Oxygen for the Ailing

 

It was the May of 2021. The second wave of COVID was raging across the country and thousands were dying every day. Even more than the first wave of the merciless disease the second wave had shaken the humanity and death stared us in our faces. Many of us had to live through the trauma of losing a loved one. Deaths were either due to an advanced irreversible stage of the disease, or something as mundane as non-availability of oxygen.

 

I was the Chief Administrative Officer of the Rail Wheel Plant, Bela, Saran, Bihar. The plant was setup in the period 2012-14 at the behest of Lalu Ji, when he was the Railway Minister, to pamper his constituency. The much ignored wheel plant has now been put on a strong footing and is a significant supplier of wheels to the Indian Rail Industry. The turnaround of the Plant is a different story for another time. It is a cast wheel plant, where steel is melted and moulded into shape.

 

Now, all iron and steel plants that melt steel use oxygen as an essential input in the process. Oxygen is used mainly for oxidising excess carbon in the melt, which then escapes as Carbon Dioxide. Copious quantity of oxygen is required and therefore all steel melting establishments store liquid oxygen in large cryogenic tanks. Liquid Oxygen is vaporised and fed at some pressure into the bath of molten metal.

 

During the COVID crisis oxygen was coming from Assam and going to Delhi, bypassing Bihar. Such was the constant rant of Shri Kejriwal that not even one tanker was spared for Bihar or UP enroute. Oxygen was transported in cryogenic road tankers, which were loaded on flat wagons for long distance transportation. The only other nearby source was the Tata Steel plant in Jamshedpur and their Oxygen suppliers. When the demand of oxygen reached a peak, even we didn’t get liquid Oxygen for production. Industrial and Medical oxygen are somewhat different. Industrial oxygen is extremely pure, nearly 99%; Medical Oxygen has some moisture and other atmospheric gases mixed with it. Whereas the medical oxygen can’t be used in industries, the reverse is possible.

 

When the crisis of medical oxygen looked ominous, I told my officers to stop production and preserve whatever was left with us. We had four 20-tonne liquid tanks of which we ensured at least two were always full. One tonne of liquid Oxygen converts into 500 oxygen cylinders of the size you commonly see. My officers protested that production targets would be hit. I told them that the only target at that time was to save human lives. Then I offered 39 tonnes of liquid Oxygen that we had to the District Magistrate of Saran, a young officer. He was touched by the gesture but didn’t know how to collect oxygen and asked me if I could get it bottled in cylinders. I told him that bottling required high pressure pumps that would have to be imported from Germany or China, an impossible task at that time. It also required a license. Besides there were commercial bottlers all around. What was not available was oxygen.

 

Liquid Oxygen was delivered to us by producers in road tankers. I told the DM to send me road tankers in which I would do a reverse filling, which he could then take to bottlers in Patna, Muzaffarpur etc. and get cylinders filled. He asked me where he could get a tanker. I advised him to use his unlimited powers under the Indian Epidemics Act and grab whatever empty tanker was seen on the road. Nothing happened for eight days and people were suffering and dying in the meanwhile. On the ninth day I got a call from a Director in the PMO, “Sir, We have come to know that you have some oxygen in you plant. Can you spare some?” I told her that I had already offered all that I had to the local Collector but he was unable to collect it.

 

Things move rapidly after that. We received the first empty tanker sent by the District Administration on the same day. The DM asked about the payment. It told him to write a letter promising that all debits would be accepted so that I could place it in the files. Several tanker were reverse filled and sent for bottling. Hospitals would send truckloads of empty cylinders for refilling. I simultaneously offered two 20-tonne tanks to the District to procure oxygen from wherever they could and store it in our tanks. It became a smooth operation after that. Our Oxygen served almost the entire North Bihar and saved thousands of lives.

 

Wheel production suffered a setback for a month, which we later made up. We never raised a bill and none was paid. All for a good cause.

                                —-ooo—-

A Train to Sangam - The Murphy’s Law on Rails

 

   A WDM4, preserved in the National Rail Museum

It was the May of 1991. Rajiv Gandhi had been assassinated in Sriperambudur during a public rally. The country was in grief and turmoil over the death of a vastly popular leader. It was so in-your-face impact of the LTTE terror that it was numbing. The other kind of terror, that we see today, had not yet raised its head. 

But this is the story of a Railway Engine (Locomotive) and the Murphy’s Law. Rajiv Gandhi’s ashes were to be carried in a special train across North India before they were immersed in the Sangam at Allahabad. I was posted as the Divisional Mechanical Engineer (Diesel) in a Locomotive Shed at Mughalsarai. This shed was home to about sixty WDM4 locomotives, one of the finest in the world, when they were built by the ElectroMotive Division (EMD) of the GM/USA. In their heydays they had the honour of hauling the only Rajdhani Express of the time - the New Delhi – Howrah Rajdhani Express. Seventy-two of them were imported when India still had to begin indigenous manufacture of Diesel Locos in a new factory at Varanasi. The WDM4s heralded the transition from Steam Traction to Diesel.

The locomotives were aging and weren’t very reliable by the time I was put in charge of them. When called upon to provide a WDM4 for the special train, I was worried that the locomotive might fail enroute and cause massive embarrassment to the Railways. The train, in its journey, was to stop at many stations, where thousands of mourners would be waiting for the last glimpse of of their popular leader, his ashes. Sonia Gandhi and her two children were traveling in the train along with the urn carrying the ashes of Rajiv Gandhi. It couldn’t get any more special than that. Any failure of the locomotive could delay the train by several hours until a relieving loco was found. The milling crowds could have created a mayhem at all the stations and the administration would have found a scapegoat in me and roasted me alive.

So, I offered my Operating colleague in Lucknow an extra locomotive that would lead or trail the special train a station ahead or behind. The spare locomotive could be quickly brought in to continue the journey in case the train’s original locomotive failed. He was reluctant and told me that he was not responsible if the locomotive failed and that I would be answerable anyway. I told him that it was not a matter of who was accountable but to ensure that the Urn-Special train journeyed though the land unimpeded. I asked him if he was sure he could quickly provide a substitute locomotive in case the main locomotive failed. If he couldn’t do it in a matter of minutes it was he, whose neck would be on the block. He understood the delicate nature of the operations.

An extra locomotive was sent along. And surely, as Mr. Murphy had laid down, the train engine failed enroute. My Operating colleague lost no time in bringing in the spare and seamlessly, without loss of time, attached it to the train. The train journey continued as though nothing had happened.

Nobody knew this story, until today!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/05/29/train-bears-gandhis-ashes-to-holy-site/62a886b2-63dd-495c-aafd-6ef165b3989b/

Delhiites Are So Busy Cursing the Smog They Have Forgotten the Joys of Winter.

Delhiites must think that they are God’s gift to Indians. They enjoy the best civic amenities in the country. Delhi has the best roads, pavements, parks, malls and schools. A Delhiwallah enjoys the  benefit of the best universities and colleges, and the best hospitals, both government and private. Delhiites have uninterrupted power, clean water, roads that are swept every night and drains that flow like smooth single malts in their collective oesophagus. An average citizen of Delhi thinks he has arrived in life what with rubbing shoulders with the mighty and the powerful.

 

Yet, the annual gripe and grouch on pollution by Delhiwallahs visits the whole nation with unfailing regularity. Come November and the city is agog with plaintiffs crying white death, “Oh, the air is filthy, smokey and we can’t breathe. Damn the farmers of Punjab, Haryana and UP.” Juxtaposed pictures of Delhi in June and November are flashed across newspapers and in social media to prove how the nation has failed its capital. Oh, how thankless and how uncouth the unwashed Indians elsewhere are! It is for them that the privileged elite can’t even have an easy breath while strolling in the lush green Lodhi Garden and Nehru Park and the Europe-like vistas of Chanakyapuri and Connaught Place. That the rest of India pays for the carpet grass and blossoms of these parks and yet can’t ever imagine a fraction of that in its towns and mofassils is not even a wispy thought in their minds.

 

Show me a photo of Delhi in June and November of 1950s and I will show you the same contrast. Visibility impairment by fog is not a proof of pollution. Well, there is some smoke that creates a smog. The smog continues much after all the paraali is burnt and disposed of and the now lacklustre Diwali is long gone. The pollution is as bad, or worse in December and January. Surely There is no smoke coming from Punjab and Haryana then. It is from Delhiites’ own cars, buses and two-wheelers.

 

Yet, firecrackers are banned in Diwali. They are banned not only in Delhi, but in entire India just because someone in Delhi approaches the law and lawmakers and the Green Tribunals that Diwali is oh-so-polluting, and merriment of children in Patna, Bhopal, Lucknow and Mumbai; in Jaunpur, Hubli, Nanded and Midnapore is clamped down. This is an annual ritual and the whole country of one hundred and forty crores is deprived of festival fun of a few hours in a year so that smoke of firecrackers doesn’t blow in the winds from Indore, Nagpur, Coimbatore, Kochi and Jaisalmer straight to Delhi. I have never heard of someone from a smaller city or a village ever seeking a ban on Diwali festivities.

 

The whole nation must collectively lament that Delhi has polluted air in the winters. We owe it to them. The entire media chokes and coughs like there is no other event they have to cover. Elections take a backseat, so do Mizoram, Kashmir and Naxal terror. Isn’t smog over Delhi the biggest apocalypse that has descended on the humanity?

 

So, friends and countrymen! Let’s celebrate the biggest festival of India - the Smoggy Winter of Delhi.

                                                         —ooo—

गीता का कर्मयोग - कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते … के आगे

श्रीमद्भग्वद्गीता के कुछ सर्वाधिक उद्धृत श्लोक हैं:

कर्र्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते माफलेषु कदाचन ….. जिसका आशय है कि कर्म में ही तुम्हारा अधिकार है, फल में नहीं …..

और

यदा-यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत …. जिसमें भगवान कहते हैं कि वे धर्म की रक्षा लिये अवतार लेते हैं ….

पर मेरी दृष्टि में गीता का सर्वश्रेष्ठ श्लोक है:

न मे पार्थास्ति कर्त्तव्यं त्रिषु लोकेषु किंचन।

नानवाप्तमवाप्तव्यं वर्त एव च कर्मणि ।।३-२२।।

भावार्थ: हे पृथापुत्र! तीनों लोकों में मेरे लिए कोई भी कर्म नियत नहीं है, न मुझे किसी वस्तु का अभाव है और न आवश्यकता ही है | तो भी मैं नियत्कर्म करने में तत्पर रहता हूँ |

(There is no duty for me to do in all the three worlds, O Parth, nor do I have anything to gain or attain. Yet, I am engaged in prescribed duties.)

गीता के तृतीय अध्याय का यह बाईसवॉं श्लोक समर्थ एवम् सार्थक जीवन की वास्तविक कुंजी है। इस श्लोक में भगवान कहते हैं कि ना ही मुझे कुछ करने की बाध्यता है, ना ही ऐसा कुछ प्राप्त करना है जो मुझे ना मिला हो, परन्तु मुझे कर्त्तव्य करते रहना है। कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते….वाले श्लोक में यह तो निर्दिष्ट है कि फल मिले या न मिले, मुझे उसकी आशा नहीं करनी है और कर्म करते जाना है। पर कहीं न कहीं फल मिलने की सम्भावना है भले ही उसपर अधिकार ना हो।

न मे पार्थास्ति कर्त्तव्यं… वाले श्लोक में एक और भी ऊँचे स्तर की निस्पृहता और निष्कामता परिलक्षित होती है। व्यक्ति का कोई कर्त्तव्य निर्धारित या शेष नहीं है, ना ही फल मिलना है या किसी फल की कामना बची है, परंतु इस स्थिति में भी कर्म करना है। लालसा से ऐसी मुक्ति, चाहत से परे कर्म करने की ऐसी कर्त्तव्यशीलता क्या सामान्य मानव के समझ में समा सकती है? 

क्या ऐसी निस्पृहता संभव है? क्या संसार से इतना ऊपर भी उठा जा सकता है कि व्यक्ति अपना कर्त्तव्य तब भी करें जब यह तय है कि उसे कुछ नहीं मिलना और ना ही कुछ चाहिये, ना पारिश्रमिक, ना राज-पाट और ना ही कोई आसक्ति या यश? तुलसीदास जी की पंक्तियाँ हैं - हानि-लाभ, जीवन-मरण, यश-अपयश विधि हाथ … अर्थात् यह जीवन और इस जीवन के सारे लाग-लपेट ईश्वर के हाथों में है। पर तुलसीदास जी संभवत: सामान्य जनों को ही संबोधित कर रहे थे - ये पुरस्कार या दण्ड उपलब्ध हैं अवश्य, चाहे विधाता के ही द्वारा उनका वितरण किया जाये और आपको यथोचित मिलेंगे। पर सर्वथा आकांक्षाविहीन, परंतु कर्त्तव्यरत मनुष्य क्या हो सकता है? श्रीकृष्ण ने तो अपनी निस्पृहता का कारण भी इसके बाद के दो श्लोकों में बताया है:

यदि ह्यहं न वर्तेयं जातु कर्मण्यतन्द्रितः |
मम वर्त्मानुवर्तन्ते मनुष्याः पार्थ सर्वशः || ३-२३ ||

भावार्थ: क्योंकि यदि मैं नियत कर्मों को सावधानीपूर्वक न करूँ तो हे पार्थ! यह निश्चित है कि सारे मनुष्य मेरे पथ का ही अनुगमन करेंगे, अर्थात् कर्महीनता को प्राप्त होंगे। 

उत्सीदेयुरिमे लोका न कुर्यां कर्म चेदहम् |
सङ्करस्य च कर्ता स्यामुपहन्यामिमाः प्रजाः ||३- २४ ||

भावार्थ: यदि मैं नियतकर्म न करूँ तो ये सारे लोग भ्रष्ट हो जाएँ।  तब मैं वर्णसंकर (अवांछित जन समुदाय) को उत्पन्न करने का कारण हो जाऊँगा और इस तरह सम्पूर्ण प्राणियों के विनाश का कारण बनूँगा। 

सामान्यजन प्राय: अपने अग्रजों, माता-पिता, गुरुओं, अग्रगामियों, प्रतिष्ठितजनों, लीडरों, और मैनेजरों को देखकर ही प्रेरित होते हैं। हर व्यक्ति न तो शास्त्रों का अध्ययन कर सकता है ना ही उनकी समुचित व्याख्या कर सकता है। वह तो जीवन में सम्मुख उदाहरणों से ही दिशा प्राप्त करता है। यदि उसके बड़े और वरिष्ठजन सत्कर्म करते दीखते हैं तो वह भी वैसा ही करेगा। यदि वह देखता है कि जो अनुकरणीय पुरुष हैं वही या तो आलस्यग्रस्त हैं, निष्क्रिय हैं, अवांछनीय कर्मों वा दुर्गुणों में रत हैं, तो वह और उसके जैसे समस्त आमजन वैसे व्यवहार का ही अनुसरण करेंगे। फिर समाज का पतन तय है।

                                            —-ooo—-