FRENCH FRIES AND BAR SCREENS

This story harks back to the time spent as a Graduate Student at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, circa 1975.

Graduate students from the subcontinent, and other Cricket playing nations cobbled up a ragtag coalition of a team, to represent the University : Boisterous Indians, Pakis, Bangladeshis, Srilankans, a fat, loud mouthed Aussie and a quiet, self effacing Englishman made up the playing eleven. A complete set of cricketing gear was specially ordered from Canada, including a half mat to cover up the Ferozeshah Kotla type pitch conditions.

After Sunday morning practice on the University grounds ( the ground used for among other things, touch football, softball and rugby), we used to troop out to the neighbourhood Mcdonalds for the Sunday treat.

Vegetarianism in those days was unheard of in the USA, and most certainly not South of the Mason-Dixon line.  And every time, it amused me no end to see some of my vegetarian colleagues opt for a Combo meal consisting of a “Large” order of French fries followed up with a “Small” order of the same : the only vegetarian items on offer at Mcdonalds in those days.

I do not know if these incidents played on my mind to exert a subliminal effect on my design preferences in future years, when it came to Bar screens in a Sewage Treatment Plant.

I admit, I do religiously specify in my designs, a “Coarse” Bar screen followed by a “Fine” screen in a screen channel to trap the trashy solid matter and other articles finding their way into an STP.   The Coarse screen traps the larger objects in the incoming sewage : and the Fine screen ?  You guessed it – The small Fry.

Dr. Ananth S Kodavasal                                                                          May 13, 2011

DOUBLE OR QUITS IN A COFFEE FACTORY

DOUBLE OR QUITS IN A COFFEE FACTORY

Having got myself a scooter ( Vespa type two wheeler)  within a few months of shifting to Bangalore in mid 1986, I traveled far and wide with the objective of developing my business. Tumkur, Doddaballapur, Ramanagaram, Chennapatna, Hosur, Mysore and similar satellite conglomerations around Bangalore were visited several times over.  Whitefield, about 25 Km out of Bangalore was a frequent target.  Situated on the Whitefield Main road was the instant coffee factory of Brooke Bond India Ltd., ( BBIL) making the famous BRU instant coffee.

The road to Brooke Bond was a lonely deserted stretch of indifferent tarmac beyond the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) campus on the outskirts of Bangalore.  Miles and miles of rural road, with nary a soul in sight.  Woe betide the person with a broken down vehicle on this Godforsaken country road.  With heart in my mouth, I made a several forays to this factory, seeking to sell my services.  On one such occasion I met the General Manager of BBIL  in charge of all their coffee factories,  a stern looking Bengali gentleman by name RK Sen.  BBIL had recently shifted their Head quarters lock, stock and barrel from Calcutta to Bangalore, in view of the none too favourable Industrial climate in West Bengal due to the Marxist Communist dispensation in that state.

R K Sen had had enough of  Plumbing consultants masquerading as Environmental specialists.  The pathetic state of affairs in the Wastewater treatment plant was evidence enough of the trials and tribulations suffered by the good man at the hands of these quacks and charlatans:   Dark brown wastewater, the colour of coffee went in, came out of the plant unaltered by any semblance of treatment.  He now had no patience with consultants of any description.

Dogged persistence paid off  however : R K Sen finally relented, but with a challenge.  He would let me do all the trials and treatability studies on the wastewater in their laboratory.  He would even implement them on a pilot scale : and, if successful, BBIL would pay me double the consultancy fee I had quoted.  If I failed, I had to tuck my tail between my legs, and disappear from his sight. The classic double or quits stakes, dear to the heart of an inveterate gambler.  Never a gambling man, but cocksure of my abilities, I picked up the gauntlet.

I spent many a day in their dingy little lab, trying out various permutations, concentrations and sequence of coagulant and chemicals, at various pH conditions until one day hit upon the right combination.  As a Graduate student at Vanderbilt, I had undergone a course in precisely this kind of exercise :  A scientific methodology of experimentation, comprising Experiment- Design-Analysis followed by statistical inference techniques to logically, progressively take me to the ultimate solution.

I won the day, and the heart of R K Sen : The rest, as they say is history.  I became the preferred consultant to BBIL, and its successor Hindustan Lever, when they bought up both BBIL and Lipton India ( The Lipton Factory in Etah – Uttar Pradesh deserves another story). The coffee factory is no more in Whitefield.  In that campus now stands the impressive Unilever Research Centre.  To this day, we are servicing the Wastewater treatment plant at this site.

Dr. Ananth S Kodavasal                                                                          June 25, 2011

Footnote :

As I write this piece today, our Company, Ecotech, celebrated its Silver Jubilee year at a small function, fittingly enough at a venue right opposite where the coffee factory once stood. Forty of our senior staff and supervisors met on this joyous occasion. A more committed team of employees cannot be seen.  I confess to fighting a losing battle to control the tears in my eyes seeing their devotion and dedication to the Company and pride they take in the honourable work that they do in the service of society at large.  The unashamed display of fealty and fierce loyalty by the team towards me as a person was touching.

A DEEP BAR SCREEN IN BOMBAY

Regular readers of this “Adda”/ blog  will by now know that the “Bar Screen” is the first unit in any STP, which captures Solid particles above a certain Size, and prevents them from entering the STP, thereby saving a lot of grief : they save the pumps from getting clogged/ choked.  They save submersible pumps ( wrongly selected by plumbing engineers moonlighting as environmental consultants, and ignorant vendors for raw sewage lifting applications) from breaking down with regular frequency, and most important of all, permit the STP operator to concentrate on other aspects of the STP, instead of spending his entire life battling solids in the raw sewage pumps.

Believe me folks, this is THE MOST VALUE FOR MONEY piece of equipment in the entire STP.

I should like to illustrate this from a real life experience of mine from about 30 years ago, when the Bombay Municipal Corporation decided to install for the first time, bar screens in its incoming sewer lines deep beneath Ground level.

I had just got back from the US carrying my freshly minted PhD Certificate, landing in Santa Cruz airport, Bombay on the 31^st of Dec. 1978.  ( I have a poor head for all other dates).  Sometime in early February, 1979, I started my career as a “Trainee Environmental Engineer” at a princely salary of Rs. 750 a month,  in the most venerable of Companies in the Environmental field : Dorr- Oliver (India) Pvt. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Dorr - Oliver Inc., Stamford, Connecticut, USA.

I had an equally venerable Boss by name Natarajan, a battle hardened veteran of many an illustrious sales Conquest, and a legend in his own time : a jolly, affable, roly poly kind of bloke,  he was the Asst. manager in the Env. Engg. Division.  Don’t let the designation fool you : US companies in those days were extremely niggardly in doling out labels.  An asst. Manager was fairly high up in the hierarchy of the Company and held quite a senior, responsible and accountable position : A “Manager” in that Company was indeed the Cat’s whiskers, and a “General Manager”  ran the entire Company.  Very unlike present day designations where a fresher right out of college,  starts off as an Asst. Vice President in a multinational Bank.

In the year 1980, The Bombay Municipal Corporation ( BMC) was the happy recipient of a huge sum of money as USAID to improve and upgrade its Sewage Treatment Plants at various locations across the city.  Not surprisingly, the aid came tied with a US Consulting Company called Engineering Sciences Inc. ( ES).  Very wisely, the BMC decided to install Bar screens in all their STP’s as the first order of business.  Dorr- Oliver India was the favourite to bag these contracts, being a true Blue American Company.

Municipal sewer lines, due to the very long distances of travel, arrive at the STP location at great depth, at times  30 feet or deeper below Ground level,  very much like in several Sobha projects in Bellandur ( although in the latter case, the situation may be attributed to third rate plumbing consultants *** employed to design and engineer the STP).  Now, a municipal sewer line can carry solids and other gross articles of varying size and description.  The great depth, the huge volume of sewage flows in these pipelines, and the quantity of solids that can accumulate in a very short period of time, make it imperative that mechanical means be employed to clear the screens on a continuous 24 hours basis : Hence the concept, design, and a marvel of engineering called a “Mechanical Deep Bar Screen”. 

A Mechanical deep bar screen is a device which employs reciprocating motion, going up and down, up and down.  At the bottom of the downward stroke, the fingers of the rake mechanism engage with the openings in the stationary screen rack, pick up all the solids deposited on the surface of the screen and haul them upwards along the inclined screen.  At the top of the up stroke, a tipping device helps disgorge all the solids thus transported directly onto trucks stationed below, to cart away the solids, when fully loaded.

Dorr- Oliver having put in its bid to supply these sophisticated Bar screens to the BMC, was called by the American consultant to present our case and highlight the special and unique features of our screens.  ES was represented by a young fellow by name Chip Woltz :  Dorr - Oliver by Natarajan, and yours truly, as an apprentice in training, with strict instructions to keep my mouth shut and eyes and ears open during the proceedings.

When asked to specify the kind of solids or articles our Bar screens could handle, Natarajan puffed out his chest and pompously proclaimed “ Sir, in Bombay, we even get dead bodies in our sewer lines.  Our screens are designed to handle such heavy loads, hahaha ”

Chipper Woltz, though young of age, was clearly upto this Indian game of one-upmanship :  Says he  “ In our country we get discarded refrigerators and Volkswagen Beetles in our sewer lines : tell me, can your screens handle these ? “

For once, the irrepressible Natarajan was utterly dumbstruck

Dr. Ananth S Kodavasal                                                                          April 23, 2011

Ecotech

*** POST SCRIPT ON THIRD RATE CONSULTANTS

During my School days, my father being in a transferable job, was obliged to move from city to city every few years.  Not to inconvenience us kids, my sister and I were left in the care of my grandparents in Madras.

On many a Saturday, when school was off, I loved to accompany my granddad to his office, taking the bus from Hamilton Bridge in Mylapore to Parrys Corner.  From Parrys Corner, we had to walk down quaintly named streets such as Thambu Chetty Street, Linghi Chetty Street to where his office was situated.

These streets were lined on both sides with small business enterprises dealing in engineering goods, machinery and parts, with sign boards proudly proclaiming to be “Mfrs. Representatives and Commission Agents “.

Likewise, I wish Third rate consultants in Bangalore ( of them there are many) would call themselves with such names as  “ XYZ Commission Agents and Plumbing Consultants” so that nobody is left guessing as to where their priorities and loyalties lay.

ASK

MY BOSSES – Part 5 ( RN )

RAMASWAMY NATARAJAN

http://www.dorroliveralumni.org/DO%20History/DO-Tell%20Scans/Stamford/1983%20-%20Sales%20Communicator%20Fall.pdf

( That was the photo of a young, bright  Natarajan, from almost 20 years before I joined Dorr-Oliver)

Natarajan was old and wise : wise beyond his years.  Vexed and harried as he was with some indifferent assistants in his Department, he welcomed me with open arms when I walked in to Dorr-Oliver House in Andheri, Bombay with my job application in February of 1979.  RN never showed any external signs of the additional burden he carried on account of the laggards in his Department, as he worked late in the evenings, filling in the gaps left by his subordinates.  In this he was ably supported by our Secretary Ms. Vilma D’Souza ( VDS).

RN was ever ready to help me, liberally sharing from his vast experience, guiding me to the right files from the archives, educating and training me to meet the Head Master’s ( PSP)  standards of acceptable performance.  Very graciously, he used to cover up for my shortcomings in my early days at Dorr-Oliver, with a smile and a fatherly admonition to be more careful the next time.  His experience was vast, having traveled the length and breadth of the country, selling his wares. I learnt a lot from RN.

After a few months however, when I started finding my feet, I sensed a gradual onset of reticence on RN’ s part to freely discuss technical matters with me.  Maybe in me, for the first time, he feared an upcoming challenge to his hitherto unquestioned suzerainty.  Frequent trips to TRK’s chambers to settle technical arguments with the aid of TRK’s Executive Decision Maker, did not help matters.

RN however gave me free rein to plot and plan the course of my own career in Dorr-Oliver.  I used this opportunity to visit Steel plants, Pulp and paper plants, Sugar mills, etc., which were nominally in the domain of the other divisions of Dorr-Oliver.  Indeed, at times, I even accompanied erection crew and the commissioning team during their tours of duty, in order to learn their art.  I thoroughly enjoyed these trips, which enriched my knowledge no end.

To RN and Dorr-Oliver I owe an eternal debt of gratitude for having moulded my scientific temperament and my career. From RN also it was, that I learnt the virtues of patience and forbearance in the face of extreme provocations.

Dr. Ananth S Kodavasal                                                                                      June 23, 2011

Footnote :

RN was a keen connoisseur of South Indian filter coffee.  On every visit to Bangalore, at his specific request, I would carry back several packets of “Cothas Coffee”.  After I moved to Bangalore in 1986, I have become an addict of the same brand of coffee : Fond memories of RN with the morning brew.

MY BOSSES – Part 4 ( KN )

KRISHNAMACHARI NARASIMHAN

KN was the Master Salesman in Dorr-Oliver, and thoroughly deserved his title of Divisional Manager.  He had equal facility in handling intricacies of the Pulp & Paper, Minerals, Sugar or the Environmental Divisions.  Like me, he was a Chemical Engineer himself, and could quickly get to the heart of the matter on any subject put before him.  In course of time, I also made the discovery that he was related to me, in a not distant way, and we shared great rapport ever since.

KN had the habit of dropping in uninvited during meetings and discussions in the Environmental division, much to the annoyance of my immediate boss Natarajan.  No amount of shoo away glares from Natarajan would budge KN from his position behind my chair, with his hands resting lightly on my shoulders, while I sat cringingly,  watching the silent duel between my bosses.

One of KN’s all time favourite maxims was “ No use working like a Bull and producing Bullshit”, which has left an everlasting imprint on my psyche.  Wags in Dorr-Oliver would however aver that KN never put in a hard day’s work, floating around as he did, like a butterfly.  That may not be entirely true : I did accompany him on a couple of marketing missions, visiting clients.

Entrepreneurs and promoters of small and medium scale industries came to Bombay for making  presentations of their projects to the financial institutions.  They often camped in Star hotels in South Bombay, and KN would go courting, buttering and softening them up and ultimately selling them our products.  And, after the deal was done, and the usual bonhomie, handshakes etc.,  KN would ask me to step out for a bit, while he exchanged some important Notes with the client.  The need for secrecy did sound a little odd to a greenhorn like me, when the sale had been already accomplished.

Only later did I come to know that the “Notes” exchanged, all carried Mahatma Gandhi’s portrait in his toothless grinning pose,  also duly signed by the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

I don’t believe I learnt anything of Note from KN in my days at Dorr-Oliver.  Let me be charitable and say that not learning anything from a person, is also a learning, after a fashion.  Can’t let down a kinsman, can I ?

Dr. Ananth S Kodavasal                                                                                      June 22, 2011

MY BOSSES – Part 3 ( PSP )

P SHANKAR PRABHU

See PSP on Pg 8 of a Dorr-Oliver Magazine of 1983

http://www.dorroliveralumni.org/DO%20History/DO-Tell%20Scans/Stamford/1983%20-%20Sales%20Communicator%20Fall.pdf

PSP was the quintessential School Head Master : The smiling assassin. He had the beaked nose, the glasses, the military stride with hands behind his back, as he came quick stepping, inspecting us at our work.  These rounds he performed several times in the day, keeping his pupils on their toes, and the secretaries banging away on their typewriters. The dimly lit archives room on the floor was one spot he never missed : he had caught and severely reprimanded several delinquents who used to seek refuge in that room, pretending to pull out files for reference purposes.  I got the distinct impression that even the great TRK and KPMR would think twice before confronting PSP.

PSP was a pulp and paper expert on the technical side.  He was a well trained legal eagle when it came to drafting Contracts, Terms and Conditions, Penalty and Bonus clauses, Termination clauses, performance guarantees etc.

From PSP it was that I learnt how to make the preparatory notes and do the necessary homework before sending a Sales Proposal to a client.  The procedure and process was put in place by the Head Master himself :

- Take out your ruled Yellow Pad

- Put a Carbon Sheet underneath to make 2 copies of the document

- One copy goes to the Case file and the other to a Master file

- Write the Heading with the Clients Name, address and date of receipt of the enquiry

-  Write down the date of your “Problem Analysis” on the right hand top corner

-  Start your Analysis with Characterisation of the Waste to be treated

-  Sketch out the Flowsheeet of the proposed Treatment Plant

- etc.

- etc.

And the completed homework assignment had to be signed off by PSP.  It will not surprise me one bit to learn that he kept a secret Marks card of all these assignments submitted to him by his acolytes.

In Dorr-Oliver, the yearly increment in emoluments to its employees was not automatic : One really had to work hard, demonstrate superior performance and results going beyond the call of duty in order to qualify for that signal honour. Thus it was the proudest moment of my career, when at the end of my first year in the Company,  PSP himself got off his chair, came around his table, patted me on my back and said “ Dr., We have decided to increase your salary by a full fifty rupees this year ”

From PSP, I learnt attention to detail, the small print, and even the significance of punctuation marks and capital letters in a legal Contract.  I thank him for his role in making me half a lawyer that I am today.

Dr. Ananth S Kodavasal                                                                                      June 22, 2011

MY BOSSES – Part 2 ( KPMR )

K P MOHNADAS RAO

See KPMR on Pg 8 of a Dorr-Oliver Magazine of 1983

http://www.dorroliveralumni.org/DO%20History/DO-Tell%20Scans/Stamford/1983%20-%20Sales%20Communicator%20Fall.pdf

KPMR was Director Marketing at the time I joined Dorr Oliver in India in early 1979.  In sharp contrast to T R Krishna Rao, his immediate Boss, KPMR was loud, brash and boisterous, and every bit the Street Smart Operator.  I did not have as much occasion as I did with the other bosses, to interact with him during my days in Dorr-Oliver. 

KPMR either had a bad tailor, or was losing weight with regular frequency. He had this peculiar habit of hitching up his trousers with both hands, then tucking in his shirt, front first, and then the back : and these motions he practiced many times in the day during his rounds of the floor. To the jaded viewer, this mannerism of KPMR may have gone totally unnoticed : but to me, this spectacle holds a lifelong fascination even to this day, when I visualize it with my mind’s eye.

KPMR was a great humorist, and loved playing that part to an audience waiting for a break from poring over Ammonia prints of Clarifiers, thickeners, drum slakers and filters.  In keeping with his personality, many of his jokes were off colour, which however went down well due to his natural narrative style and poker faced rendering.

On occasions, KPMR was prone to getting carried away by the sound of his own words.  On my last day in Dorr-Oliver, after I had put in my papers, KPMR stood up to give the farewell speech.

“ Life is like a Suburban Train” he said.  “ People get on the train and get off the train” he continued. “Both the train and the people have to move on” . I could not bear to hear any more of this moving speech.  No, not on account of the sentiments expressed, but because by then, tears had welled up in my eyes, while I tried to suppress my laughter.  He was the comedian to the end.

Dr. Ananth S Kodavasal                                                                                      June 19, 2011

Footote :

KPMR stepped into TRK’s shoes as M.D of Dorr-Oliver, on the former’s retirement from the Company. By a strange quirk of fate, KPMR himself had to move on to Batliboi & Co in Bombay, when a few years later, common tradespeople from Dubai, with no sense of History, tradition and legacy of the Company took ownership of Dorr Oliver.  From KPMR I learnt that Bravado can be put to good use for success in life.

MY BOSSES IN DORR-OLIVER - Part 1 (TRK)

( BOSSES WHO MOULDED MY CHARACTER AND CAREER )

Regular readers of this Adda will no doubt recall that I started my working career as a Sub Junior engineer in the Environmental Engg. Division of Dorr-Oliver in Bombay, in early 1979 at a princely salary of Rs. 750 per month.  The Company provided free bus transport from Kurla to Andheri ( both in Bombay) and of course free lunch in the canteen room for the cattle class run by a colourful character by name Shetty : Officers of a higher cadre were entitled to eat in the Executive Lunch Room as an added perquisite. Apart from the amenities mentioned above, we were also entitled to free tea service once in the morning and once again in the afternoon brought up to the second floor cubicle I occupied by “Chhotu” a diminutive server boy.  The tea was poured out in small glass tumblers from his huge Aluminum kettle.  At times, when clients came calling, we were permitted to order the same tea to be brought in a teapot, and this time served in classy cups and saucers : We knew how to treat customers like Kings even in those days.

Be that as it may, this article is really about my bosses in Dorr Oliver who shaped my career, my thinking, my temperament and indeed my character and my future, during my brief sojourn in that Company : I owe them and the Company a deep debt of gratitude, for what they have made me today.

The hierarchy of my bosses reads thus :

R Natarajan         : Asst. Manager – Environmental Division  ( Call sign -  RN )

K Narasimhan      : Divisional Manager  - I cannot put a finger on his exact portfolio. I discovered later that he was an uncle of mine, not very distantly related  ( KN )

P S Prabhu          : Marketing Manager – in Charge of all Marketing activities ( in D-O Parlance Marketing included everything from design, sales, engineering, execution Followup, Commissioning of plants, if called upon to do so :Hence the Top Dog Tag to marketing engineers in the Company ( PSP)

K P Mohandas Rao : Marketing Director ( KPMR)

T R Krishna Rao     : Managing Director  ( TRK )

A “Rogues Gallery” type Notice of the bosses appears in a Dorr- Oliver House Magazine issue of 1983 on pg. 8.  Use the link :

http://www.dorroliveralumni.org/DO%20History/DO-Tell%20Scans/Stamford/1983%20-%20Sales%20Communicator%20Fall.pdf

(the Editor evidently used Natarajan’s photo from his Application Form from the early Fifties : Natarajan had no Son ! )

I shall now proceed to reverse the order in the descriptions that follow, one Boss at a time, and the one indelible impression in my mind left by each one of these Gentlemen.

T R KRISHNA RAO

TRK, as he was universally known, was a distinguished Alumnus of the venerable National Institute of Engineering ( NIE) in Mysore,  graduating with Physics, Chemistry, and later in Civil Engg. from that Institution.  Later went on to Iowa State to get his MS degree, and joined Dorr-Oliver immediately thereafter.  These are gleanings from a D-O House magazine of 1958.

TRK was the General Manager of Hindustan Dorr-Oliver in 1979 when I walked in to their Head Office in Andheri, Bombay, and presented my papers for a job in the Environmental Engineering Division. I had got past the lower rungs in the recruitment/ interview process and the final hurdle had to be crossed in TRK’s Chamber.

It was a great big hall, fit enough for a Banquet, and absolutely bare, save for a great big table, behind which sat TRK, on a leather upholstered swivel chair.  The table was equally devoid of any trappings of a man at work, except for a small round contraption which looked to be of polished Mahogany, with a gleaming brass needle on top : that was all I could register in my mind, in the state of nervousness I was in when facing the great man for the first time.

TRK quickly put me at ease, reassuring me with a gentle smile that he had no role to play in the interview process : But yes – he only held veto power on any prospective recruit.  Without further ado, I joined as a Sub Junior Engineer in H D-O in February 1979.

Over the next three years, I came to know TRK a little better.  Extremely soft spoken, his manner suave, he was a Gentleman to the core, with his ever smiling demeanor.  But underneath all this was the iron fist in a velvet glove, which he displayed on several occasions in ruthless fashion.  Whenever I had a difference of opinion on technical matters with Natarajan my immediate Boss, we would trek to TRK’s chamber for his counsel, since he was the one with the Environmental background, and had the last word.

It was during these meetings that I got to get a closer look at that Mahogany doodad on TRK’s table, cryptically labelled “Executive Decision Maker”.  It was in fact a simple directional compass.  But in place of the customary N-E-S-W, was marked YES-NO-YES-NO in the four quadrants.   And, with just a flick of his finger, the fate of any debate would be sealed.

Ever since my discovery of TRK’s decision making style, I have been an avid reader of the daily horoscope in the Newspapers, especially on days when an argument with Natarajan had to be settled.

Dr. Ananth S Kodavasal                                                              June 18, 2011

Footote :

I am glad TRK did not use his decision maker tool to exercise his Veto power over my appointment in Dorr- Oliver : Or may be he did !  He taught me, just as Eckenfelder did, to Keep things simple !

A DEEP BAR SCREEN IN BOMBAY

Regular readers of this Blog will by now know that the “Bar Screen” is the first unit in any STP, which captures Solid particles above a certain Size, and prevents them from entering the STP, thereby saving a lot of grief : they save the pumps from getting clogged/ choked.  They save submersible pumps ( wrongly selected by plumbing engineers moonlighting as environmental consultants, and ignorant vendors for raw sewage lifting applications) from breaking down with regular frequency, and most important of all, permit the STP operator to concentrate on other aspects of the STP, instead of spending his entire life battling solids in the raw sewage pumps.

Believe me folks, this is THE MOST VALUE FOR MONEY piece of equipment in the entire STP.

I should like to illustrate this from a real life experience of mine from about 30 years ago, when the Bombay Municipal Corporation decided to install for the first time, bar screens in its incoming sewer lines deep beneath Ground level.

I had just got back from the US carrying my freshly minted PhD Certificate, landing in Santa Cruz airport, Bombay on the 31^st of Dec. 1978.  ( I have a poor head for all other dates).  Sometime in early February, 1979, I started my career as a “Trainee Environmental Engineer” at a princely salary of Rs. 750 a month,  in the most venerable of Companies in the Environmental field : Dorr- Oliver (India) Pvt. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Dorr - Oliver Inc., Stamford, Connecticut, USA.

I had an equally venerable Boss by name Natarajan, a battle hardened veteran of many an illustrious sales Conquest, and a legend in his own time : a jolly, affable, roly poly kind of bloke,  he was the Asst. manager in the Env. Engg. Division.  Don’t let the designation fool you : US companies in those days were extremely niggardly in doling out labels.  An asst. Manager was fairly high up in the hierarchy of the Company and held quite a senior, responsible and accountable position : A “Manager” in that Company was indeed the Cat’s whiskers, and a “General Manager”  ran the entire Company.  Very unlike present day designations where a fresher right out of college,  starts off as an Asst. Vice President in a multinational Bank.

In the year 1980, The Bombay Municipal Corporation ( BMC) was the happy recipient of a huge sum of money as USAID to improve and upgrade its Sewage Treatment Plants at various locations across the city.  Not surprisingly, the aid came tied with a US Consulting Company called Engineering Sciences Inc. ( ES).  Very wisely, the BMC decided to install Bar screens in all their STP’s as the first order of business.  Dorr- Oliver India was the favourite to bag these contracts, being a true Blue American Company.

Municipal sewer lines, due to the very long distances of travel, arrive at the STP location at great depth, at times  30 feet or deeper below Ground level,  very much like in several Sobha projects in Bellandur ( although in the latter case, the situation may be attributed to third rate plumbing consultants *** employed to design and engineer the STP).  Now, a municipal sewer line can carry solids and other gross articles of varying size and description.  The great depth, the huge volume of sewage flows in these pipelines, and the quantity of solids that can accumulate in a very short period of time, make it imperative that mechanical means be employed to clear the screens on a continuous 24 hours basis : Hence the concept, design, and a marvel of engineering called a “Mechanical Deep Bar Screen”. 

A Mechanical deep bar screen is a device which employs reciprocating motion, going up and down, up and down.  At the bottom of the downward stroke, the fingers of the rake mechanism engage with the openings in the stationary screen rack, pick up all the solids deposited on the surface of the screen and haul them upwards along the inclined screen.  At the top of the up stroke, a tipping device helps disgorge all the solids thus transported directly onto trucks stationed below, to cart away the solids, when fully loaded.

Dorr- Oliver having put in its bid to supply these sophisticated Bar screens to the BMC, was called by the American consultant to present our case and highlight the special and unique features of our screens.  ES was represented by a young fellow by name Chip Woltz :  Dorr - Oliver by Natarajan, and yours truly, as an apprentice in training, with strict instructions to keep my mouth shut and eyes and ears open during the proceedings.

When asked to specify the kind of solids or articles our Bar screens could handle, Natarajan puffed out his chest and pompously proclaimed “ Sir, in Bombay, we even get dead bodies in our sewer lines.  Our screens are designed to handle such heavy loads, hahaha ”

Chipper Woltz, though young of age, was clearly upto this Indian game of one-upmanship :  Says he  “ In our country we get discarded refrigerators and Volkswagen Beetles in our sewer lines : tell me, can your screens handle these ? “

For once, the irrepressible Natarajan was utterly dumbstruck

Dr. Ananth S Kodavasal                                                                          April 23, 2011

Ecotech

*** POST SCRIPT ON THIRD RATE CONSULTANTS

During my School days, my father being in a transferable job, was obliged to move from city to city every few years.  Not to inconvenience us kids, my sister and I were left in the care of my grandparents in Madras.

On many a Saturday, when school was off, I loved to accompany my granddad to his office, taking the bus from Hamilton Bridge in Mylapore to Parrys Corner.  From Parrys Corner, we had to walk down quaintly named streets such as Thambu Chetty Street, Linghi Chetty Street to where his office was situated.

These streets were lined on both sides with small business enterprises dealing in engineering goods, machinery and parts, with sign boards proudly proclaiming to be “Mfrs. Representatives and Commission Agents “.

Likewise, I wish Third rate consultants in Bangalore ( of them there are many) would call themselves with such names as  “ XYZ Commission Agents and Plumbing Consultants” so that nobody is left guessing as to where their priorities and loyalties lay.

ASK

Waste Water Treatment Is An Art, Not Science!

Apartmentadda.com has been kind enough to label me as a “Water Expert”.  I prefer to call myself an Environmental Engineer with a “Work In Progress” tag.

In the late 1970’s I had the good fortune to study a little bit of Environmental Engineering under the legendary Wesley Eckenfelder Jr., then Professor Emeritus at Vanderbilt University, and author of many of the early textbooks on Wastewater Treatment :  A man of great good humour and breezy insouciance and always great company in his customary colourful plaid sports coat at the communal coffee pot in the Department.

Many of the tables and graphs in his early textbooks were lacking in essential numbers, units, dimensions etc., in the columns, and along the X-Y coordinates, to which his lighthearted riposte was “ Wastewater Treatment is an Art, not Science.”

In my practice as a Consulting Engineer in later years, I have had the misfortune to scrutinize on several occasions design calculations and computations submitted by aspiring, overzealous environmental engineers, possibly with a Master’s degree or higher from Indian Universities : Calculations running into pages and pages, containing obscure equations and muddled arithmetic, finally ending up with totally absurd numbers for answers.  Verily these worthies have missed the wood for the trees.

Clearly, thirty years on, Eckenfelder’s maxim of Wastewater Treatment being an Art holds true to this day.

Dr. Ananth S Kodavasal                                                                          April 15, 2011