The late H P Bodhanwala, C Subramanian, Central Minister for Steel and Mr K P Mahalingam at Tata Steel’s Model Room
 

There are several individuals who provide great encouragement and support to the Tata Steel News team through the interest that they show in every issue of the magazine and the inputs they provide us. However, possibly the most ardent supporter and contributor to this publication is Mr K P Mahalingam, who is best described in his own words. “Tata Steel’s oldest living ex-GT!” as we begin counting down to the centenary, we once again thank Mr Mahalingam for the wealth of information he sent us. During the year, we will continue to bring you excerpts from it.

To a callow, greenhorn engineering graduate of 19 years and 4 months (the Bombay University had then no minimum age limits for matriculation and beyond), the first sight of a steel plant of the size of Jamshedpur can render him speechless and spellbound. Seeing the rough working conditions of ex-Al Class apprentices shovelling raw material such as limestone, coke breeze, etc. into the yawning mouths of open-hearth furnaces, seniors lugging 20 or-so-kgs-oxygen cylinders on their sturdy shoulders up and down the steep steel stairs, struggling to open the furnace tapholes at the rear and smartly stepping aside (calling for considerable practice to prevent one getting burnt), working for most of the 8-hour shifts in ambient temperatures of over 100-120^o F, among other manual hardships, were enough hazards to send any youngster scurrying home for better working conditions. But for most, not only was this a challenge but there were just no other well-paying jobs available in the nation, and so, most stuck to this arduous career!

The selection criteria for an apprentice were based mostly on brawn with brain having little priority, as the subsequent work then involved far more physical work than mental. The minimum physical limits for height and weight of each candidate were – if I correctly recall – 5 ft. 8 inches and 150 lbs. The selection

committee comprised the then Director-in-Charge (late Sir Jehangir Ghandy) – (there being no M.D. under the Managing Agency system, then in vogue) and six-seven senior executives. One by one, the 60-70 candidates were made to troop into the Technical Institute library and have 3-4 questions shot at them by one member or another. The process took a couple of days, at the end of which, the candidates lined up for the Committee’s final inspection in the order of their performance. Up and down, they were subjected to close scrutiny; those, whom the committee thought, would not make the mark, were weeded out, and the remaining sent for a strict medical examination, reporting for duty a month or so later.

There were no written examinations or tests, no psychological evaluation, no group discussions, no stagewise assessment by different levels of management - in fact, none of the new-fangled selection “gimmicks” that characterise large, modern corporates, for selection of management trainees of today. The selection was simple and suited the service conditions then.

At 19 years 4 months, I was perhaps, the youngest GT (just as today, am perhaps, one of the oldest living ex-GTs!). Being smack in the middle of World War II, we were not immune from its influence. We apprentices had an unusual duty to perform. The British, who still ruled us, had the notion that, Jamshedpur being most vulnerable to Japanese air attacks, if the entire works, city and township were blanketed under a cloud of dense, black smoke, the Japanese would not be able to locate it! Tata Steel’s entire output was used for British tanks, shells and other weaponry to fight their war. In their infinite wisdom, they conceived a unique plan of having several crude brick-and-mortar tar boilers (the coke ovens ensuring no dearth of coal tar), which were located some 40 ft. apart all over the works and when lighted at intervals, would belch upwards a thick pall of dense black soot and smoke, the purpose being to “hide” Jamshedpur” and its environment (as if that was ever possible!)! Owing to shortage of men, apprentices were each made to supervise a group of such boilers, in 8-hour shifts and to ensure that their operatives did not go to sleep on duty. For this special duty, we received an allowance of Rs. 15 p.m.! Jamshedpur did receive a few times, “yellow” signals from Calcutta warning that the Japanese planes were heading our way, but they were false alarms. A very far cry indeed from the conditions under which today’s war is being fought. Times have indeed, changed.

Mr Mahalingam and Mr H P Bodhanwala lead the Founder’s Day procession of Engineering Division