Coconut scraper

I had two coconuts to grate so I selected a bigger plate for the job. While grating my thoughts kept drifting and I was wondering "is it the same plate?"

Once I was through, I emptied the plate, flipped it and had a closer look at the bottom. Yes, the marking was there. It was 30 year ago that I got this from my employer. They had distributed it to all the employees on the completion of the millionth vehicle. The old emblem also could be seen (The present Tata Motors was known as Telco in those days - Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company) It was very difficult to photograph it as everything was almost worn out after 30 years so I had to dust it with some talcum powder, and then enhance it a bit in Photoshop so that one could read the inscription.

The coconut scraper too was pretty old and has seen better days (about 40 years old) There was a formation of a dent where the metal blade rested on the wood, so I keep a coin there to avoid further damage.

The scraper in this open position reminded me of Mrs Kelkar, our old neighbour in Bombay from the early 60s. I remember her advice to her daughter वापरात नसताना ते बंद ठेवा (when not in use keep it closed) A simple safety advice which goes a long way.

A part of this grated coconut went into our puttu (steamed rice cake) and I made a 20 sec video on it (the puttu)

The song in the video is by Dr Akhila Alexander.

Couldn't help with the train of thoughts while grating.

The Masters of yesteryears

Everyone has that one teacher (or teachers) who stand out in their life and they never fade. It is very rare that you meet your teacher after three decades. I am talking about Mr M G Ghokale who taught us Engineering drawing when we were undergoing training at Telco (now Tata Motors) 

Met him today at a friend’s son’s wedding.

It is said that if you can master the art of reading an engineering drawing, then designing a component is an easy task. This will be vouched by all those who underwent tutelage by Mr MG (that is what we used to call him) He was very particular about the letterings and the dimensioning practices that are used in engineering drawings. 

At the bottom you can see the date and MG’s signature.  That is almost 44 years ago. (I still hold on to my old journals)  I remember the piece of advice he gave “always carry a small diary and a pencil in your pocket. Ideas will hit you at the most unexpected time. Jot it down immediately as you are bound to forget it later”  This is so true.

I also admire (and practice) the method he taught us about “remembering things” He demonstrated this in our class. He asked each one of us to name any two objects. He said he can later reproduce what each one of us named (at random) There were 30 of us in the class and he did deliver what he promised. I had mentioned Typewriter and Rose. He said the trick to it was “I just visualised Joe sitting in front of a typewriter with a rose on the typewriter. That picture was frozen in my mind so its easy to reproduce it if you mention any one of these three things”  

Somewhere along the way he left the nine to five job to pursue his passion “creating special surgical instruments” He is now 79 and still indulges in his passion. I am told that surgeons take him to the operation theater where he can actually see the requirement of the doctors and then design and create the instruments. What a wonderful way to live a retired life. Every day is a challenge.

He has won the Industrial Merit Award in 1990 and the Bharat Gaurav in 1996.

Coming back to the Engineering drawing, I think it is no more required now as everything is created by the computers and there is no thinking involved.

But I am happy I learned it the hard way as it helps me in my day to day life.