Pana Swaminathan
It was a farewell party and I was asked to write a life story of one of our Partner, Viswanathan, hailing from Nemmara, Palakkad who was retiring and leaving for settling in Palakkad.
This story was to be read in the party and this is what I have written about him after gathering information through an informal chat..
Once up on a time,….. Partners, let me start my story here like this… and the title of this story is “Lord of the Gods and the Goblet!!!
1950… a December cool and calm morning… If my memory is correct, it was 17th day of December and it was a Sunday!!! A legend in the making is born.. And his parents called him ‘SWAMINATHAN’ Lord of all Gods…
Friends, He was born in Kerala. His friends later started calling Kerala, by another name , God’s Own Country, after his birth.
Nemmara, a small village in Palakkad District, became widely popular because of mainly 3 reasons…
One, because of the well known local festival called Nemmara Vallangi Vela which is only next to Thrissur Pooram in terms of festivities, ornamented Elephants and the Vedikkettu… ( Fireworks)
Widely spread beautiful lush greeneries of rich paddy fields which produce abundance of types of rice grains for the entire nation to eat, and the palm trees kissing the horizon is the second best reason.
The third of course, is Swaminathan…
He started growing like an absolutely normal child… crawling… then moving on the knees and slowly walking pace by pace… His parents were very happy to see his growth and so was he.
His Parents, after discussing with many local scholars and relatives, decided to look for a GOLDEN PLACE for his academic adventures to begin with the ka, kha, ga. After relentless and a very tiring search, they settled down with a truly GOLDEN PLACE in the country which is Kolar Gold Fields, and SWAMINATHAN begins his schooling in KGF.
Academic Adventures slowly started turning mis-adventures…Realities started surfacing… we can only blame his teachers for that. They wasted a one-in-million chance to teach a genius in the making. He tried his luck in the near by college and he was afraid, those Professors and lecturers would only make him a Doctor or a Superhero architect or something similar to that….
He wanted to venture out and do some thing more.. more… much more….. ( His Dil Maange More )
His quest and pursuit for the ultimate and excellence finally ended in Bangalore Indian Navy Recruitment Centre…
He decided to become an Artificer…. A Partner Artificer…
BRO, Bangalore was a wise Officer, who at a very first glimpse, caught the attention of an unpolished but bright gem from the scratch…( For that, he didn’t even have to undress our lead character in the Story…)
He was selected, rather grabbed, and joined the selection process with a rather lucky chest number I- 13!!!
The year was 1967… and the Class 50.
From a lean, anxious young lad… the metamorphosis begins to a stout, confidant smart young man…. a partner in all true terms, an ERA specialist in GT, a delight and confidence of the Captain of the Ship!!
Journey was not so tough… for the imbibed qualities inherited from a rich, rigorous, rearing rising between the walls and floor ( remember the botha and broom ) of Raigad Division, adequately supported by the fantastic surroundings and landscape of Lonavla!! What the Professors and Lecturers in Kolar Gold Fields could not accomplish is easily achieved here, thanks to the fall-ins, parades, PT, reporting, patti parades, treats, slaps, punches and the seniors… SWAMI PASSED OUT…
And it was 1971 when INS Godavari was delighted to receive a bubbling H termer, in the form of our own one and only… Here the second phase of the journey, the SAILING begins for him and Lord of the God, starts to “SEE THE WORLD” which he is supposed to rule!!!
Godavari could only watch with tears when the Pride of Godavari.. ERA 4 SWAMINATHAN was saluting the gangway to take over other missions for other ships which included Androth, Circars,Angre and many many. It was need of the TIME.. Need of the Navy… Need of the Nation and our Lord wanted to grab such opportunities.
The colorful life in the ships ( most colors were spilled while painting the decks for annual inspection ) spanned a good long 15 years and there were countless moments which could be recalled with a true sense of pride and satisfaction.. ( Some of them.. the first gulp of Beer from the sailor’s institute, winning the first line in Tambola, slow changing over to the hard godda chaap rums, walking in proper rhythm in four legs and still managing to find the ship in the birth, reaching the bunk after liberty expires and still managing to fool OOD and RPO … Oh such relishing and reliving moments!!!
Barring this, there were some other achievements such as being an active member of FOCEF staff under Admiral Nayyar, GT Engine Testing and Tuning Specialist etc.
1982--- The sense and crave for achieving more ( dil maange more …ha ha.. attitude) which was more or less sleeping for a short period with in his dil slowly overcame his other emotions, spirits and other loves within Navy… Sadly Navy looses a solid ARTIFICER… CHERA SWAMINATHAN hangs his Naval boots and calls it a day.. a long pipe down whistle…
But, Partners, the loss of Navy becomes the gain of the Nation, in other terms. On the next hands call.. there you find our Lord ready for the both-watches with the Nations’ biggest Public sector undertaking BHEL!!!
BHEL was forming a prestigious Deputation team for their Saudi Arabia Project and generally such team will only comprise the best. Mr.Swaminathan, a true Ambassador was a natural selection and for our Lord, the third phase of the journey, the flying starts.
Dear Partners…
You all might wonder, did the writer forget something here… Our hero is already 32 yrs and when will the heroine appear? By the standards of even the late–marrying-Keralites, it’s time he finds his other half!!
No Partners, It was our Hero who forgot. Yes, He forgot to marry!!! Blame it on the other priorities and missions of life set by our own Leader of Gods. He thought Marriage could wait…
But not until, our Hero met the Lady in his Life for the First time. In 1983. Our own partner explores the other meanings of Partnership and finds it through our Good lady here.. Mrs Shailaja Swaminathan.
Time pass by… Marital bliss continues…Partner and Partner Swaminathan walks the cloud nine… there blossoms two beautiful flowers in their garden of love… and blissful life still continues…
Partner Swaminathan can now define different meanings for ‘Partnership and Life partnership’
26 years have gone by last week, exactly on 21 May. And the blissful life still continues…
And during this time, Mazgon Docks was privileged to take the services of our Partner and in 1984, takes another flight to Dubai.. to join EPCO.
From 1984 to 2009… a long 25 years…. Our own Partner Swaminathan served EPCO, DUBAI and our own PARTNERSHIP
Dear all, as they say…All good things have to come to an end…
Partner Swami, who was the most instrumental in gathering all the Artificers in UAE, have to leave us because of his own compulsions.
He was THE pivotal point for all the Partners landing here and meeting each other and played the most important role of “ORGANISING” all of us to be under one roof here…He was on a mission to connect, collect and communicate with all Panas in UAE and he did this wonderfully well, over the last quarter of a century!!! From a mere few partners scattered all around UAE, some decades before to a ‘thinking and working unit’ of around 200 partners of today, we have grown, and Partner Swami’s enthusiastic role and contribution cannot be easily forgotten. A Never-Say-No attitude and available-at-any-time are some traits, that we must recognize of him and Partners, we are gonna miss him for our life time..
But, as mentioned earlier, he is only leaving us for good.. to join his expanded family, to nurture his grand children… to see them grow and spend a joyful time with them and of course…. cherish all those good memories he is carrying about us…
We wish him and his family a wonderful, pleasant and healthy time ahead and hope to see him back for the next Artificer Party in Dubai in 2010 as a Chief Guest!!
(And finally… we can expect a Palakkad Chapter of Artificers to be formed very soon!!!)
From UAE Chapter of Artificers.
This story was to be read in the party and this is what I have written about him after gathering information through an informal chat..
Once up on a time,….. Partners, let me start my story here like this… and the title of this story is “Lord of the Gods and the Goblet!!!
1950… a December cool and calm morning… If my memory is correct, it was 17th day of December and it was a Sunday!!! A legend in the making is born.. And his parents called him ‘SWAMINATHAN’ Lord of all Gods…
Friends, He was born in Kerala. His friends later started calling Kerala, by another name , God’s Own Country, after his birth.
Nemmara, a small village in Palakkad District, became widely popular because of mainly 3 reasons…
One, because of the well known local festival called Nemmara Vallangi Vela which is only next to Thrissur Pooram in terms of festivities, ornamented Elephants and the Vedikkettu… ( Fireworks)
Widely spread beautiful lush greeneries of rich paddy fields which produce abundance of types of rice grains for the entire nation to eat, and the palm trees kissing the horizon is the second best reason.
The third of course, is Swaminathan…
He started growing like an absolutely normal child… crawling… then moving on the knees and slowly walking pace by pace… His parents were very happy to see his growth and so was he.
His Parents, after discussing with many local scholars and relatives, decided to look for a GOLDEN PLACE for his academic adventures to begin with the ka, kha, ga. After relentless and a very tiring search, they settled down with a truly GOLDEN PLACE in the country which is Kolar Gold Fields, and SWAMINATHAN begins his schooling in KGF.
Academic Adventures slowly started turning mis-adventures…Realities started surfacing… we can only blame his teachers for that. They wasted a one-in-million chance to teach a genius in the making. He tried his luck in the near by college and he was afraid, those Professors and lecturers would only make him a Doctor or a Superhero architect or something similar to that….
He wanted to venture out and do some thing more.. more… much more….. ( His Dil Maange More )
His quest and pursuit for the ultimate and excellence finally ended in Bangalore Indian Navy Recruitment Centre…
He decided to become an Artificer…. A Partner Artificer…
BRO, Bangalore was a wise Officer, who at a very first glimpse, caught the attention of an unpolished but bright gem from the scratch…( For that, he didn’t even have to undress our lead character in the Story…)
He was selected, rather grabbed, and joined the selection process with a rather lucky chest number I- 13!!!
The year was 1967… and the Class 50.
From a lean, anxious young lad… the metamorphosis begins to a stout, confidant smart young man…. a partner in all true terms, an ERA specialist in GT, a delight and confidence of the Captain of the Ship!!
Journey was not so tough… for the imbibed qualities inherited from a rich, rigorous, rearing rising between the walls and floor ( remember the botha and broom ) of Raigad Division, adequately supported by the fantastic surroundings and landscape of Lonavla!! What the Professors and Lecturers in Kolar Gold Fields could not accomplish is easily achieved here, thanks to the fall-ins, parades, PT, reporting, patti parades, treats, slaps, punches and the seniors… SWAMI PASSED OUT…
And it was 1971 when INS Godavari was delighted to receive a bubbling H termer, in the form of our own one and only… Here the second phase of the journey, the SAILING begins for him and Lord of the God, starts to “SEE THE WORLD” which he is supposed to rule!!!
Godavari could only watch with tears when the Pride of Godavari.. ERA 4 SWAMINATHAN was saluting the gangway to take over other missions for other ships which included Androth, Circars,Angre and many many. It was need of the TIME.. Need of the Navy… Need of the Nation and our Lord wanted to grab such opportunities.
The colorful life in the ships ( most colors were spilled while painting the decks for annual inspection ) spanned a good long 15 years and there were countless moments which could be recalled with a true sense of pride and satisfaction.. ( Some of them.. the first gulp of Beer from the sailor’s institute, winning the first line in Tambola, slow changing over to the hard godda chaap rums, walking in proper rhythm in four legs and still managing to find the ship in the birth, reaching the bunk after liberty expires and still managing to fool OOD and RPO … Oh such relishing and reliving moments!!!
Barring this, there were some other achievements such as being an active member of FOCEF staff under Admiral Nayyar, GT Engine Testing and Tuning Specialist etc.
1982--- The sense and crave for achieving more ( dil maange more …ha ha.. attitude) which was more or less sleeping for a short period with in his dil slowly overcame his other emotions, spirits and other loves within Navy… Sadly Navy looses a solid ARTIFICER… CHERA SWAMINATHAN hangs his Naval boots and calls it a day.. a long pipe down whistle…
But, Partners, the loss of Navy becomes the gain of the Nation, in other terms. On the next hands call.. there you find our Lord ready for the both-watches with the Nations’ biggest Public sector undertaking BHEL!!!
BHEL was forming a prestigious Deputation team for their Saudi Arabia Project and generally such team will only comprise the best. Mr.Swaminathan, a true Ambassador was a natural selection and for our Lord, the third phase of the journey, the flying starts.
Dear Partners…
You all might wonder, did the writer forget something here… Our hero is already 32 yrs and when will the heroine appear? By the standards of even the late–marrying-Keralites, it’s time he finds his other half!!
No Partners, It was our Hero who forgot. Yes, He forgot to marry!!! Blame it on the other priorities and missions of life set by our own Leader of Gods. He thought Marriage could wait…
But not until, our Hero met the Lady in his Life for the First time. In 1983. Our own partner explores the other meanings of Partnership and finds it through our Good lady here.. Mrs Shailaja Swaminathan.
Time pass by… Marital bliss continues…Partner and Partner Swaminathan walks the cloud nine… there blossoms two beautiful flowers in their garden of love… and blissful life still continues…
Partner Swaminathan can now define different meanings for ‘Partnership and Life partnership’
26 years have gone by last week, exactly on 21 May. And the blissful life still continues…
And during this time, Mazgon Docks was privileged to take the services of our Partner and in 1984, takes another flight to Dubai.. to join EPCO.
From 1984 to 2009… a long 25 years…. Our own Partner Swaminathan served EPCO, DUBAI and our own PARTNERSHIP
Dear all, as they say…All good things have to come to an end…
Partner Swami, who was the most instrumental in gathering all the Artificers in UAE, have to leave us because of his own compulsions.
He was THE pivotal point for all the Partners landing here and meeting each other and played the most important role of “ORGANISING” all of us to be under one roof here…He was on a mission to connect, collect and communicate with all Panas in UAE and he did this wonderfully well, over the last quarter of a century!!! From a mere few partners scattered all around UAE, some decades before to a ‘thinking and working unit’ of around 200 partners of today, we have grown, and Partner Swami’s enthusiastic role and contribution cannot be easily forgotten. A Never-Say-No attitude and available-at-any-time are some traits, that we must recognize of him and Partners, we are gonna miss him for our life time..
But, as mentioned earlier, he is only leaving us for good.. to join his expanded family, to nurture his grand children… to see them grow and spend a joyful time with them and of course…. cherish all those good memories he is carrying about us…
We wish him and his family a wonderful, pleasant and healthy time ahead and hope to see him back for the next Artificer Party in Dubai in 2010 as a Chief Guest!!
(And finally… we can expect a Palakkad Chapter of Artificers to be formed very soon!!!)
From UAE Chapter of Artificers.
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