting in the hall, I conveyed to him some hints in solving the problems set. We two were the only ones to start working while rest of the six or seven other students then calmed down and also sat to answer the questions. Some of them adopted unfair means to copy by visually looking at my on paper answers. This was later reported that there had been protests in a large number of exams centres in the country. When the results were declared, less than 20 students from all over India out of thousands had cleared the paper. I along with Omkar Nath Jee and one more fellow who had copied from me at the Jammu centre had passed.         

More in next blog. Bye for now.

Blog # 46 Dated: 16 June 2022 (See Blog # 74 for details contained in this Blog)

Dear, ……..,

Namaskar. In my blog published on 20^th May 2022, I had detailed how my boss Mr. N.Krishnamurthy  had forced me to consume hard drinks first time in my life. And then I had also mentioned how he appeared to have felt guilty about this incident and narrated it to his wife. She had talked to me over phone to apologize.  From that day, he was ever nice to me. One day he inquired about the educational progress of my wife. He was not happy to learn that my wife was not a graduate. (I was married for less than a year at that time) He called me and told me that he would like to meet my wife. He one day soon after came to our home in Chinkral Mahalla in the afternoon and gave a lecture to my wife to continue with her studies. Needless to say, that she did not heed his advice.

He continued pressure on me to improve. He said that if I work harder, I could progress better in life. It was he, who made me prepare and sit for my Engineering exams. One day he got an application form for sitting in Government approved Degree programme from Delhi and asked me to fill it and send it to Delhi. Those days the exams would be held every six months. I took the form but did not apply for sitting in the exams. When the results were declared, he called me to his room to ask how I had fared in the exams. I told him that I had not filed the application at all. He was furious and asked me to get out of his room.  He avoided me for some days and I would also not feel good to face him because he had caught me lying to him. When the next schedule was near, he got another form from Delhi. He asked me to fill my details in the application form and return the same to him the next day. He also asked me to get the bank draft for the exam fees with me. The next day, I went to his room. The form was completed in all respects with my photograph duly glued on it and enclosed with the bank draft to cover the fees for all papers.  He checked the form and asked me to seal the envelope. He asked his peon (Mr. Bala) to take the envelope and money (for postage etc.) from me. He kept me seated there in his chamber till Mr. Bala returned with the receipt from the post office. When I was seated waiting for the peon to return, my head was tilted down all the time. The boss was busy in his work looking and writing on the files on his table. He did not even once looked at me. He told me that after what I had done last time, he would not trust me. He said that if I was not kept seated in his chamber, I would stop the peon from posting the application. I was shamed beyond limits.

 I had to clear 11 subject papers to complete the entire course that would be equivalent to an engineering degree that was recognised by Government of India. I paid my first fees for all 11 subjects but appeared in only one paper. The passing marks for clearing one paper was 60 percent but if we would pass two papers in one exams schedule then it would be only 50%. This I did not know before the exams. The results were declared. I had cleared the paper with 65%. On the result day, I went on my own to my boss’s office chamber and showed my result to him. The result mentioned that I had absented for all papers except one and in that one subject I had secured 65% marks. I was declared “Passed” against the remarks column in the result sheet.  The boss saw it. He was both angry and a little pleased. Angry because I had again lied to him. Pleased that I had made a good beginning. After that in next three six monthly attempts, I completed all the eleven papers. He was the happiest man in my progress. When the final results had been declared he had already been transferred out of Srinagar but he had been following my progress. He would write congratulatory letters to me after each success.

Mr. Krishnamurthy had three sons. All of them were engineers. In 1970 when my salary was far less than Rs. 1000/- his sons were getting 35,000/- in Dubai. Mr. Krishnamurthy had a flat in Delhi and after retirement he was staying there. When I came to Delhi in 1986 on posting, he had learnt about it. One day, the Engineer in Chief in Doordashan (I was working in that office after transfer to Delhi) called me to his chamber. He informed me that Mr. Krishnamurthy had been enquiring about me and he wanted me to meet him. I did go to his residence. He had grown older (naturally) He spent half an hour talking to me and recounting the days that we had spent together. He enquired about the progress of my wife in education. He was sad to learn that the desired progress was not there, and added that my daughter should not follow her example. That was the last I ever met him. A few years back I made a feeble attempt to meet him but could not. I went to the place where I had met him last. I enquired from a few people around but they did not appear to have known him.  I wish that I had tapped the door of the flat (I remembered the location) and found out from the occupants about him. Next time I am in Delhi, I hope to do it. I have sweet memories of my association with him. I am a better person because of him.  

BYE.

Blog # 45 Dated: 15 June 2022 (See Blog # 74 for details contained in this Blog)

Dear,................, 

Namaskar. More of the details on the incident that I wrote yesterday, I am here writing the rest of the happenings. A few days after the sad death, some of Mr. Sham Lal's relatives came to help with the rituals and processes associated with death. But none of them paid any money. I think that they thought that he had died during duty, therefore all expenses should be borne by the office. I do not know whether they helped the family in any other manner. The relatives had learned that we were collecting some money for the family. They appeared only to plan for expending that amount. An elderly gentleman came to me on the eighth or ninth day after the death, asking for money for the religious functions and for feeding multiple gurujee’s on 12^th day. Although I was a very young man at that time, I firmly refused money for extraneous expenses. We paid every penny for all essential rituals only. I said that it was the duty of the family, not us to pay for dubious practices. I said that we would help the family to support themselves to stand on their feet. Mr. Krishnamurthy was very much happy with me over this. We continued with the monetary help till Mr. Sham Lal’s son got the job.     

 A good number of our community was appreciative of my involvement in ensuring the welfare of the family of the deceased. Many people started complimenting me for this. The community was generally steeped in rituals and showmanship. Here I was stressing more on rehabilitating the grief stricken immediate family. Earlier our community looked at ensuring highest position in life after death for any person than helping him in bettering life when alive. I tried to change that. Charity was (and it still continues to a large extent) almost non existent during that time in our community. I showed the way then. I was able to help in supporting the family for full two years after the incident.  My grand mother's sister-in-law had heard this story of our help to the family and my involvement thereof. Probably one of the Sham Lal family was known to her. Whenever I would go to their house, (I would always visit their house at Safa Kadal on Rup Bhavani Jayanti and Shradh twice a year at least) she would always have very flattering words for me and lecture everyone around to look at me and follow my way of life. She would always say that she would get a very nice feelings when I would be around. She would say that I was distributing positive energy around me.  

I mentioned Mr. Sham Lal Dullu in my last post as the one who got rice from his own home on that unfortunate day for the deceased family. About 15 years after this incident, there was a post of Technician vacant at Radio Kashmir. That time, Mr. Sham Lal Dullu was already dead. Now his son was appearing for the interview. Mr. Pajnoo (who was with me all the time when we were arranging for funeral arrangements) was taking the selection interview. I reminded him about the day when senior Dullu had done a very humanitarian job. I told him to see if he could help his son. The son was selected. He got employed in Radio Kashmir. After migration I found that he (Sham Lal Dullu's son) was living in a house that was adjacent to Mr. Hira Lal Fotedar’s house in Jammu. He met me there and narrated his problems. His old mother was still alive and so was his aunt also old and widow. But he had been posted to Srinagar. He requested a Jammu posting. I got his posting to Jammu immediately through my influence in Delhi.

The narration of the days when I was young, gives a account of my character and approach in life. Since then I am the same person. I have tried to help as many people as possible. 

Bye more tomorrow.

Blog # 44 Dated: 14 June 2022 (See Blog # 74 for details contained in this Blog)

Dear,……….,

Namaskar.  In one of my previous blogs, I had mentioned about a fatal accident that happened at the transmitter.  The incident details are as under. 

It was probably the summer of 1965 or 1966. I came for duty at Radio Studio Centre at 9.30 AM. As soon as I had parked my bike and had reached the main building gate, someone informed me that one of our technicians on duty at the Transmitter site had got struck by an electrical current and had been taken to SMHS (Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital) near Karan Nagar. Just then some staff members in a jeep were preparing to go to the hospital. I also joined them. When we reached the hospital, we found that the Technician’s (Shri Sham Lal) body was going through the process of Postmortem. It was told that he was declared already dead as soon as they reached the hospital. Mr. Omkar Nath Pajnoo, my friend was with me. We next walked to Zaindar Mohalla where this Technician lived. It was located about a kilometer away. 

It appeared that the Technician was on the morning shift. He was to return home by noontime. At that time, like rest of us all, the Technicians were also not paid much. He had a wife and two children to support. It was reported that he had also the bad habit of drinking almost daily. After the 20th of each month, he was known to be borrowing money to sustain himself and his family. On that particular day of the incident, they had no rice at home to cook for the family. He had told his wife that he would be getting some rice from a place near Pampore on his way back from duty and he would be home before lunch time. At about 7.00 AM, the shortwave transmitter was not getting on. The shift in-charge (Mr. Sehgal) was trying to put it through. He would normally pose that he knew a lot but actually he did not know much. While trying to identify the fault, he noticed a part inside the transmitter which was like a switch misbehaving. It was a relay and it was not holding in position after the power would be applied. He asked Mr. Sham Lal to push hold this switch with a screwdriver. Then he applied the main power. As bad luck, the screwdriver head was broken at one place and then there was a nail in the heel of his shoe. When the power was applied, the current passed from the switch through the bad screwdriver, then his hand, then heart then the left leg, then the foot heel through the nail in the shoe to the ground. The circuit got completed and his heart failed immediately. He was dead in no time. Sehgal with the help of chowkidar pulled him out with the help of the garden rubber hose. Then he had been taken to the hospital.

 There was one Mr. Sham Lal Dullu a Diesel Driver also on duty that day at the transmitter. He also accompanied the body but got down on the way near the city. He was Mr. Sham Lal’s friend and he knew about his bad management at his home. Therefore, he got worried for the family of the deceased. He went to the house of Mr. Sham Lal. There he found that the children were still sleeping, and Mrs. Sham Lal was just sitting idle. He asked her, why she was not cooking meals in the kitchen? To this, she replied that they had no rice at home as her husband would be getting it on return from the office. Hearing this, he went to his home and returned with about 5-6 Kg of rice and some of his son’s clothes for the two children of the deceased. (He suspected that the children may have torn clothes and it would be a very sad show when office people would come with the body) He asked the lady to prepare the food and give it to the children. He told her that her husband had met a minor accident in the office and would return late. He was mentally preparing her for a shock of her life. 

As soon as we reached the lane leading to the deceased house, the body also reached the place in an ambulance. Soon there was wailing and weeping all around the deceased’s house. At that time none of us had sufficient money with us to carry out his last rites. The Assistant Station Director (Mr. Kalia) happened to be there.  He gave me a loan of Rs. 500/- to help the family with funeral expenses. We helped with the cremation process with some of this money and then spent the rest of the money for buying essential supplies/rations for the family. We had a very nice and humane person as Station Engineer. (Mr. N. Subramanian) He called me the next day to his office. He asked me to start collection of money from staff  for the family. He started himself with a good sum. (Probably Rs. 500/-. A Big money those days, equivalent to my 50 days’ pay) Everyone in the office was very sympathetic. Every item was welcome, whether it was clothes, it was rice, it was flour, or money. I would go around every month and collect money. We collected about three to four thousand within days. Mr. Krisnamurthy along with his wife would go to the family house every month and pay out of our contribution money a sum equivalent to Sham Lal’s last month’s salary. Mrs. Krishnamurthy would always gift Mrs. Sham Lal sarees and children’s clothes. Mr. Krishnamurthy used his connections to get some help for the family from All India Radio on compassionate grounds. Since Mr. Sham Lal’s son was in grade 10, he could have only got a peon’s job in All India Radio on compassionate grounds. At my suggestion/request, the job offer was got delayed because we wanted the boy to pass Matric first so that he could be given the job of a clerk. We paid every month for the home coaching of the boy from the money collected from the staff. It was unfortunate that he failed the annual exams. We persisted and continued home coaching classes for the next year. That year he  passed the exams. We took up his employment case again and got him a job as a clerk in All India Radio. He then rose to the head clerk position. The mother’s life improved. I have no connection with the family after that. 

More of this story tomorrow. Bye for now.

Blog # 43 Dated: 13 June 2022 (See Blog # 74 for details contained in this Blog)

Dear, ..........,

Namaskar. Sorry that I have not been able to post a blog after 07 June. On 08 June when I was to write the day's blog, I saw a WhatApp message in the extended family group of more than 50 participants. A very sad and bad incident/situation had been communicated. I was disturbed. I did not know how to react. My BP level appeared to get elevated. I had to remain calm and take control of myself. All these days since then, my depression caused by the whatsapp posting has eased and I feel that I should allow the time to heal the situation while I continue with my blog as earlier.

In my last blog, I had written how I was getting street smart. The senior from whom I was running away earlier would now avoid running into me. I was growing and learning all the time. To survive, I had also to be smart and learn to survive in tough conditions. Those were the days when I was under pressure. I would fear the bosses lest they ask me a question for which I had no answer. I did not want to be ridiculed. In contrast, one Mr. Pajnoo who had already a 3-year diploma in sound engineering was much smarter and more knowledgeable. He had joined on the same post as mine but was junior to me in the cadre. I would be teamed with him on occasions and I would learn from him. I shall ever remain indebted to him. He remains my fast friend even today.   

We had a boss named Mr, K.R.Gupta a Dogra from Jammu. I would fear him too. One day by chance, I noticed that he was weak in his technical knowledge. Then I would enjoy putting problems before him and finding his discomfort. We would inform him that the Radio Transmission was distorted and ask him to help. He would listen to the broadcast and tell us that he was not finding it distorted. He never had a solution to any technical problem.  Sometimes when we would pose a technical problem to him, he would reply that he had full confidence in us and we should tackle it without waiting for him to come and help us out. A time came that to hide his weak knowledge, he would do makhanbaazi to me and Pajnoo Sahib all the time. We were naïve and would get carried away. Mr. Gupta retired as Chief Engineer in All India Radio at New Delhi. There also he would use the same formula. Whenever I would meet him by chance in New Delhi, he would always speak very highly about me and Pajnoo Sahib to the other people in the room. Once I met him by chance at Jammu TV Station around 1996. He had retired from All India Radio more than a decade earlier but would continue to pester the officers with requests for office transport and other favours. On that day also he was there on return from a dental appointment after taking office transport. When he saw me, he again lectured everyone around me with very nice words about me and Pajnoo Sahib. He collected everyone in the office and asked them to learn from us. The fact is that when he was in Srinagar, I had done nothing spectacular to have impressed him with my technical knowledge which was definitely poor.  

 Bye today. Hopefully, I should be here with another blog tomorrow.

Blog # 42 Dated: 07 June 2022 (See Blog # 74 for details contained in this Blog)

 Dear, ..........,

Namaskar. I will continue with more events related to the Transmitter site at Pampore. When a transmission would be going on, there would be almost nothing to be done. Just sit, hear the programme transmitted, and take readings of all the meters monitoring the working of various stages of the system. The staff on duty for each session would be an Assistant Engineer or a Senior Engineering Assistant, as Shift Incharge, one Shift Assistant, one technician, one Diesel Driver and a helper. During the day additional staff would be on duty to do maintenance on the system. We would cook rice in one of the rooms for our lunch and dinner. We all would contribute and bring supplies for our lunch, tea etc. In earlier days, we would eat and leave the utensils to be washed by the chowkidar. One of our seniors once took an objection to this practice of getting the plates washed by the chowkidar. He advised that we should do it ourselves. Since that day, we would always wash our own plates and cups after eating and drinking from them.

 I remember each member of the staff who would do duties there. All were different personalities. We had a senior who would never contribute for tea etc. But we would always serve him first. Some staff  members would not feel comfortable feeding him free but none except one of our colleagues would dare to tell him to contribute. Speaking to him had no effect. He would not contribute. The person would just ignore. He would also do the same with cigarettes. When asking for a cigarette, he would always say that he had forgotten to carry a packet. On one occasion, when we were in the jeep on our way from the studio centre to the transmitter centre and we reached a market place on the way, one of the staff members asked the driver to stop. Then that staff members asked the senior person to cough out some money for buying the cigaretes. The money was given and the cigarette packet purchased. The senior was not given the packet, instead it was kept in the transmitter hall control table. Anyone wanting to smoke was asked to pick out one from the packet on the table. That day the senior looked miserable. For a few days afterwards he would carry his own cigarettes. 

In my shift, the senior was the shift incharge for some weeks. He could not get any cigarettes from me as I was a non smoker. The technician was a smoker. The senior would take the cigarettes from him. The technician would oblige but would always complain to me. This was affecting his budget. He changed from cigarettes to beedi. (Beedi is low cost smoke normally used by labor class.) So when the senior again asked for the cigarettes, the tehnician told him that he did not have them because he had shifted to beedi. The senior made fun of him but asked him to give him one. So for many days, this continued. The technician now started keeping the beedi packet in his socks and tell the senior that he had stopped smoking. Instead he would smoke only in the bathroom with the door closed. Soon the senior noticed some smoke coming out of the bathroom window. He had it inspected immediately. He found the technician smoking. The technician then stopped smoking altogether. 

While all such things were happening, I was trying as much as possible to learn. I would do reading of technical books while on duty. I would try to learn as much as possible about the equipment. Senior Engineering Officer would come to the transmitter centre from the studio centre once a week to supervise our working. I would literally hide myself from him. I would fear that he may ask me a question which I might not be able to answer correctly. I would heave a sigh of relief when he would go back. 

There was a room in the area designated as Emergency Studio. This was the studio to be used in case of an emergency when the main studio would cease to exist for any reason. This studio was required to be kept in readiness at all times. During my learning process, I would take performance measurements on the equipment. One day, while doing the checking, I noticed one equipment to show very high distortion figure. But once connected normally, the unit was working fine. I knew I was making a mistake while doing the measurement but could not figure out. There was a senior (another senior - not cigarette related) on shift. I sought his help. He was not able to find out the mistake that caused the wrong reading. I tried it next day too but same result. I asked a couple of staff members too and still the problem remained unsolved. On fifth or sixth day, I spoke about this to a junior who without even looking at the setup told me that I must have made one mistake in connection. I had overlooked an essential connection. I did the measurement again with the right signal input connection and the performance figure was shown as satisfactory. I felt better. Next day when it was the day for the senior officer from the studio to come for supervision, I decided to put the problem to him. I took the measurement with wrong connection as I had done initially and asked him to help. He tried for some time but failed to notice the wrong connection. Next week, I did the same to him. I now did not fear him. Instead he tried to avoid me. He would not come for supervision when I was on duty. Later this person became a Chief Engineer in All India Radio but I had shifted to Doordarshan. He would always look to me with respect while I was in Delhi a couple of decades later. 

Bye.

Blog # 41 Dated: 06 June 2022 (See Blog # 74 for details contained in this Blog)

Dear, ..........,

Namaskar. Continuing my description of  the work in the transmitter centre, I was taking time to master the situation. It is nothing short of a miracle that I remained alive and there was no fatality while I was on duty there. What I mean to say is that the equipment worked on electricity and during its operation, it would generate very high voltage and power. A wrong action could be fatal. There were safeguards like, if anyone would by mistake try to open the equipment door to touch a very high voltage area, the system would trip off a fraction of second earlier to save the person. There would be earth rods too. That is if we need to  inspect some component, we would touch it by earth rod first. In case power would be available or be present there, on touching it with an earth rod, it would spark heavily. If no spark, it would mean that the component is safe to touch. I was horrified to see one day during maintenance check that inside the rod the connection to the wire connecting it to earth had snapped. Such a rod would indicate that a particular component did not have electrical charge even if it had charge. Touching that would cause serious injury or death. There were SOP's for maintenance checks and then the status would get recorded in the relevant sheets. But I have seen people sign the sheets without checking the status. There happened an accident that year when I was not on duty. The person died on spot. 

Our transmitter had security staff 24x7. They belonged to some para military unit. There were two barracks for their stay adjacent to the transmitter building. Their personnel would be guarding the gate and the entire area. One day, I was on duty in the evening. One of the security staff approached us with a complaint that there was no electricity in their residential unit. I wanted to help them without waiting for the technician to come and attend to the fault. I went to the switch room and  got ready to check the fuses. The switch was at a level above my head. I located a stool, propped myself up and switched off the switch. Then I tried to inspect the fuses (it was a three phase switch) The fuses were rotary type and had to be removed by unscrewing by hand. I removed the first one. No problem. Then as soon as I was unscrewing the second one, there was intense sparking from the switch. My face and my right hand on the switch were both in front of the heavy sparking. My eyes got saved because I was wearing glasses. My face got burnt and also the back of my right hand. While all this was happening, I was in control and got down from the stool without falling. I did not get electrocuted. Fortunately the office jeep was there. I was taken to the hospital. They found my face and hand burnt black. The back of my hand had become wet with the burning of fat under the skin. I was in the hospital for a week. Two types of ointment (Ferocin and Phenergan - I remember the names too!!!)were applied on my burnt areas constantly to keep the wounds and skin from getting dry. I had to continue to apply the ointment for another month and then I was declared cured. My original skin tone was returned. Only white burn scars remain on the back of my right hand fingers even today.

Most of the staff felt that it was my fault that caused the sparking. Actually, the switch wiring was such that switching off the supply to this switch would also switch off the power supply to ShortWave transmitter. And secondly, some technician had put some wrong type of wire to short the burnt fuse on a previous occasion. Normally in such type of fuses, when they become bad, have to be replaced. In case a replacement is not available a proper fuse wire has to be soldered properly on the fuse to put the supply through. In this case, the technician had just wound an improper wire (not a fuse wire of proper rating) over the fuse and also not soldered it. When I had rotated  the fuse to remove it, the wire had come off and due to its tension one side had accidently touched the power source while the other side had touched the switch body causing the sparking. After the incident, the wiring was modified and strict instructions given to staff not to follow wrong practices. I was wiser after having escaped electrocution or serious injury. The sparks had caused metal resulting from melting of the fuse wire to get embedded in the lens of my spectacles. But eyes were saved.

All my life, I have seen that most of the engineers and technicians do not know what Earthing and Fuse rating means. They ignore it and take it for granting. Even at our homes we are very casual about connecting the power to our domestic appliances. Also we are so casual with fuse rating and replacement. Every one of us should know the significance. I am writing a para here to explain the same as below.

EARTHING: Let us take a heater or an iron. Both are connected to a three pin plug, a three core cable respectively. If the heater is say a 2 Kilowatt rating and the Iron a 1 Kilowatt rating, the wire size would be different. The heater connecting wire would be thicker than the iron connecting wire.  One wire in the three core cable would be red coloured. Phase power is supposed to be passing through this cable. The other would be black coloured and this is to be connected to Neutral. The third core is Green coloured and is connected to the the earth terminal. (This is as applied in India. other countries may have other colours)  As long as the Heater or the Iron is in very good condition, only Phase and Neutral wire is necessary to make them work. In 220 Volt system, the heater would draw about 9 Amperes current and the Iron about 4.5 Ampere current. In a good wiring system, there would be a MCB (Moulded Circuit Breaker) in the switch for each socket from which power is drawn by the heater and the iron. The MCB for the heater would be 15 Amperes and for the Iron 10 Amperes rating. Now let us imagine that something has happened to both the heater and the iron and the phase wire inside touches the body. The body is already connected to the earth wire.  When this happens, the phase gets connected to earth, heavy current will flow and the MCB will trip off. The power supply to the defective heater and the defective iron will get switched off. If we touch these two appliances, there would be no power and we would not get a shock. Therefore all appliances should always remain earthed as a safety measure. (I have seen in some house wiring that the earth wire is not connected properly to the earth, the switch panel and the sockets.) It is therefore always suggested that a good technician should be doing the system wiring as a safety measure. and then we should always connect the appliances properly with the earth wire.        

FUSE RATING/REPLACEMENT: Let us go back to the two appliances in the above example. If these appliances are from a good and reputed manufacturers, they would be incorporating a fuse inside the body or the plug. The heater manufacturer will place a 15 Ampere fuse and the iron manufacturer a 10 Ampere fuse inside the appliance. Some have incorporated the fuses in the plug connected to the cable. The fuse here would ensure that it will fuse in case of a fault and ensure safety of the person handling it. It will save the MCB and the house wiring from getting burnt and damaged too. Advice: Never bypass a fuse and replace by an exact replacement and rating.  

I am a sweet sixteen aged plus sixty four years of experience as on today. Every year my initial age remains the same while my experience increases by a year.  So I thought I should pass my experience to you too. In my later years, I have taught good practices to many of my juniors and seniors have also learned from me. Even if one person who reads this blog gets a benefit, I would be pleased. 

Bye.