How come I landed here?
As if suddenly from the blue! No, not from the blue... from Delhi. Here now l am a medical transcriptionist...err an editor!
There, I was called a shipbroker in Delhi - many wondered what that was.... a breaker of ships? and in Delhi? which is nowhere near the sea??! Ha ha, no, no a broker..one who connects a shipowner to another who needs service of a ship.....a charterer!
They, the ships, came in from all directions...to India with tons of cargo...sulphur, fertilizers, grains, oil... The ships had features like LOA, beam, draft, DWT - Oh, I forgot the pet terms SHEXEIU, SHINC, WTS and ATS...reversible, freight, deadfreight and demurrage....and of course the most important 1.25% brokerage commission!
But "shipbreakers" do exist too, they are a different breed... how can I forget Alang and Beypore...that's where beach them and break them up for the steel.
Oh what days they were...life amidst that deadly congregation The New Delhi Shipbrokers' association!! Transchart!! The chief controller of Chartering.. The Central chartering Committee, MMTC,STC, Foodcorp, Agrindia.. and a Banerjee, Anchan, Nambiar, Saran, Rangasamy, Chauhan, Sharma...ha ha!!
I owe it to Ramakrishnan (my father), and Viswanathan (my uncle) the great man under whom I learnt the basics of shipbroking. Not to forget my great friend S. Ganesan (Pollachi Ganesan)..
Negotiations...subjects...approvals...success....a fixture!! Wow, celebrations, sometimes with bottles of whisky!! a salaam to Hanumanji of Channa market... He has delivered me from my travails many a time.
Or failure, disapproval...ship getting delayed...not presenting at port! uhhh...notices, ultimatums, threats...arbitration!! - the other side of the coin..Telex messages, faxes...phone calls...(never heard of email then!)
"Put them on notice!" yelled Saran...and submissively did I obey... A post office you are, no more, no less, he said! I believed it. Demurrages due...shipowner's threat..."we'll blacklist you and your damn charterers!!" "You'll never get a ship again..." yelled the shipowners... futile words! They (charterers) always got a ship..
Two decades and two years...looks like a dream now...did I go through all that? Yes I did...till the ship of my life got caught in a whirlpool and I had to call it a day in 1999!
Three long years of travails, no shore in sight...failed fixtures, cheated of commissions... What's happening... prayers to Vaishno Devi... and Keshavapuram Aishwarya-Ganapathi.. and Guru Maharaj...a storm was in my heart... I pleaded... And I did get guidance....Prabha persuaded me to come down to Coimbatore.
Yes I'll take the jump...decision was taken, Usha protested loudly... what will we do down there in Coimbatore?? Let's see, something mus tbe there, I assured. A visit to Sadasiva Brahmendra shrine finalized it.
Landed in Coimbatore on April 7, 1999. Sweet, softspoken but tricky Coimbatore...cool-weathered Kovai - where Mukunda became a brahmanan, a "dwija" with investiture of the sacred thread.
Yes, I am used to Cbe now...maybe behaving like a Coimbatorean now...so different from the harsh Jat demeanour of Delhi or the snobbish Punjabi behavior...this is a land of smoothness and smiles, clever subtle operators with sweet, suave words and winsome smiles... they are no fools. But I am happy here to be among our own...
And what do I do now??? tap tap tap...on the keyboard...in a place called RND Softech... Venue: Silver lab...RND Softech Ltd... They call me "Sir" here... in deference to my vintage years and the liberal salt and pepper hair....
I was grateful to be an editor today... but not before being put thru' a 10-month-drill...never thought I'd live to see the day I'll be an MT...but it happened....an MT I became...an MT that faltered and blundered...and contributed my own crop of bloopers to the world's repertoire of bloopers!!
Did the patient tolerate the procedure well...and did he walk to the recovery room....removing all extremities... errr moving all extremities??
And one day, against my remonstrations I was made an editor... and am happy to stay with 87 minutes of editing. "You better take it...that's the way to growth...how long are going to be an MT at 45 minutes??" they told me. In deference to the persuasions I yielded...and am happy to be an editor...
And so it is...now three years down the line...an Editor....picking holes in other's scripts....do I suppress a chuckle when I see a silly mistake...an easy blank...an unknown usage or phrase which only Smart Me could decipher...?!! But no, my weakness is the formatting...it's a bugbear that scares me... but I do have a nose to sniff out a ridiculous soundalike!! I only have to tell it to Joshua...and he is too happy to broadcast it all over the lab!!
Life goes on smooth...a warm and persuasive Jesu, a kindly Jayanandan, a gentle GM Rajesh a pleasant ladies Rangini and Priya..
I sit beside ....a noisy Joshua ....a "playful" Rajendrakumar (always seeking an opportunity to play computer games....a tireless chatterbox called Bharat, a petite Poorni and silent, smiling Sarita....
Where do I go from here??? No idea...it's now my family for now!!
--------With Love Shanky
