THE CHIEF

The Chief

It was third week of september 1978 when I started my career in Hindustan Brown Boveri(HBB)in Vadodara.

I entered Dr. Ramamoorty''s cabin who was our R&D Head and immediately after welcoming me he  started expressing angrily about  my friend who was supposed to join there but  did not even bothered to inform him that he was not joining HBB. The next moment Dr Ramamoorty shrugged his anger and in a very quiet tone he enquired about me and had a brief chat with me hu about professors in IIT  powai.Then he called  one of his  subordinates Mr Shripad Tambe who was assigned a job of introducing me to everyone in the department.As we mooved out and I was introduced to many intelligent persons all from different IITs ,I came to know that Dr Ramamoorthy was called " Chief " Almost all of them enquired about Chief's mood. I was ammused with the word  " Chief ". Prior to that, I only knew that 'Della Street'and 'Paul Drake' used to call 'Perry Mason'  "Chief " in the 'Earl StanelyGardner's  Novels ! 

When I was talking to Tambe , Mr. Nair ,secretary of Chief asked me to sign in one register and gave me variety of office stationary material .. ..Just after an hour or two I was told Chief wants to see me. I was instructed by Tambe that I must go there with a pen and newly given paper Pad. I did.so. Mr Nair,(we used to call him Nandi) who was perhaps as efficient as Della street,allowed me to go inside Chief's cabin only after conversation of Chief on the phone ended.Anyone could have understood that Chief was not in the good mood so I entered the cabin like a lamb would have entered in the den....

How someone  can change his mood so quickly was a puzzle to me during my second meeting with chief. He  enquired whether I was allotted all the stationary and work place  .He also told me about where I can get accomodation in the city and then who will help me  etc .Then straight a way came to the project topic he had planned for me. It was electronics related project  while I was expecting something related to computer programming in Fortran IV.  I told him I am not good in electronics and my M.Tech project was altogether different but Chief reminded me  that I did project in electronics in B.E. .He precisely remembered the project topic on which we had discussion almost 4 months back during my interview. I had no choice but to agree though I was scared of electronics.He saw the fear on my face and assured me that we all are there to help and guide you. Then again Tambe was summoned because I confessed that I didn't know soldering. I was given a job of assembling some circuit on general purpose board and Tambe was asked to inform  everyone in the lab  that 'no one should  help me'  in assembling the circuit. ! I was shocked ....later Tambe told me that Chief wanted to see my hands on skill !  ..  After lunch i was struggling to solder all those components on the general purpose board.

Dr. Ramamoorty before coming to HBB to set up new R&D ,was professor in IIT kanpur.He  had guided umteen number of projects to many M Tech. and Ph D. students.He had experience of working in foreign universities as a visiting professor and many publications in IEEE were to his credit. He was well known in the field of power electronics and power system.  I didnot know anything about his charismatic personality till I joined HBB. .When I went to IIT powai to defend my thesis I told my guide that Dr Ramamoorty was my boss  in HBB . My  guide and other professors were   very happy and excited to know that. I was introduced to the panel of external examiners by my guide and he  added that I will be  working with Dr Ramamaoorty. That introduction was so effective that both the examiners  were happy to hear name of Dr. Ramamoorty, As a result all my tension about defending the thesis evaporated and it was a cake walk for me .

Chief had a great vison and used to work ahead of time . In 1978 itself he started  solar energy related project in our R &D and Ravindra Singh Soin successfully demonstrated it to Brown Boveri Directors.The Pentagon isolator development project of C E Sudhakar , SCR controlled Induction heating furnace  project of S V Tambe  and J J Patel  led setting up of  huge High voltage Testing lab under his guidance are some examples of his vison and working ahead of time. He knew that microprocessor will be the future and insisted that every electronics engineer  must know microprocessor. The project overcurrent relay which he got developed from me could not go in commercial production because in those days the cost of  simple diode used to be more than ₹ 2.50 compared to its  today's cost of bare 40  paise! Under his leadership We all worked ahead of Indian conditions. and He knew that the solid state relays cannot be sold till the top authorites in the State  Electricity  boards understand the  importance of new technology. So he organized and conducted training programs for  Government engineers of Electricity boards.This certainly showed his will to solve the problem at its root.

The Government of India requested him to join CPRI Banglore for his in depth knowledge of Electrical Power System and ability to give useful technical solutions.Later he was back to Vadodara in ERDA.The importance of CPRI Banglore and ERDA was enhanced just because Chief was the driving force.

  Not only  Chief was extremely good in electrical / electronics related  subjects he was perhaps good in every subject he learned. He used to develop his team and engineers by encouraging them to do hard work and highlight their  achievements. His memory was like an elephant. Once he called me and asked me to do the Fourier analysis of some complex waveforms . I told him that I  had forgotten the subject. He then commented  " How can one forget the technical thing...say that you have not understood it." . He used to beleive that it is very difficult to forget technical subject if you have really grasped it. I had no option but to understand the subject and do the job .When I showed him the results, he asked his 'Nandi' to bring his own thesis. He told me that the fourier analysis of those complex waveforms was done by him almost 20 years back and I can check my results in his thesis.".He jokingly  added that he wanted to test my mathematical skill since my father was professor in mathematics .... I was aghast ! Why he should ask me to do the analysis of complex waveforms when he already had the results ? The answer for this I got after two days when he kindly gave credit to me for that analysis  in one of his Seminars and elevated opinion about me in the minds of those technical people. 

The otherwise task master Chief used to be quite changed person when we used to have get to gethers small parties or one day picnics. In the picnics he used to even play cricket and participate in other activities.There he used to genuinely appreciate even painful  musical skills of his staff and their spouses . In the relaxed mood he used to appreciate jokes cracked on him as well... Of all the engineers A V Bhalerao had maximum courage to crack jokes when Chief used to be in jolly mood.I remember ...once MG Pratap M N Gandhi myself and Chief were talking about Vibration test Rig ...Since Motor was required A V Bhalerao was also there.Judging the jolly mood of Chief AVB commented that "why at all we should have vibration test rig ?  Just keep your relays in the cabin and ask Chief to review all the  projects..... Soon .whole cabin will start vibrating ! Everyone burst into laughter and sportingly chief admitted that he sometimes shouts too loudly.

On two occasions I felt extremely embarrassed to talk to Chief.The first was when I was required to tell him that my wife who is MSc.Physics, will not accept   the teaching job which he had arranged for  her in the prestigious Bhartiya vidya Bhavan.The reason was  my wife was carrying at that time (This I didnot tell him then) .....The second occasion was when I resigned from HBB and didnot disclose where I will be joining.. I think I did the biggest mistake in my life by refusing to tell him about my future plans.In spite of that Chief invited me for send off dinner at his home.  Chief never asked me again where I was going and I was feeling guilty .On Dining table his father was there to whom Chief told that I will be leaving HBB tomorrow......The old man in a very kind and  loving tone asked me where I will be going? I took a deep breath and immediately disclosed  everything about my next job, on which there was no reaction from chief.The feeling of guilt in me continued and I could hardly eat that delicious food prepared by Lakshmi Garu...Chief's wife. If you ever meet her you will immediately agree that "Behind every successful man there is a woman" .I honestly feel that Laksmi Garu must have played a very important role in an unparalleled success of Chief.I didnot have much interaction with Chief's family except with  his son in law, C E Sudhakar who was a good friend and we never missed any party hosted by Chief.His son " Babu " occasionally used to come to our place on some Sundays with  message from Chief  asking someone of  us to go to office  to test some new idea of chief.( there were no mobiles in those days).

I would like to state that My first project with Chief was static overcurrent Relay and coincidently the last project in my career was also microcontroller based Over Current Relay (This relay went in commercial production and many of them are successfully working  since last 10 years at several locations )

Today Chief is nearing 84 years age and I have not met him since  last 32 years..but time and again I remember him as he was my first boss......I had planned to go to Hyderabad to meet him but cruel COVID has denied me to do so. 

I dont know when I will meet Chief but I hope I will.,,...All I can do now is to offer my best wishes to Dr MR and his family.

----------------------

R J Phansalkar

Nick name in HBB  - Fancy

I have written all this as there is nothing to do and I hope my  old HBB friends will read my blog.





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