One day morning I got down into the Railway Station of a Pleasant and Beautiful Town along with my Mom. All the four sides were completely occupied by Hills n Greenery. I felt quite happy looking at the beauty and that’s one of the memorable place I have visited…n it’s Toranagallu.
Toranagallu is a town in Bellary District and is about 30Kms from Bellary of Karnataka. Fortunately or Unfortunately I have got a chance to visit this place because of the PS2 program that we had as part of the Project to be done in the Final Year.
After njoying the beauty for a moment, I tried calling my PS instructor to get to know how to proceed further but he is a very intelligent Guy has changed his mobile number and did not update atleast to his PS students. So we started our way not knowing where to go and whom to contact. We just went to Auto Wala and asked him to take us to Jindal. That Auto Wala kept on driving and I am able to see all the Steel Plants crossing…was scared for a moment whether he knows the right direction or not. Finally he took to the right place and that’s Jindal Township. Looking at the Gate itself a pleasant feeling went in my mind and I felt very happy.
Then said about my purpose of Visit and enquired at the Gate about the process to be followed. They directed me to the Township Office and I got my Accommodation there. I was allocated in Room No: 13 of M-Block. That guy even came along with us to show the room. We just went inside the room and found 3 Bed rooms which were all closed and two beds one in Dining room and the other in Hall along with one Bath Room. There was a TV and Kitchen with minimal items to proceed with Cooking. I was surprised to see all those and was stunned for moment thinking who else are there in the room. As we were tired with Journey…got freshed up and had Bread and Jam as our breakfast. Then my mom was busy in washing clothes and I was roaming In and Out looking at the surroundings. Suddenly One girl came out of the room and spoked to me normally without any surprise…probably they might be knowing that someone will be joining the room soon. I was confused and felt she must be a Bitsian. She spoke to me for about 5mins and left for shopping. She seemed to be jovial. Then I got to know that the roommates are all employees of Jindal and not even one is bitsian. Then a question was going on my mind…wat about my other PS mates. As I know 8 students got their PS Station as JSW and out of which 4 were girls. The only point is that the other 3 girls are from Goa and I am from Pilani but I already spoke to one girl in Campus and I was eager to meet her. We did not have lunch as we were not hunger and slept for some time. We woked up and was getting ready to roam around, then saw another girl having something and watching TV. This girl looked to be serious and was moving from Kitchen to Hall infront of us not even speaking a Single word. I just asked her something and She replied in a very Strange manager. Getting shocked for a moment, we left the room. Mom n Myself started walking recollecting the way we came. We then went to Shopping Complex to buy few things but the shops were closed and was said that they would be opened by 4.00PM. As we were close to that time, we thought of roaming there for some time. While Continuing our walk, I met one of my PSmate from Pilani and he said about his experience of Journey to reach Township. After that we went to the park near by…which was full of greenery having different plants n flowers, a small boating place along with a museum. My Mom liked it very much and she was not able to blink her eyes gazing the beauty. Even my thoughts were wandering here and there.
After enjoying that beautiful spot for sometime..buyed the items and on the way back got some parsel for dinner. We had our dinner and was speaking to each other, then my PS mate(Baagi) for whom I waited came to my room. I was excited and just spoke to her for few minutes. She said, she is into the Room above mine. She knows Kannada and She is a resident of Hindupur. She reached Jindal along with her Father. She informed me about the other PS mates and left the room after sometime. Then we just slept.
The Next Day is Monday and the First Day of our PS. MySelf and Baagi started and in the meantime even the other two PSmates joined. One is Swethu and the Other Kammi. After getting enough blessings from parents, we just started our way for reporting. We thought we would be late but fortunately we were on time and there found the Other 4 Guys . Our Instructor spoke to us and explained about rules and regulations along with the One Week Plan a head. Afternoon part we were supposed to go for WorkShop and was instructed to Wear Leather shoes. Guyz probably they might be having but we 4 gals did not had. We explained the same to the instructor and he was like when you are into Steel Plant how cum you did not brought them. After enough sayings he asked to buy them as soon as possible and left us for a lunch break. Township is about 1.5-2kms away from the place we are in. We managed o go to township had lunch and returned to Room for wearing the shoes one has. With that we went for Workshop and there we had a session for about half an hour from a lady explaining about the precautions to be taken while working in plant. We spent more time in waiting rather than having the session. After that we were all happy that we are done with the day and were back to Township. On that Night my Mom is supposed to Leave and the train is at 10.50PM. So in the evening I just enquired about the buses from Township to station. After having dinner, I went along with my Mom do give her Send Off. I said the Bus driver that my Mom is leaving and asked him to wait until I come back. I ranned as soon as my Mom got into train in order to catch the Bus.Finally I got into Bus and returned back to Township...the driver asked me where I am supposed to go. I said M-Block. There are few more along with me and this guy came in the routine route but that’s new to me. I was tensed for a while as one after the other getting down and all roads seemed to be same to me. Finally he dropped me near my room and Thanks to the Driver Bhayya.
I started using the Bed that is attached to the Corridor along with a window in the Dinning room. This position will be in such a way that People entering the room, People watching TV, People Cooking in the Kitchen can be viewed. Ofcourse I don’t get disturbed if people keep on roaming side to me. So I did not had any probs.
Our Second day, we were asked to report at HR block. We took the bus that starts at 8.00AM in the township and then got down at the Main Entry Gate to the Plant inorder to get temporary Pass. Then Started walking to reach HR block. As soon as we reached that place, we were directed to the HR Mess, happily had breakfast and then met the HR Coordinator regarding the One Week Plant Visit. He has done with his formalities and informed that we will not be allowed to enter into any plant unless and until we wear Leather Shoes. We did not get time to buy the Shoes the previous day so thought of getting them in the Lunch gap as we are near to Toranagallu Shops. We informed the Guys and Started way to buy the Shoes. All 4 went into a Shop, within 10 mins we selected the Shoes n Socks, then Swethu started Bargaining finally we paid Rs.250 per pair of Leather Shoe and returned back. On the way back, we enjoyed like anything thinking of the last half an hour we spent. Swethu was more happier than all the other three for the intelligence and for the fastness. With the New Worn shoes we stepped into HR block and all the Guyz were shocked looking at our speed and the Shoes selected (We did not realize what we did for a while). This is how our days started and the Funniest things went on everyday which did not made us to feel that we spent about 5.5 months there.
Our Routine day will be like…Get up in the morning between 6.30-7.00PM. ON the TV, start doing daily activities listening to Songs. Kannada, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil what not use to round all the languages. Morning is decicated to Hindi songs as other Roomates will be even listening. Whoever first gets ready will start giving missed calls to the remaining asking to come down. We 4 were into 4 different rooms but nearby. Once we meet outside, we just walk few steps to reach the Stop where Bus is gonna come. As such there won’t be any Bus Stop but just under trees we use to stand and passing time with Lacha until the Bus Comes. After getting into bus, daily we use to get down at HR block and then was into HR Mess. We are supposed to give the attendance to the HR Co ordinator, so we got down there.. had breakfast …signed the attendance and started way back to respective plants. For the First One Week, we had a visit to all the different Plants that are involved in producing iron and then to steel(Pellet Plant, Sinter Plant, Blast Furnace, Corex, HSM, CRM, Logistics, BOF, Coke Oven, what not…roamed all the plants). All the remaining 3 use to concentrate a lot on the sayings from the Employee about the plant but I always waited for the end of the KT bcoz of Standings, Shoes, Helmet over head…seems to be like torture for few days. So one week we roamed together to all plants and got a basic idea of the functions. After that based on the disciplines, we were divided into groups and was assigned respective plants. Kammi n Baagi are into Blast Furnace along with Chiruhaas, Swethu is into HSM along with Bhayya, Manikanta is into Coke Oven alone, Myself and Ashwani are into Sinter Plant.
To Point fow about PSmates:
Baagi: She thinks in a matured way and a good Wellwisher, her hand will never takes rest always busy in doing something or the other. A core fan of Hindi and Hindi Films. Memu iddaram kurchoni TV chusinatha sepu…vachina prati oka Actor/Actress gurinchi edho oka info cheppedhi…edhi inta pedda Database avvatani Hindu Friday edition karanamata..:P
Kammi: Very fair and looks like a doll. Has keen interest in knowing new things and given a Chance will pass 24hrs with TV. Cool ga tapiga nadustu mamalni nadipinchedi…Mamulu gane kallu bujji bujji ga vuntayi ika navve tappu pandula kanipisthundi..:P
Swethu: The gang leader….telisi chestundo, telika chestundo kani motaniki deni valla final ga andari drusti lo Bakara’s ga migile vallam..:P..but still we use to enjoy it. Funny Funny panulu cheyamante first. Deni chilipi panulaki akkadi janalu shock ayyi vuntaru…:P
Rajath: The only ME student in the gang. We all use to call him Bhayya…very conceptual and Mechnical concepts chinchi aresadu. Andaram kalipi center chese candidate. Kali vunte Bhayya gurinche gola gola.
Ashwani: First lo tittukone danni….idaram vellalsindhi oke plant ki…tiffin chesi hadividi ga okade vellipoyevadu….antha tondarga velli peke pani emunda ani. But yes he is a very good guy and first half we worked on same but later concentrated on the Individual projects assigned to us. We had good coordination and he helped me a lot in doing my project at the early stages. Lab is the place we just forgot our positions and completely involved in doing the activities and helped the labour peers. Ofcourse they worked for our project but yet others may not do what we did and we enjoyed doing lab work too. Thanks Ashwani for whatever you are to me.
Manikanta: Naa first year nuchi telusu but I never understood him and what he has in his my mind properly. Mood vunte entha baga matladuthado…lennapudu anni setaryulu vestadu…I don’t understand wats wrong with him
Chiruhaas: The tallest guy among all of us. He was always busy in listening songs and I did not had much interaction. Tana panedo tanu annattu vunde vadu.
That’s about my PSmates.
So routine life lo…podunne legatam…plant ki ready avatam….HR Mess ki velli tiffin kumeyatam….tarvatha attendance sheet sign chesi china ga evari plants vallu start aye vallam. Guys fast ga tinesi hadividiga velli poye vallu…memu matram tapiga Tiffin Chesi…walk ni enjoy chestu chinna ga plant cherukune vallam. Swethu plant is in different route so she is into a different path. Ika migilina muguram oke darilo nadaka saginche vallam. Plant ni observe chestu…mundu roju office lo jarigina incidents matladuthu velle vallam. Naa destination point last…so Baagi and Kammi ki send off ichi nenu naa plant ki velledanni. 8 ki Township nunchi start ayyi…around 9.30-9.45 ki plant ki reach aye vallam. Velli na ventane Tea..so tagesi office work start chese vallam…Starting lo kali vunnapudu ala plant ni visit cheyataniki velle vallam but ponu ponu we became busy in understanding the concepts and working towards the project.
Ika lunch time ki Baagi n Kammi, maa plant mess ki vache vallu…vache munde missed call isthe I use to start and then had the delicious food. Out of all Messes, I like the food in my Plant so nenu full kummese Danni. After few days as they did not like the food over here they went to HR Mess and there Swethu Joins. If there’s any planned meeting by our PS instructor, he use to inform to Swethu and she conveys the same to us. Our common point to met for anything is HR Block. After doing enough research for the day, we use to take the way back bus at 6.30PM and got down at Shopping Complex if we are hunger else directed to room. We are the 4 can be seen everywhere at any time. We roamed each and every corner of the Township. If we get down at Shopping Complex, we covered all the corners each one getting a different variety to eat from Dosa Corner, Chat Bandar, Fruits Corner, etc. Pani Puri is default one for all of us in the evening. After having enough we took a way such that we cross the Club house where we had Jmax( Jindal Cinema Theatre), Gym, Indoor Games, Swimming Pool,etc. In Jmax we had Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam movies presented. Looking at the Poster outside use to book tickets in prior accordingly. If we had evening snacks then use to start for dinner a bit late else would have been inside the Mess before it is opened..:P…Coming to Messes , there are two…one is Residence Mess which has South Indian food almost resembling the one we do, where as other one is Manna Mess which has Karnataka mixed up with North Indian style. Residence Mess is always loaded so we use to go to Manna Mess so as to have the Dinner in a Pleasant Manner. All the other 3 were Bhramins and I love Egg n Chicken. They never minded me having my favorites infront of them. Manna Mess people are big Fans of us and was awaited for our arrival everyday…:P:P…We Often went to temple too crossing Club House and Shopping Complex followed by Dinner. After dinner we again visit Shopping complex which is on the way, get either Ice Cream or Juice depending on the interest. My Favourite was Badam Icecream, I’ll have it for sure if it’s there Else ended up in taking Mango/Black Grape juice. Only Kammi is good gal use to have Nariyal sometimes. After that if we have even more time then use to Visit the Park. The Park was so amazing with all the Pilla Galulu, we use to sit sometime there enjoying the sayings of the Wind. Then took the way back to room. Even after reaching our block, we never left for rooms soon, had lacha for lot of time sitting before block sharing the day experiences. All were funny funny talks and we never cared about people around us.
The Point to be noted is we were in the eyes of everyone. One day Ashwani was saying like they had a conversation with one of the employee and when he was asked about the groupmates, he just replied 4 gals and 4 guys. The opposite person within fraction of seconds said that Yeah I know them who are group of 4 roaming together and this guy was shocked n said the same later. The Position of the Employee never mattered to us they might be Asst.Managers or Managers, given a chance Swethu use to start boosting about the Institute and the others joined later. Finally we ended up in speaking to many about the happenings on our way.
Coming to Weekends, we just had Sunday as holiday. And almost every weekend we planned to watch some new movie that comes the way. Took the Bus at 9.00AM in township and started way to Bellary then rushed to Movie Theater. Not taking the feedback about the Movie just watched them. Imagine we have seen even the movie “Krishna Arjuna” completely in Theatre without missing even a single scene to kill time. That’s the worst movie I have ever seen in Theatre. After movie had lunch in the near by Restaurant followed by shopping sometimes. By 3.30PM use to reach the Bus point and sometimes visited the Durya Matha Temple. After few days a Diploma group who were employees of the company joined us and we all enjoyed like anything. One day on the way to Bellary on Weekend, we all formed a group at the back along with Diploma Students n started group singing from start position to the end. In this there was a lady named Kalyani, a house wife and Cultural Representative of activities joined. Even she was jovial and participated well, her energy is amazing. At that time I learned a Phrase “ Akkad nunchi radhuga manaki akkad nunchi radhuga”. This phrase is followed whenever we missed out some lyrics while singing. We had a fun filled day along with it we had a memorable photograph together in the Studio..:)
There were two more events which can’t be forgettable. One the Celebrations of Ugadi festival. There were few programs organized by the Cultural Team and we njoyed them along with the Ugadi Pachadi. Tears rolled in our eyes when we had the special Ugadi Grub… That was amazing we felt quiet for that. The other event is Bala Subramanyiam Singing Show. A group of singers visited Jindal along with him to host a program in Swarna Channel. Amazed to see him and the little kids singing beautifully. These two are memorable ones apart from that of daily fun.
Write now I don’t remember the List of Crushes we had but it definitely crossed Silver Jubilee I suppose. Probably Baagi n Swethu can help me in getting out the list. We really had many funny events n talks everyday. The Clock rings 9.30PM and the streets were silent but yet me continued making noise. At a later point of time we came to know that, Manager of Blast Furnace I suppose was staying side to our Block and they use to listen our voices frequently…God knows what the hell we spoke…:P
Forgot to add the Biggest blast we had related to Hampi Trip. As we frequently visited the Juice shop there found a Annaya who use to give the information for what we needed. One day we had a plan to visit Hampi Temple and he agreed to take us. We woked up in the morning, got ready informed all roommates about our Hampi Visit and reached Shopping Complex by 6.00AM and started waiting for the Vehicle to come. Hands of the Clock kept on moving hours but the Vehicle did not come. We had enough photos in the surroundings and waited till 8.00AM then we found the Juice shop opened and enquired about this Bhayya. We called Bhayya after getting the number from the boy in the shop. He spoke to us and said he forgot it and was in some work in Bellary. He said he would return in an hour. Listening to that we were disappointed especially Swethu was hurted a lot thinking of the plan we had. Finally we went to Mess had Breakfast and returned to room and spent the day watching TV. With that bitter experience, we did not wanted to take that Juice Bhayya help anymore. Strangely we marked out a plan and visited Hampi in the next week with our own transport. That was a great day too.
With all the fun loving days going on…we have finished our project work successfully and marked ourselves once again. I was surprised with the Team Send Off Parties and received a Shock in the Party given by the Manager separately. On that day I came to know that even my Manager have observed the gals group lot of times keeping lacha at the Street Corner but yet he did not wanted to disturb the fun we had..Listening to that I was quiet surprised and thought Oh My Goodness, even did not escape from his eyes. Anyhow everything is done with the project and no more worries. Ofcourse the Manager was happy with the work we delievered and he was proud about us. Thank God.
That’s how our funny days at Jindal went and we really had a Memorable time visiting this place. Even now when I speak to these Gals they say we shall visit sometime again to that place. Hope that’s gonna happen sometime soon. 3 Cheers to “Jindal Rockz n The Gang of 4”..Good Going n Keep it up.
