1983! That was the year when the entrance exams for professional colleges were introduced, also due to university marks scam, I guess, as earlier it was interview-based admission system on the marks received at the regular studies. After BSc (Zoology) I tried medical entrance tests but did not succeed. (I do remember going to Trivandrum with my grandfather to write JIPMER exam. Trains then took almost a full day to reach Trivandrum from Trichur).
My cousin, Pius (to whom I wrote a tribute in earlier episode) was doing a course at NIIT Bombay then. I too wanted to join him, basically due to the excitement to travel alone and see Bombay! My grandpa promised the finance when I told him my desire to learn computers though he wanted me to become a doctor, since both my grandfather and my father were running medical shops at Ottupara (just opposite to the Government Hospital, Central Medical Stores which was the first medical shop in the town) and at Wadakkanchery (Baby Medicals) respectively. In fact, we even had an outhouse which they used to imagine as consulting room for the doctor, when I become a doctor! In a nutshell, sad to say that this world lost an opportunity to have a famous surgeon! (Not revealing the stream of my interest here! You guys make a guess!) 😊
Thus, I joined NIIT Bombay. Please note that there were only two NIITs then in India! One at Nariman Point Bombay and the other was in Delhi. Now its franchised centers are almost at every nook and corner! Their brochure was very impressive, of course, it was very reputed, one of its kind, private institution (subsidiary of HCL) which taught computers then. (Many other institutions followed later their path). Yeah. I switched from Living to Nonliving! 🙈
Those days in Bombay were special and awesome! Pius had arranged my stay at the same place on monthly rent, where most of the marine engineers stay to study for the exams for promotion. “Fair Host Lodge” near Chembur railway station. Two guys shared a small but decent room though it was not bath attached. Even the shelf was divided between the 2, left and right halves. Hotel Ambadi (?) nearby was my choice though initially, I had suffered from loose motion after eating there though it’s a clean decent restaurant 🛎(I intend to write about that era later as a separate episode)
Like my cousin who got first rank in COBOL, I bagged first rank in BASIC! Also I had taken on the Job training (OJT) at NIIT, helping other students, though basic intention was to use the computers (only 2 computers were there) for practice at the vacant time slots when no one booked for practical. There was no hard disk in those computers but floppies of 8 inches! (the evolution of computers thru my career also to be written as separate episode) 🖥🖥
One day the recruitment cell told few of those who were on OJT that there are some vacancies in a reputed computer consultancy, but at Bhopal! I was not willing as Bhopal was so strange without anyone whom I know there also in Bombay we had better opportunities for placement at ‘branded’ companies! But friends from OJT insisted and I thought to have a tour of Bhopal with them.
Unfortunately, I was the only one got selected there and since my OJT friends convinced me to be there at least for a year to gain experience I agreed and thus in a way got trapped at Madhya Pradesh (MP, for another 6 years; 3 in Bhopal and 3 in Ujjain!) but now I do not regret at all.🩷🌹
I joined Oriental Business Consultants (OBC) at T-Nagar, New Bhopal in March 1984. (Life at OBC also will qualify for another episode which I may write later) One of the colleagues who was son of a local big shot, arranged a room at the terrace of his big house at Arera Colony as I remember. My first salary was Rs.1,000/- which was a big sum then as told by my employer who was Chartered Accountant originally from Wast Bengal, for a bachelor to stay alone in Bhopal. I was totally depending on Coffee house (private) and an Indian Coffee house (Cooperative one) for food as there was absolutely no cooking not even black tea! For transportation, either the three wheeled autorickshaw like taxi (Suvar (pig) gadi or fat fata? as they call it) or the house owner colleague at office will take me on his scooter.🛵
I was doing well at OBC as Junior programmer. There was another programmer and almost 10 data entry machines (separate computer like machine) and approximately 20 data entry operators entering data on shifts, mostly Keralites and more than half were ladies! Those days I spent almost all days and nights at Office especially to gain experience. At nights I slept on a bench listening to the rhythm of line printer which kept on printing all night. Most of the work was related to entrance exams result processing for PET/PMT (Pre engineering/medical tests) and for banks like State Bank of India was our client.🏦
OBC had only one computer, HCL 8CR, with a one-line display (At NIIT at least. we had a monitor!) but with a tiny note printer attached, to log the display if we want to read it better! and with 4 floppy drives. Even for sorting data, we had to go with an algorithm/plan using these drives in batches using 8-inch floppies (Initially capacity of floppy disk had 128 KB. Imagine the program we had to write in separate functions to accommodate under 128KB! Later came double sided 256 KB and then came the latest then, double sided double density, 512 KB!). Those 8-inch floppies needed to handle carefully as it will wobble when handling! Then came 5¼-inch, and 3½-inch floppy disks. Now a tiny USB can hold huge amount of data. (Oops! This part was to be in the evolution of computers thru my career episode.)
8-inch, 5¼-inch, and 3½-inch floppy disks
Never heard of Union Carbide India Limited, a pesticide plant (UB) is a subsidiary of US based Union Carbide Corporation, until the next day of mishap but later learnt that it’s one of the highest paid companies in Bhopal that too adjacent to the main railway station at Old Bhopal.
December, first week, as usual we came to office at 9 am. Before that in the morning news from a very small transistor radio (Pius had gifted me that when he left to home from Bombay) heard about gas leak but nothing major as it was announced then. 📻
OBC was at the second or third floor of the building. Around 10.30 am or so, heard lot of noise from the streets and when we peeped from the Office balcony, could see many people frantically running away. We could see that the crowd was really panic and many were on their foot, grabbing children on hand, not even bothering to stop and wait for some children who was left behind few people. Selfishness?! Not sure about their thought process then, which must have been overpowered by mere fear. Later heard that, at petrol pumps there were huge rush to fill petrol and some even were demanding petrol in bottles or even in bucket to carry by the pillion rider on scooter! Not seen before such frightened eyes of any crowd. Since the gas can reach anywhere, where to escape to? Some had made masks made out of damp handkerchief. (So, I have seen common people wearing mask much before Covid!)😷😷
Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) a deadly poisonous gas which can kill any living. Due to more density than air, the gas tends to move downwards than upwards. That property killed people in their sleep at the nearby area of the plant, including the Bhopal main railway station! 🛤
The fact was that, in the morning, when people realized the number of people died at the surrounding area of the UB plant from where ~45 tons of this highly toxic gas had escaped, they wanted to burn the plant. By that time, military was in place, by seeing the agitated crowd, they spread a rumor that the gas leaked again which made crowd to run away from the plant and alongside of the road, others followed them in panic thus creating an exodus of huge crowd!👯👯
I too tried to breath to see any foul smell or anything but there were none. But then fear stuck us too and we flew to our home (I was taken by the house owner colleague on his scooter) and stayed indoor, hoping that gas won’t reach us. New Bhopal is around 8 kms away from Old Bhopal. If there were strong wind to take the MIC to New Bhopal, probably I won’t be here today, writing this blog. ✍
Next day, after hearing more about it, visiting a hospital nearby where I remember seeing pale yellow eyes everywhere. The gas affects eyes especially to those whom MIC contacted mildly whereas for others, eyes would have permanently closed, I mean dead or with lost eyesight! News were there that military is burning corps, putting together in heaps and like a pyre! 🔥
Like many, I too tried to make a STD call first and on failure, a telegram to my home (mobile was never heard of then). Although they took our message, all the communication channels were jammed probably due to the overwhelming customers all of a sudden! That infrastructure was not robust enough to take such a load. At my home, as heard later, that they thought that I am no more! Thru another contact, I could finally make a call to Delhi, , talked to a distance relative and he could convey the message to my home that I am still live, like last man standing! 🧍
By that time, news spread that people who suffered in ‘Bhopal Gas Tragedy’ (This title I heard only later in the India Today magazine, which I bought when I reached home to know more about the mishap. Its cover page still haunts me whenever I think about Bhopal. It was a small kid’s face yet to be buried fully, where as its body is partly buried!) is can claim to get compensation, and there were officials sitting at roadside with a table and chair. When I reached, I saw the queue had already reached kilometers in length hence decided not to give my name. Also, I was not really suffered (yet) like others, by the tragedy! Heard that people from neighboring districts also started pouring in the queue to make claims, where the officer is asking about one’s willingness to claim 10 lakhs or 15 lakhs! 🤷♂️
After 3 or 4 days, since we were told to go to natives by the office, I stood in the que more than 5 hours to get a ticket to Kerala. On the very same day, in the afternoon, when I boarded the train, I realized that may be few including me were only the ones taken tickets whereas rest were boarded the train in just like that without tickets. I had to sit near the toilet on my suitcase, from Bhopal, all the way to Kerala. I could sense the frustration and anger of the crowd, and I was scared too as I was like sitting inside a stampede. Some of them were simply grabbing guava from the street vendor who was selling it on his shoulder, at the railway station, without giving him money. Train started late with the overcrowded bogies and at the next station those very people from my compartment, jumped out to grab things from the shops at the station! That was mob mentality, I realized! Crowd seemed gone mad! This must be the same mental status of everyone in a riot! No one thinks about wrong, in fact they think that it’s their right to get things for free as they suffered by the Bhopal gas tragedy! Guess what, the railway authorities communicated to all the further stations about these deeds, and all the shops were closed when our train reached every station. I could buy some food only after reaching Coimbatore or some station in Tamil Nadu as I remember. Forget about me, just imagine the plight of kids & infants and their families who were in the train.😭
I got relieved when reached home. I don’t remember the faces of my family members who looked at me on my reincarnation! I was like a hero from Bhopal, surviving one of the biggest tragedies! Not just neighbors, everyone knew me and was asking about my experience at Bhopal during the gas tragedy. I think I had given them different stories; I mean, same theme but with various additions of my own every time! 😊
News especially daily papers here had only the news about Bhopal Gas Tragedy for months together. Heard that official count of diseased were only 2,259 whereas unofficial was more than 16,000! government affidavit in 2006 stated that the leak caused 558,125 injuries, including 38,478 temporary partial injuries and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries. Arjun Singh, then the Chief Minister of MP, heard to have helped Warren Anderson the CEO of UB to flee the country else those affected could have got some deserving compensation from UB, instead of getting some meager amount in 2008 from the Govt. of MP, to the family members of 3,787 victims killed in the gas release, and to 574,366 injured victims according to the Wikipedia. Poor those people had suffered maximum, not in their generation but also in their next generation by the effect of MIC!
Btw. Chief Minister himself had fled from Bhopal in helicopter the next day of gas tragedy but later he had come back realizing that things were almost under control, did an exercise to dilute the remaining gas on the ground by sprinkling water from the helicopters over the tanks at the plant. It was more of a show than any remedy!
Next month, I returned to Bhopal to join back job, when I stepped down the train at Bhopal station, everything was new, including the new beggars, as all those in that area were dead and gone with the gas tragedy! 😟
God’s grace only, I could survive the infamous Bhopal Gas Tragedy! which is considered to be the world’s worst industrial disaster.🙏
In fact, I had survived the riots in Indore and Delhi too, triggered just after Smt. Indira Gandhi’s assassination earlier that year only. 🙏 As part of job, I had to travel to both those places hiring computers to process records as we had huge data to be processed! That story could be another episode later!
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AInickal 
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