Jaguar Land Rover Offroad Experience

Thursday 18 Sep 2014
It was evening. I was back to home from my office. As usual it was time to beat the tiredness. What I usually do? After a refresh, turn on the Music on the home PC, hear some melodies. This usually goes for half an hour after which I move on to other routine.

But on Thursday evening, as I was switching on my home PC, my phone ringed. The person on the other end was Shrinidhi, my long time blogger friend. "Hey, are you free this Sunday, 21 Sep? Jaguar Land Rover is sprucing out an Offroading Experience." And, this was a music, more interesting, than what I was going to hear in my home PC!!

"Yeah!! " said me. Offroading that too on a luxury SUV!! I replied him that I would be there for sure. Then the process started with couple of calls and emails from Blogadda who are coordinating the bloggers coming for this event.

The event happened on Sunday afternoon. We needed to be there by 12.00 noon, start with the lunch and go on with the off roading event.

Shrinidhi, Ashwini and myself were to go in a cab for the event venue. We fixed 11.30 a.m. as the the ample time to catch up together at Shollinganallur junction on the ECR and continue the journey in a cab and reach "The Farm" a specialty restaurant at Semmancherry Village on the OMR in Chennai.

Sunday 21 Sep 2014
Yours truly started off from Cuddalore by 7.30 a.m. While I crossed past Pondicherry, I confirmed my coordinates to Shrinidhi.

As planned, I joined Shrinidhi and Ashwini awaiting with the Innova cab exactly at 11.30 a.m. at Shollinganallur ECR junction and we all started off to "The Farm" the venue for the Jaguar Land Rover Experience.

As we already planned, we were on time. We arrived at 12.00 noon.

As we entered into the precincts of the restaurant there was a big change in the scenario. The environment did not seem to be a "buzzing Chennai" but an ever green atmosphere prevailed around. After a photograph, we went in, to join the folks of the JLR India as well as Blogadda.

After a few minutes of getting introduced with the people, I was in for a surprise to meet Tinu Cherian. I have felt his online presence, more than once, be it twitter or facebook through retweets made by others. Met him for the first time. Happenings like this do get me joy which are hard to forget in life. Its a first meeting him.

We all then had some fruit juice. The previous session of off roading was going on. We were told that The Land Rovers have gone into the off roading terrain, which is nearby and should be in the middle of the session. We understood that, it would take more than half hour for the session to end. It was felt that we all can go and have a look.

So, we all went in to the big private farm land by walk...

The big farm land spruced up on more than 60 acres.

There was a big water pool and we got to see a Land Rover entering into it.

It was interesting to see the big SUVs in action at such challenging conditions. The vehicles then went into a bit far place. So we came back to our restaurant area.

An ambulance along with a doctor was available throughout the event. The JLR folks need to be saluted for taking so much of care for their creed.

Pizzas were served hot, we finished our lunch and were ready for our driving session.

The experience was facilitated by Cougar Motorsports, specialists in OffRoad events in India, from "Tata Motors Full Throttle" to "The Himalayan Dash".  After lunch, briefing session by experts from Cougar  as well as JLR started off.

We were explained of the advanced features of the Rovers. We were in for a surprise to know that the vehicle has features such as Hill Descent Control - prevents the machine from slipping / skidding due to hard braking while going downhill. Another control - Terrain Response - can change throttle response and a million other parameters based on the terrain such as sand, rock etc..,

Clear instruction were given to us. As each car was driven by us, there would be an expert driver sitting on the left seat. We should follow our instructor’s command to the letter, if we don’t, the drive experience was bound to be taken over by the expert. Ofcourse, all of us enjoyed the drive, no one was taken off.

 

We were in for a surprise to have Mr.Vicky Chandok, the scion in the Indian Motor Sports scenario. He too explored the off road terrain during the event along with his son Suhail Chandok. It was great time to bump with him here through the LandRoverExperience.

There were 7 SUVs ranging from Land Rover, Land Rover 2, to Range Rover. There were 7 explorers. Each of us were assigned a vehicle along with an expert driver. The people were assigned sequentially from car number 1. But as all the people got off their chairs and went off, I was the only one to be seated and waiting to be called out.

 Ofcourse, I was the last one to be assigned. 

I was the last driver in the convoy. It was a surprise that a top of the class Range Rover Evoque came in for me. 

Sitting inside the cabin, a surprise was that, there was no key below the steering wheel. There was no gear Lever. There was no Clutch. Only two pedals were there - Brake and Accelerator. A rotatory knob on the panel in the left, sufficed a gear lever. A small switch near the knob sufficed the hand brake lever. I was then given instruction to press the left pedal "Brake" with my foot, then press "Start" with my hand. The Rover roared in some sweet music. 

The convoy started off. After driving the RangeRover on the pits and small mounds, the big water pool came in. There were clear instruction on how to take this nearly 5 foot deep water pool. As we needed to drive on a nearly 200 feet long periphery of the pool, it was a quite challenge. As I was guided to turn accordingly along the periphery of the pool, I drove it without any hiccups. 

So far I have been in some car or even bus, plying above stagnant water pools,  I would be sitting inside it though. Water would be splashing off to heights in some rare cases. That looked cool. All those experience was just for a short length of 10 or 15 feet. But not this long.

But, now, I am driving the vehicle and the water is nearer to my hip level on the outside, as I was inside of this RangeRover. 

As my vehicle was into the pool, till the water is 2 feet deep, I was in as usual. But, as the depth increased, the SUV seemed not to be driven but seemed to be sailing. 

I was awestruck a bit on what will happen if water entered to the insides of the cabin. I had brought a spare set of clothes though, my usual practice, whenever I go in for any off roading. But, nothing bad happened. Not a drop of water creeped insides the cabin. ENGINEERING MARVEL!!

After the car was driven to the plains, I was instructed to open the doors, to feel the amount of water that have come in. Some 2 litres of water came out from the insides of each of the doors on the right side. After all the water seeped out, I was instructed to start the journey further.

The next trail was a mud slush. Then a mound came in. Then came a slush. The vehicle was put in different modes. All the controls were taken care of by the computers in the vehicle. Barely the skill of the driver is put into play.

Then there was a stretch which was bit longer and I got the chance to push the accelerator bit harder. It was a good experience. There was another descending mound to be taken now. This was a bit challenging one and so it took more time for the three vehicles before me to queue out.

So far so good, I was rotating the pod in the vehicle to "Drive" and moving the vehicle as needed. Whenever the vehicle wants to be stopped for a long time, I switched the pod to "Parking" and waited. So, I was in the "Parking" mode for a longer time. Since I was the last man in the convoy, a fire lit in me. Why not try "Reverse"? I asked my instructor. He nodded. I then turned the knob to "R" and drove the RangeRover for some twenty feet in the reverse. Ofcourse I was the only person in the group who roved the Evoque in the reverse. A gift for this last man in the convoy!!

Then the Queue in the front had moved out. It was my turn. After climbing down the last mound we came back to the starting point.

Since the RangeRover experience was so awesome, I missed to take a selfie. There was also an instruction to not use our cameras while driving. So, after coming back to the start point, I got my instructor to click me a pic. But, there was a two wheeler guy who was honking continuously from behind. So was the result in my facial expression. After moving the vehicle a bit, he went off, I was bit relieved. My instructor took the vehicle as I came out.

We came back to the venue, filled in our feedback and started off...

This was the fare well click for we the bloggers. The session meant for us was over. But, just having finished our driving, me and Shrinidhi felt something missing. We have never clicked the action packed Rovers to our appetite.

We asked the JLR folks for taking us in some other vehicles during the next session. There was communication back and forth, in the end, we realized that we can't be accommodated in the vehicles. 

We were also told that we can venture into the terrain and do our photography. So we two ventured once again into the terrain to click the next batch of explorers who came in driving into terrain.

The line up of the Land Rover India SUVs for the next batch to set sail into the off road terrain

The pit to test the capability of the SUVs
 

 The marshals awaiting for the next batch to come into the terrain for the offroading.

The first sight of the Rovers coming in to the offroad terrain.

Rover on its three... !!

 The smoke from the vehicle bubbles out of the water.

This is the steep mound with loose mud. The car has a Hill Descent Control to overtake the braking done by the driver. In case the driver over steps the brake pedal, the computer takes control and prevents a skid.

It was a great time seeing all these advanced machines in action under controlled environment. Learnt a bit of intricacies in these machines. 

By end of day, me and Shrinidhi left in the taxi. I got dropped at Shollinganallur junction and caught a bus to Cuddalore. Reached home by 10.00 p.m.

Here is a video made by Shrinidhi...

Don't miss some more interesting photos at my FaceBook album here

A great experience. 

Thanks JLR, Thank you Shrinidhi, Thank you Blogadda.

The year 2013 experience

GREAT BECAUSE


MRF Formula 2000 Racing Event got me the perfect to clicked my camera to the utmost to my satisfaction. 

Achieving a panned shot of the speeding race car with an ordinary digital camera is a challenge. Successfully achieved it. The above is the result of a panned shot of the Formula 2000cc car I clicked with my point and shoot digital camera - FujiFilm JZ300.

Got that golden half minute to get a click with the Managing Director of our organisation MRF during the race event.
 

That was a great memorable shot because my former boss and current boss are there in this frame. 

A click with Mr.Narain Karthikeyan, the fastest Indian on the Earth!

 

Bought a new Point and Shoot digital camera F770EXR through my colleague Peroumal Ji. This camera is an advanced P&S camera with a 20X optic zoom and since it is not available in India, my colleague helped me to get it from the USA.

My photography skill got mentioned in my organisation MRF - A click of my bike tyre went into the annual corporate presentation with a mention of me. Got me noticed in higher echelons of my career life.

Reviewed a yet to be launched Royal Enfield #Bullet500. Finished 2500 kms over a period of 20 days. Took it on an arduous long four day 1710 kms trip, riding the bike through four states in south india along with some interesting hard core riders. Clocked my longest ride of 647 kms through 3 states in a single day.

 

Luckily got invited to the SUV offroading initiative of Audi Chennai on the Q type of Audi cars.

Driving the sophisticated luxury car was a great experience.

Covered Offroading of Renault Duster cars. It was a great time to get introduced with the thrilling group of adventurous group - "Jeep Thrills".



 

My interest in Bulletering has now spread in my family which ended in buying one more Royal Enfield Bullet 350 (1994 model) for my brother.



 
SAD BECAUSE

Shri.Rajendra Ratnoo IAS, the then District Collector left from Cuddalore subsequent to him being transferred to Chennai. This happened in Dec 2012.

A great experience working with him in sprucing up social media initiatives for the improvement of my town Cuddalore way back in 2012. 

 This was during the kick starting of social media initiative in "Rebuilding Economy and Ecology of Cuddalore"  post the devastation due to Cyclone Thane

That was me alongside Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam which was during the kick start of Social media initiative for "Plastic Free Cuddalore".

A sad time that after Shri Rajendra Ratnoo IAS left our district, his wonderful initiatives could no longer realize its intended fruits. Had he stayed here for a few more months, the Cuddalore district would have been a fore runner in total implementation of Zero Waste. After he left, the projects got handicapped. Cuddalore is back to the bad old days of banned plastic being used every where and garbage being dumped in river bodies. 

Projects such as banning plastic and implementing zero waste system in such a big district would need a couple of years time. But before the fruits reach the people, this bureaucrat was shifted to the state capital. The sprouting of the seeds sown by him had withered for want of care. 

Though this bureaucrat is an expert in implementing environmentally conscious initiatives, his expertise has gone un-utilized by the government. He has been shifted to departments which are not related with to improving the environment.
 

One of my photographs was stolen and used for commercial purpose by Bike Basix,  an Ahmedabad based company selling commercial merchandise.

 without any credits or monetary benefits to me.

Now welcoming 2014 and expecting it to be a more interesting one...

Captured Lightning - A first experience

Couple of days ago, when I was back to home late in the evening, it was cloudy and thunderbolt was there with mild drizzle of rain.
I was awaiting for such a moment for so long ever since I got the new camera FujiFilm F770EXR. This camera has the option to set the shutter delay to 8 seconds. Its just a basic digital camera (Point & Shoot).
Capturing lightning does have a lot of challenges to be overcome. I do not have the comfort of sitting inside closed room and capture the sky. So, should move out to the open terrace. Being a rainy time, I still have to safeguard my camera against any water on it with an umbrella. With all these things taken care, I do not have a tripod to place this camera.
So, I went to open terrace with a plastic stool, a chair, an umbrella. After I set the camera, I realized that, the camera can't be placed with its lens facing upwards. So, I placed my cell phone, then placed the camera at an angle to face it upwards on the stool. Since the stool is smooth, the camera slides to a side and gives me puzzling moments. Now, I removed my shirt, put it on the stool so that the camera rigidly sits on the stool with the shirt providing a little grip.
I sat on the chair, placed the umbrella above and set the camera delay to 8 seconds. Ensured that the camera is pointing to the sky and at the most angle the extent possible for me.
The rain has settled down and the lightning too had come down in its ferocity. Though its safer moment for me to operate on the open terrace, the situation gave me little probability to get the lightning on record. It was many clicks that had went by and during one such click of 8 seconds and when the exposure was going to close, the lightning came and went off during the last may be 3 seconds.
Alas, the experience of having captured the lightning was quite awesome. A first experience for me.
Having got the experience of doing this capture, I am sure of getting a better result next time.

Camera : FujiFilm F770EXR (Point & Shoot)
Shutter : 8 seconds

Honeymooning with my royal enfield

My Royal Enfield made its first coming home on 7th Jan'11 almost a month ago. But so far I never got the chance to have a ride this 1990 workhorse.


Why?
 
On the first day, Selvam anna, my neighbour, who was instrumental in buying me this Bullet rode home. He had a bullet years ago. I did not have the confidence in riding this bullet the first time that too a 20 kms journey at dusk. Selvam anna drove the bullet home on the first day, while I drove his Splendour bike while coming back after the purchase of this bullet.
 
Why I did not have the confidence is that, the bullet is little old, I am new to the right side gear shift thingy. Added to this is; it was the first day and I did not take risk, that too at dark.

After we reached home at about 8.00 p.m. I rode the bullet in my narrow street for nearly an half hour. Got little used up with the right side gear shifting. What followed was a loss of air pressure on the rear tyre. Realized that, the back wheel had a very old set of tyre and tube. So, the following days, I could not enjoy getting used up by riding it. 

What followed was the daily ritual of parking it outside on the street before I leave to office and then parking it inside the house in the evening for the following couple of days. This is done to give way for my narrow verandah at home to get the other moped for daily runarounds. 

By this way,  I got used up with new experience of handling the heavier machine. Thats, moving it little away, parking it, then moving it inside and then parking. The tyre drew a flat the following couple of days. Meanwhile, we completed the most important thing of transferring of owner name in the Registration & Insurance Records of this bullet. Once all the hulla bullah were over, it was time to call for the puncture shop.

Another important ritual of the bullet. Thatz KickStarting it.
 
As far as I knew with the owners of the old bullets, its the first ritual that needed to be learnt before attempting on riding this beast. On the first couple of days, it was little tough.

The ritual goes like this... Firstly; kick the starting lever with the de-compressor switch engaged. Secondly; ensure the amps show zero. Thirdly; kick the lever without engaging the de-compressor.
 
Wow.
 
The legend roars up with the Dhud Dhud thumps. This is the sound that is still making people turn their heads at the first know of the approach of a bullet. This alone made me go for buying this legend. This thump is the unique of its class and gets to be called "Goes like a bullet".

As days passed, I got satisfied with my ability to make the engine fire up. Still the bullet had not been running on the road.

Next day, the puncture shop man came and set it right. The next call was made to the mechanic who came in the evening to ride back the vehicle to his shop situated at Koliyanur Koot near Villupuram. A 40+ kms ride from Cuddalore.

So, almost a month has passed and the bike is still getting ready. Few days I got to prod the mechanic to make the work faster. He promised to give me the vehicle, minus some of the major works to be done afterwards.
 
BTW, I need to attend the upcoming technical training organised by Royal Enfield this Saturday the 11th of Feb. This program carries content of what is needed to the owners of Royal Enfield. Though I am a owner of a Royal Enfield bullet for the past one month, I hardly rode 4 kms on this bullet. Without a riding experience, attending the training program would be of little worth. So, I had been hardpressing the mechanic to give me back the vehicle. 

The next couple of days I should go to office on my Royal Enfield bullet and get to know more of this bike.
 
So, yesterday evening, I made a call to the mechanic to enquire about the progress. He was of the mood to give my bullet by Thursday and told that many of the work on the engine has been over. I was adamant to him to give me the bike yesterday itself. After my office hours, I pressed my way to his shop to be drawn aback by his absence and the shop kept shut. Adding fury to me is his mobile phone was switched off.

An hour had passed and he made his presence to me. Then I came to know that, he has bought his son a brand new Apache bike. He had just now finished the rituals and came to the shop with the new bike.
 
It was over an hour I was waiting there and he obliged to attend to my vehicle. The work started by 6.30 p.m. He is very disciplined in his work and took step by step of adding the little parts on to the head of the engine. Its very interesting to see the work getting bit by bit in progress. Finally after two hours into his work, he fired the engine. The thump was so nice and pushing my spirits up. It was about 9.00 p.m. and he assured me that the work would be over in another half hour.

My home is 40 kms from there and I was cat on wall on how well I could reach back home on the bullet.

After finishing the work on the engine, he opened up the headlight. There were so many wires lying in a haphazard way. The earlier owner has not paid attention to detail on the circuitry in the vehicle. Mending the wire points and making the headlight come up was a very tiring process with many hiccups. As the clock was ticking past 10.00 p.m. I decided that its not safe to ride at this time of the night. 

My father in law's house is just 1 Km away from this place. I then changed my itinerary and informed them of my situation. Around 10.30, with the bike still giving a hide and seek, with my stomach giving the ringing bell, I decided to have my dinner. So, I went to FIL's home and finished dinner and came back by about 11.00 p.m.

At around 11.30 p.m. the mechanic finished the work on the head light and it was much an ease of mind for both of us. Then, he went on to correct the broken front brake lever. 

Once the parts on the right side handle bar were opened up, it was another work waiting. The wires leading to the brake, accelerator and clutch had worn out and the mechanic decided that it should be replaced. Its luck at that juncture that he had a set of all these with him to be used for another Royal Enfield bullet which is in his next schedule of restoration. He decided to use up those inventory for my vehicle. So, now the work of replacing the clutch cable, accelerator and front brake is started.

It took another hour to get finished. As the clock ticked 1.15 a.m. the mechanic declared that, I could now take my bullet. Though there were still pending replacement jobs needed for the front shock absorbers, inner sprocket and a link on the drive chain, I made it a point to drive the bike for a few days before I go for the customer technical training program.

Reached FIL's home at 1.30 a.m. and called it a day. Had a good sleep and started my first ever bullet ride to office the next morning.

Today morning, I succeeded in firing up the engine within the first five kicks that too in a cold weather. The ride to the office was bit enchanting. As few more scheduled replacement workx are pending, I am confident to gather an initial experience of the bullet. After my office hours, I drove the bullet back to my hose in Cuddalore. So, the honeymoon with the bullet has started with today's ride of about 50 kms.

Riding was so far satisfactory. But the bullet still needs to be replaced of its front shockx, rocker and the inner sprocket. Until these things are done, the ride for me would be bit harder. Anyway, should take up this experience so that I could learn more about the intricacies with this machine.
 
Dhud dhud dhud. Awaiting to learn more from the Royal Enfield training program. Until then, Bye Bye.

The dirty pond.

1 Nov'09

Yesterday(31 Oct), I was late out of office - left at 9.00 p.m. After that I got lift in my boss's car, after a 4 kms drive reached the place Pakkam Koot, a place en route from factory to Pondy. This is of course a small road junction from where I could get a bus to my place Cuddalore.

It was about 9.15 p.m. and I am lucky (: to get a local town bus which travels from this Pakkam Koot Road to reach my town Cuddalore. It was a little satisfaction for me that I got a bus which is too odd given the time of the night. Yes, after 8.30 p.m. its rare to get a bus back to home from this location.

Anyhow, I proudly got into the bus with a piece of mind to having an opportunity to sit and relax my arse off after the hard days work of mending a couple of power point presentations umpteen number of times for the corporate conference which is happening tomorrow at Chennai. There were very a few people in this bus at this odd hour. One among the VIP was a 50 year old drunkard who was not in his senses. He was lifted into the bus and made to sit on the floor by his two friends. He was so much in his kick of the drink, that, he went on to lie on the floor to take a deep slumber. On talking with his buddies, I came to know that this fellow had drunk too much after his day's work of cutting sugar cane. Generally these type of work are better paid compared to other type of farm work in the surrounding area.

Not more than 7 people were there in the bus. After a 20 minutes of journey through the narrow roads and numerous bends, the alighting place for our drunken fellow had come. Now his friends awaken him to get down. The VIP throws out a surprising question, "Hey, why are you disturbing my sleep?" After a few attempts, he was made to understand that he was then travelling in a bus and his home has reached. The great bus which is the last chance of the day for the people to reach home, now stops for this great man to get down. The driver and the conductor of this bus has to be praised for so much passenger friendly.

Unlucky me, I got into this bus which I have so far not tried, since it is a round about journey for me to travel back to my home. But at this time of the night, and that too a rainy day, its some minimum probability for me to get through the other wise straight route.

After a few stops there were only two passengers including me, that was a very old lady (paati).The bus was travelling with right turns, left turns and jolts due to the gift called pot holes. Some times, these efforts of bus facility being provided to the not so populated villages at the odd hours are to be lauded.

A few minutes, there was a noise of stones hitting the back side glass of the bus. Glass pieces of the back window were flying inside towards me. The driver stopped the vehicle and got down to chase the culprit. The two back side glass panes bore the burnt. Ohh, some bad guy had transferred his fury on to the bus. Apart from the two passengers there were nobody around. It was damn dark and was dead calm outside, giving some frightening moments at the end of the day for me with desperation to reach home and fill my hungry stomach.

After a few minutes, I could hear the bus crew come back while conversing with few more people. The persons who came with the crew, were pity of the dastardly act by some rowdy sheeter. I was too tired of the days work combined with skipping the dinner in the bad plan of getting a sumptuous dinner way back at home.

Oh, poor me was drawn aback of the unlucky time get to give life time experiences then and there. Now the driver made a mobile call to his superior to get advised of first making a complaint to the concerned police station. Ofcourse, the police station is very far away from the incident spot. These are the rich formalities for a Government bus, though the condition of the bus is so poor when compared with a private bus. Unlucky me, I should have decided to go on my usual route rather than jumping to get on seeing a bus.

What say, things happen and some times we need to get wise by these odd experiences.

Now, the crew got to speak with two more passerby. Later decide to inform the local village head as advised by the passerby. I guess, the passerby should be the Macbeth. Since there were nobody around, I decided to go along with the crew to the place were there were many hutments. The guy who was accompanying us, told about the incident to the “village head” and asked him to come.

Afterwards he came outside his hut. He was a bit small guy and did not seems like a village head. He then speaks out that such incidents do not happen without his knowledge and must be handiwork of people from some other village. He then speaks out that he was organizing a hartal in the morning in protest of ransacking of his leader’s office at Chennai. He says with glory of his police arrest subsequent to the hartal in the morning and that he just then reached home after release a few minutes then.

Much of years and generations are needed to make these people know of what to do for the country, how to protest and what to do for developing the country rather than making protest at the drop of the spoon. Our country has too much of people falling in this category, and its much needed to change their mindsets.

Then, all of us headed to the incident spot. The “village head” sees of the damages. The passerby was all along accompanying us and he was the one who was leading us to the hutment of the so called “village leader” and back to the bus. I suppose he was the black sheep and pretending to be making humane approach to us at the same time confirming to his “village head” that he has accomplished his part of protest. Though public are there at the loggerheads of getting affected, luckily the stone or the glass did not hit any of the two passengers.

After discussions back and forth with his superiors, the bus driver managed to make the drive to the nearby police station which itself is some 20 kms away. After the melee of some 45 minutes, before the bus made to the police station, I managed to get off at the main road and catch another bus back to my home after a delay of 1.5 hours at the mid of the night.

There are many places on earth which do not have proper roads to approach.
There are many countries in the world where proper transport is not available.
There are small villages which did not ever seen a transport facility for generations.

But, here even though the road was too narrow, with nearly hundred blind curves and millions of pot holes in just a 25 kms route...
Though the driver and conductor are courteous enough to work at the extreme hostile conditions, in accustoming with the poorest of the villagers, there is a tribe called rowdy who makes his journey on to that road, just throw a gravel onto the bus just for his whims and fancies.
The shitty reason may be that his leader got cold and cough and he wants to express his displeasure by damaging the public property. There would be a huge fan base in the name of self acclaimed "village leader" for him and a clan makes out its sojourn to make a talk in his town.

Bull shit

Will not these people get to come out of their dirty pond.

My experience of fire fighting

Had you ever got the chance to fight the fire ?

There had been enough time, I had the chance to see videos, hear news and stories related with fire accidents. But on a Friday, that was on 24^th of July’09, I got a real life experience with fire accident at my factory.

There was a place inside the factory where scrap tyres would be dumped. These tyres go out when buyers procure them for making out rubber based products. These tyres where the fire accident happened are of the sizes that are fitted in bus & lorry which weigh above 50 Kgs. The location of the scrap yard is some half a kilo meter from my working location.

The first sight I came to know about this bad incident was from a black smoke which was gushing high up into the sky. Some of us started rushing to the accident site. The fierce flame was engulfing high up 50 feet above. Smoke was seen further high into the sky. Later came to know that the billowing black smoke was witnessed by people from far off regions 10 kilometers away.

My factory site has been equipped with fire hydrant system. It is a facility where pipe line runs around the manufacturing facility in which water is always maintained at high pressure. Tap points are available from which Fire-man hoses need to be fitted and lead to the incident area. The taps are then opened and water at high pressure is directed towards the fire accident point. This is very much similar to the ones used by Fire Rescue Personnel though pressure of the water will be bit higher in a hydrant line.

The usual grasp for every one of us on seeing a fire man quenching the fire is that of a similarity to spraying water in your little garden. But the fire man hose has water running at very high pressure and handling it is bit risky. If not handled properly, chances of getting a fatal head injury is imminent.

We people know on what to do in such emergency. Thanks to the mock drills which are conducted on routine basis. There were two fire hydrant tap points available near the incident area. A few months before this incident, I got the chance to be there involved as communication coordinator in that mock drill. I got little chance on how a fire hydrant facility would be used in case of emergency. Incidentally that mock drill that was conducted was just a few meters away from this accident spot. But this day, it’s a real experience.

There were two tap points on the hydrant facility available near the accident spot, one was engaged for fire fighting by some of the people working nearby who got the chance to rush first to the incident spot. Now, when we went there, the crowd is of good strength and another hydrant line was also engaged. So, now two water hoses had got to fight the fire.

The second line was being managed by one of the security officers. The hose line was not straight and had wrinkles, some of us tried to straightened it. This was the first ever time I got to touch the live fire hose. Since pressurized water is flowing through it, it was too heavy and not easy to handle. That was a mistake we did. While we were handling the hose, we actually were disturbing the hose and it’s a real endangerment for the person who is directing the high pressure water. A slip off his hand will make everyone around him even to the extent of their skull being fractured or ripped off by the exit point of the hose which is a heavy brass tip. The extent of the fire is so big, and it is too hard to control.

At this juncture the Fire department's brigade arrived at the spot.

The second hose which we were managing was actually running across the approach road and the brigade’s vehicle got stuck in the way to reach nearer to the accident spot. After some melee the second line was put off and vehicle made its movement to the point nearer to the incident. The fire engine had the facility to extend out two hoses. In the next few minutes water from their couple of hoses were in action. The fire is still at its big and only a bit of it was actually controlled.

Now four hoses are at disposal to fight the fire and of that 4 only 3 were actually used. Since two hoses were draining out water from the fire engine, one of the hydrant line was now used used to fill water in the water tank of the fire engine. So the water from this tank gets out through two hoses to extinguish and the water from the second hydrant line fills the tank.

Now a rhythm has got into play and three water pressure points (two from the fire brigade) and one of our own fire hydrant facility is in rhythm to fight the raging fire. At this point I was manning the hose running into the water tank of the fire engine. The handling of this hose is very hard and its risky to stand atop the van with few chances to catch hold for self support. Me and another person had put the hose point into the tank and pressurized water was filling the water tank. I was monitoring the water level in the fire brigade’s water tank. In a few minutes the water tank was full and overflowing. The water coming through the hose was from a distance 100 meters away. The person controlling the hydrant point has to be shown the hand sign to close the water point. And at the peak of crowd sourcing making the day, the message was passed and my hose line was closed. The person who was with me had left after a few minutes.

My boss who was standing besides the fire engine was enquiring me of the water level. In another ten minutes the water level in the tank got down by nearly two feet. Now the tank needed a fill up. Now, two persons were needed to handle since hose becomes alive and wriggles out at high pressure. So I called one person who was standing down on the road to come up to the top of the brigade’s fire engine. I think this was his first experience too.

Message was passed for the tap controller to open the water. He just opened it and water is all of a sudden reached with full pressure to me. It was hard to manage. The end of the hose which is fitted with brass just came wriggling out of the water tank. It just came off and swirled all around and the person assisting with me and myself could not control it. It soaked me of my clothes, my boss and others standing nearby. Luckily I downed myself and saved my head. Otherwise the unexpected would have happened. The hose flew off into the ground and then the controller at the hydrant point has closed the water. This risk happened due to the fact that the pressure in the hydrant line was higher than it was before and the person manning the tap point should have increased the volume in steps very slowly.

Lucky that no one was hurt apart from getting wet due to the water gushing on us.

Then afterward two more people assisted me and the fire-man hose was put back to the tank. A little learning from the incident, that now communication was given clearly and the water pressure was maintained as required and at a low pressure. A sigh of relief and the input water and the outgoing water is some what stabilized. A big relief and a wonderful learning.

It took almost an hour to put off the fire.

Luckily no one was hurt. But the black fumes from the burning rubber had given the front line fighters a cover of its black coat. Many of them had to take make much efforts in removing those stains.

Almost it was a battle of sorts fought with coordination by hundreds of young and energetic men from my tyre manufacturing fraternity. We had that enigma called the coordination which just got out from everybody at the first sight of the villain called the fire. A great experience which brought out the talents in the midst of risks and finally the bad villain called the fire was snuffed off. Not to be missed out is the monetary loss due to this accident.

A great life time experience only a few will get to learn. Though I pray that no body should get affected by a fire accident. But everybody should get to learn the art of fire fighting.

Although it was a good learning experience, it includes risk of taking off your life if you fail to adhere to the safe practice of handling the fire fighting equipments.

Thank God.

Airtel responds

Two months back I wrote my sordid experience with Airtel. The problem was that I got to be clarified with different kinda information for a single query on "When to migrate my post paid bill plan to a pre paid one?"

Though a blogger's attitude as a last point of solace is to write at his blog site. Done that for just to cool myself off. Then days passed and out of frustration I never tried to turn to Airtel for querying on that subject.

During mid June there was a buzz from K. Srinivasan Editor-in-Chief, PR-e-Sense, a corporate monthly ezine that a seminar is being organised jointly by TRAI and Consumers Association of India on 20th June at Chennai to study on the problems faced by telephony users.

Yes, my grievance made its way to the concerned personnel of Airtel during that seminar. This happened on Saturday the 20th June and on the next working day i.e. on 22nd June there was a quick response from the Airtel. A couple of calls came for me from the local Customer Relationship Centre and from their Trichy office which is governing the Cuddalore centre.

Within the End of that Day there was a representative from Airtel arriving at my home carrying the application form and finishing off all migration formalities by 8.00 p.m. on that Monday.

Yes, I was a contended lot on seeing this lightning speed that the personnel at Airtel took my case and sorted out the things.

Kudos to Airtel for solving the issue.
Thanks to K.Srinivasan of PR-e-Sense for putting it across.

Wish that the glitch in Airtel's customer care be set right.
Some insights of the seminar is here.