5 years and much more experience later, I pick up the anecdotes from where I last left them..Rudrapur--
Rudrapur's claims to fame won't be a very long list - For many years, it was an agricultural trading centre - a big anaaj mandi. Produce from the Terai plains was brought and sold here. It was a small, sleepy town, with a district hospital, and a sizeable Sikh population. The only other fun fact was its proximity to Nainital - the famous tourist destination, and Pantnagar, the University Town.
Post the creation of the Uttarakhand state, things started to change rapidly there.
SIDCUL - The State Infrastructure and Industrial Development Corporation of Uttaranchal Ltd, was formed. This entity was tasked with creating a set of industrial parks, to rival the Baddis of Himachal, and generate revenue and jobs for the state.
The Integrated Industrial Estate of Pantnagar was one of the first projects that went live under this plan, and Sector 9, Plot 14 B - was to be my "office" for 6 weeks.
How I landed here was also an interesting story - cue to the start of the Factory Stint @ Manesar.
Having just returned from wilderness, 3 of us were looking forward to spending some time in Gurgaon.
Our project manager informed us that we'd have a draw of lots to decide the project of choice.
No - I didn't pull out Rudrapur! I had got a googling project at Manesar, which was a comfortable assignment for all practical purposes. Rudrapur had been allotted to a Delhi based chap, who, quite naturally, was chuffed at being back home and was looking to spend time there. His hopes dashed when he saw the sheet in his hand. And well, I don't know what I was thinking - may be that my parents' were based in Bareilly which was 3 hours away and that I could meet them (idiot that I was, I could have met them from Delhi too !!), and that I really didn't feel challenged by the assignment (dumb ass!), and I felt bad for him - I offered to exchange projects. If there was a moment when I could be considered for the Nobel Prize of Idiocy, that was it !
So back we went to the manager, and told him that we'd like to exchange projects. And 24 hours later, at 4 a.m, I had disembarked at Rudrapur railway station, and was on the way to the guest house.
I quickly figured out a routine and started to get up to speed on my assignment - which was to build a spare parts management system. Since the plant was new and there were no vendors around, they had no way to know which part was critical, and how much of it to stock. So it was decided to examine all the lines in detail, classify the components into critical and non - critical and ensure enough stock availability for basis component criticality.
Shifts were typically 8 hours, and there wasn't much to do after that. The lack of suitable booze options meant that those plans too went onto the back-burner. Evenings were usually spent in front of the TV and on phone calls to friends posted all over the country.
It was amidst this hum drum, functional - operational scenario that 15th August dawned.
A day off from work - a change in the daily routine !!
Thrilled at this prospect, a couple of singletons and I decided to watch the newly released "Chak De India".
What followed since..is quite a bit of history !
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