Memories of Another Day

By Kumud Anand Patnaik

written in simple language on the varied experiences, which many people miss .In addition there is a chapter on his ancestors and Father in particular, plus some writings and poetry written from college days.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Point Six Technologies Pvt Ltd
• Release date: Jun 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9789390040483

Kumud Anand Patnaik

The author is a 1st time author of a book, even though he has authored 2 reports for GoI and delivered about 20 lectures in prestigious institutions. He has been a Teacher, Advisor, Inspector in addition to his forte of Construction and Consultancy. He graduated in Engineering at 21, served govt of state and centre, its public sectors for 37 years. The balance 20 years, in private sector consultancy. During this professional career the areas were Barrage, Bridge, Highways, Tall buildings, Oil Refineries, Petrochemicals and Railways. He was in Army reserve for 2 years, and a Private Pilot for 22 years. The postings were in 9 states of India and 2 countries overseas.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1

Long ago, I had penned my memories breaking them into five years each, mentioning the facts to be edited later. My younger daughter who is an MA in English literature is doing the job now. This was earlier published on the Blogspot.com.

All my colleagues were in one branch of civil engineering i.e. Irrigation, Roads, Buildings and Public Health. In my case, I served in all the above which is rare. In addition, I had the unique opportunity of teaching in a degree college, REC and later NIT, management training institute, structural inspection of Steel, Fertilizer plants and mines,(RSP) construction of oil refineries, gas cracker plant, petrochemical plant, multistory office complex, ferrochrome plant, polyester fiber plant, highways, railways along with pre stressed, steel bridges, integrated sewerage system. Moreover, I was an Advisor in the ministry of Finance/Industry, Team Leader of a contingent of 85 engineers of several disciplines in Iran, and in construction of Resort/Business Hotels in Malaysia.

In most of the cases, they were the largest in the country at that point of time. My job as an engineer was for livelihood. However, my hobbies were diverse, which along with the jobs was keeping my body and mind in perpetual excitement. They were sports, athletics, NCC-rifle shooting in college days,, shikar, flying, astronomy and astrology in later days. This aspect I shall try to highlight this aspect of my life in the snippets in separate chapters.

Concurrently, I was holding a commission in the regular reserve of officers (corps of engineers) and NCC rifles, a private pilot’s license of aero planes3333, delivering lectures in reputed institutes. I did a diploma in project management in Urwick Management Centre at Slough, England, I completed one year out of 3 years in MBA from the University of Delhi. I also did an Urdu language course from the Jamia Milia University and German from the Max Muller Bhavan.

Games and Athletics

In East Hostel of Ravenshaw College, Raju Das, who was my roommate, prompted me to participate in college sports. I got a 3rd prize in the high jump. Since I was already enrolled in NCC and Rovers crew, and being a science student with an extra subject, I had no time for games. However, in college, I used to go for practice and see the performance of others. From this I used to select 4 items in athletics where I had a chance of getting within first three. The idea behind was not to excel in just one particular thing but to get a greater number of medals. I used to get at least three prizes but never first in the college games and in NCC (National Cadet Corps) games.

Only one thing I excelled was in rifle shooting, where I used to be the champion of the state. Earl Roberts Trophy was an all Commonwealth game for cadets only. The items were:

1. Normal one at 100 ft and all the time you can take

2. A disc comes out from an underground bunker for 2 sec and you have to fire one bullet. This was done 5 times.

3. A moving target from one end of the bunker to the other for 30 sec where you have to fire five bullets.

4. A disc with bulls eye, inner, magpie and outer is fixed at a distance of 600 ft. We lie down, fire one bullet, get up, run to 500 ft in 45 sec and fire the next one.

Thereafter, all the points added will give you ranking. The other was Burdwan Trophy for Indian cadets only on the same lines. I got 7th rank for later and 45th in former.

A havildar taught us a trick-do not hold the rifle and try to aim, but to move the rifle and press the trigger at the exact moment. The other trick was my own for the last item. At 600ft the target is too small to be visible, so I did not fire and keep the bullet for 100ft, where I used to fire two bullets in quick succession. We were issued one extra bullet for warming of the barrel, which I did for the target practice on coconuts on the trees, which were plenty in Gods own country – Kerala. These are not quite legal, but compared with some of the cricketers of today, is not a criminal offence

Debate

Even though I was good in General Knowledge and got several prizes in quiz competitions. I never tried debates being basically a shy person. At that point in time, I had read subjects like History, Anthropology, History of Languages and their scripts. One day a friend of mine suggested that I should take a part in the hostel extempore competitions, the subject of which was to be announced on stage so that no one could prepare ahead of time

The subject selected was, The greatest event in human history. Others talked about World Wars, Alexander, Pluto, Roman empires etc. I rose tall, all 6’2and said, Human beings in groups were hunting, feeding in a tribe; sometimes even killing other tribes for centuries. But the one day someone decided to settle down. Then one man put four sticks and said this is my land and took one woman and said she is mine. This was the event which started all the conflict, wars and associated turbulence. In my opinion, this was the greatest event and not what followed."I got the first prize and that was the last, like one book wonders of books. Later, while I was teaching, I used to hold debate competitions for students and gave keynote addresses. Then as founder president of officers association of EIL (Engineers India Ltd), I used the platform for speech, along with the normal lectures, but none of them were close to debating.

Shikar

In our days, outdoor activities were treated as manly and one of them was shikar which was treated as a sport and not a criminal activity as is portrayed today. This was done by kings and the aristocrats all over the world. I was fascinated by guns and by ten I knew how to handle my father’s 12 bore single barreled gun (Spanish make) with nuances of different cartridges viz ball, LG, SG and smaller ones made in England. One day a tiger was moving in the vicinity of our house and in my father’s absence, I was the man of the house. I loaded the gun and came out, but in the meanwhile he ran away. Much earlier, when I was a child my mother was feeding me a ball of rice, I said there is a tiger somewhere, and my mother saw it at a distance of 100ft under a stilted godown. At that time, I just felt its presence by smell and not by sight. My sense of smell was above normal, like many of my other faculties other than studies.

In the later part of 1960, Sukinda Forest was close and I had no gun at that time.A doctor friend of mine who was also a part time doctor for Tatas took me to a shikari’s house. There were two guns, one double barrel which the shikari kept with him and the other one, a rifle with one bullet only, he gave it to me My jeep had a spotlight connected to a battery. After couple of hours, I spotted two leopards and got down with a handset headlight and proceeded to have a closer range. In between, the jeep spotlight went off leaving me in total darkness except for my headlight. When the light came, one of them could not be