ISRO Days – Lack of
Accountability
When I think of ISRO days generally I feel happy, proud ,
satisfied and my face gets lit by a
smile. I will write about it separately . Occasionally this mood is
punctured by sadness and even anger. I want to reflect on this. Many names
appear in this note and that is why I hesitated a lot . Since I do not expect
this to be read by some people who could be hurt I take liberties. Many of the people ( almost all ) that I
criticize here are my friends still and I have really nice memories of
interaction with them . To some I owe a lot.
It might appear as cranky, asinine , arrogant and even one
could think that I have lost my marbles ( for JTG : "Do men who have got all their marbles go swimming in lakes with
their clothes on?" (PG Wodehouse's Cocktail Time, 1958); Worse, if this were to be read by someone I
know, he /she would be smiling sarcastically recalling my weaknesses and
deficiencies in my personality and failings in action. It is also possible that
I am unsympathetic and harsh in my evaluations. I recall what once Prof Durvasula, my guide , told me
about some one . ‘ He has Dirac Delta
Function approach ‘. 1 for
himself and 0 for everyone else . ( δ = 1 at
x=0 and δ = 0 for all x # 0 ). Even this did not have the sobering effect on me. So read
on …
There are four categories of people that I recognised even
then . First group lacked accountability.
You could take no action whatsoever against them. No stick nor any carrot. For
them it was a job for life. Like a
Tenured professor . One extreme case comes to mind with its own twist of
sadness. There was a Ramaswamy who was a draughtsman and his ultimate boss ( 3
/4 levels up ) was Dr Gambhir. Ramaswamy ( what a name , ‘ pitru vaakya paalaka
raama ‘ ) did not work following some incidents. He would put up his legs on a
chair and sit. That is all. It was whispered
that he used to show respect to only Dr Gambhir by putting his foot down
when he was around. Of course no work. If you don’t recognise the irony wait
for sometime. After several years he was to be dismissed and he challenged it
in a court. He also produced a certificate signed by the then Chairman ( Prof
Dhawan ) called ‘ outstanding
performance ‘ citation. Of course this was issued to everyone in ISAC
after the successful launch of Aryabhat. Nevertheless after a few years
Ramaswamy lost his case and job.
I met him a couple of times while he was still in ISAC and
talked to him as he was a co-passenger in our bus. He told me that he was a
widower and he had a disabled child. He would get up at 4 am and bathe her and
cook and give her a breakfast before catching the bus. I told him that he
should consider withdrawing the case and perhaps get a reprieve and start
working. Even an average work would do
and he should consider that as a sacrifice for the sake of his daughter. Also
he was incurring a lot of expenditure because of the case in terms of lawyer’s
fee and he had to take leave to attend court proceedings ( where as
Administrative officer, Mr Choudhary, would travel in official car and on
office time ) . But Ramswamy while being
pleasant with me was not for it. He said that he would go to central minister
George Fernandis and complain (
incidentally the honourable central minister got away from criminal charges of
planting bombs etc as Janata Government took over and saved him ). I wonder what
happened to Ramaswamy. I also feel sad that we as a group did not try to
convince him to withdraw the case.
Dr
Gambhir was a man of culture. Polite, courteous , well read and a pleasant man.
He had a PhD in Physics ( I think ) and was heading Facilities which included
Thermovac, Vibration and shock equipment including shakers etc. I said well
read because everyone knew or had noticed his reading. It was hard not to
notice as he would be reading all the time in the office – popular books,
fiction etc. His office was meticulous and table at once clean. He was the only
one I have ever met who was genuinely democratic. He would go to lunch with his
male secretary . Both would walk down the long corridor with no conversation
whatsoever and stand in the queue and have their lunch in silence and walk
back. Once I had to meet him ( I had a good rapport with him) and went to his office. I had been
warned not to enter his chambers ‘ just like that ‘ but send word through his
secretary first. I asked his secretary
if Dr Gambhir was free then. He said he was always free and let me in. There he
was – relaxed, leaning on his chair and reading a novel. He showed no sign of
embarrassment let alone discomfort although I did. He slowly closed the book
and smiled and asked me to sit down. After finishing my work I lingered a
little. He was in an expansive mood and shared his insights. ಈ
ಕಾಲದಲ್ಲಿ ಹುಡುಗರಿಗೆ ಕಮಿಟ್ ಮೆಂಟೇ ಇಲ್ಲ
ಪ್ರಭು ಏನ್ಮಾಡೋದು
; and then later ಇನ್ಟಲೆಕ್ಚುಯಲ್ಸ್ ಇಲ್ಲವೆ ಇಲ್ಲ. ISAC ನೇ ನೋಡಿ. ರಾವ್ ಬಿಡಿ ( ಅಂದರೆ ? ) , ರಂಗನ್ ಗೊತ್ತೇ ಇದೆ
,; he appeared genuinely worried.
Some years later I came to know that he has a daughter who
is mentally retarded and in fact he told me that he was seriously worried how
life would pan out for her when he ( Dr Gambhir
) and his wife depart. He was making arrangement for his daughter to be
enrolled into some kind of home where she could be taken care of will her
death . I felt so heartbroken.
Dr Ramgopal was head of QA. A man with a French beard, well
read, serious looking, pleasant . Fortunately I had good relationship with him.
He was very friendly and I remember an incident when several of us went to
Trivandrum to attend some meeting at VSSC. That night I was literally pulled
into a late night movie. I sat next to him and started dozing . He would wake
me up every few minutes with remarks – ಪ್ರಭು ಅಲ್ಲಿ ನೋಡಿ ಹೀರೋಯಿನ್ ; ಈಗ ಡುಶುಮ್ - ಡುಶುಮ್ ; ಫ್ಯ್ಟಿಂಗು ಮಿಸ್ಸ್ ಮಾಡಿ ಬಿಟ್ಟಿರಿ ; It was such a well natured attempt
to trouble me that I could only smile. Once he was asked in an interview (
promotion ) if for some question should
he not have known the answer. Ramgopal without flapping an eye said : No, he
need not know. It was said that once he failed to make the grade and Prof Rao
had to console him. Once while he was travelling with his select colleagues in
a van ( office vehicle for a few unlike the rest buswallas ) a question came
up. He was teased about American practices of ensuring Quality vs Soviets vs
Indians in ISAC. Why the difference , he was repeatedly asked. He said it was
because their fucking habits were different.
Strangely he had a son who was retarded and he died in his
youth.
Ashiya was head of electronics and was on par or higher than
AVPatki . He was witty, sarcastic ,
would be really funny if you ignored his malice. He had words to berate
everyone . ( I recall Khuswant Singh’s column ‘ Malice towards One and All ‘ ) . He had the uncanny ability to fish
out cigarettes from any one who had. He would walk in to Dasgupta’s room and
pull out the drawer and take out one. Dasgupta was not an exception. His
favourite routine was to take a stroll to different buildings , meet some one,
smoke a cigarette or two, chit chat and crack some jokes and leave.
Unfortunately he was a small and mean and cruel person. He once said ( recall
Prof Rao’s penchant for spotlight ) that if he ( Prof ) sees some one dead and
people eulogising that person , he would feel envious and would wish that he
were dead too to get into spot light !
He died of shock on hearing his daughter’s wedding /
involvement with a boy of different caste or religion.
Patki was ( is ) a thorough gentleman. He treats everyone
equally. Has no false sense of status . He is rational ,honest and
compassionate , intelligent , witty and a very good designer. Excellent
communicator when in the mood . He has
enormous capacity and capability to interrupt conversation continuously.
Sometimes I wonder if it was not one of the reasons why he could not get along
with Prof Rao ( you see Prof Rao also wanted to talk and not listen ). You
might say the same thing about me !
His humour and wit : He once told Bhat that he is not sure
if time of birth is important or not but he is certain that place of birth is (
Bhat and Prof Rao – although Bhat got nothing out of turn. He deserved more ) .
On another occasion : Bhat and Radhakrishna were selected to be the possible
astronauts to fly on Shuttle and were relieved of technical duties and were
getting trained. AVP said it reminded him of temple bulls ( ‘ ದೇವರಿಗೆ
ಬಿಟ್ಟ ಗೂಳಿ ‘ ) roaming
around the village and free to indulge in any pleasure without any restriction
! About one Thermal manager he said that
he suffers from both inferiority and superiority complex .
I , like many , would
avoid him if I were in a hurry as it could mean an hour or more of time spent.
Excellent to spend if you had time.
I said he treated everyone equally . It was his strength and
a great weakness. Even recently while talking about Razak and Kulks ( in a
party where they were also present ) he said how they did not get enough credit
for what work they did. I tried to detect some humour in it. I could not. I
cast a furtive glance at Dasgupta and he was impassive. Bhat grumbled – ‘ I
could never get any work done by them ‘. AVP later said how MKP struggled (
true ) to finish his PhD because Prof Suryanarayan would not give him enough
time ! In general the theme was how everyone in Structures was great or nearly
so. Structures was filled with great people , martyrs , hard working and
intelligent people often wronged by everyone else.
AVP was liked immensely by everyone in Structures group and
on equal measure disliked by many ( practically everyone ) outside. His
rationality, fairness, logic all left him when he had to deal with others.
Looking back I feel he was insecure and perhaps suffered from an inferiority
complex. These were covered by a show of unwanted aggression, moodiness,
reluctance to discuss and debate any point. Sometimes this behaviour would be
copied by many ( of us ) with disastrous
effects. He had many good ideas but he
would discuss them with inconsequent people . He felt much more comfortable
with people inferior to him ( not status though ) in intellect, understanding
or capability. He had contempt nay derision for Integration particularly
Mechanical although they were doing similar work such as Ananda Murthy,
Shirolikar and others were doing.
I have a great fondness and respect for AVP as a person but
professionally I had no great opinion. It was because – straight , simple but sad truth – he was lazy. He
indirectly made many lazy. Hard work was not respected . He had no time to
think about the future of the group let
alone of the organisation, no time to plan current activities , no time to
review people or their work , no willingness
to cooperate with any one. He was opposite of what Dharmaraya was
supposed to have been ( ‘ ಅಜಾತ ಶತ್ರು ‘ ). He created enemies ( outside
his clan of Structures ) of friends. One PPEG person (very sharp, sincere and
capable , MBA from IIM , Ahmedabad ) told
me that he invariably got depressed after meeting Patki.
He was opposite of Dr Nair. I could not form any meaningful relationship with
Nair ( not because of rivalry as some thought ) because there were many traits
in him that I disliked and perhaps vice versa. But I have a great professional
respect for him. In some situations , say we are sailing on a river in spate
,capability matters and not goodness.
Dr MKP : I have had excellent relationship with him all
along. Jovial, pleasant, polite, kind human being. Smart in some aspects. Tendency to adapt ‘ short
cuts ‘ to success. In the meeting we had he was explaining what happened when
he was Vice Chancellor of a university. He went to check how evaluation of
papers is done. It was done in a great hurry and he said that about 2 – 3
minutes were spent on an answer paper. He picked up one and found out, comparing
it with master answer paper ,that it was evaluated poorly . The student was
given 37 marks or something. When he pointed it the evaluator gave him 70 +
marks. So far so good. MKP also explained how re -evaluation is a fraud etc. It
was an interesting, inside information at once juicy and one can put it down to
our system ( nodi hyagide category ). All that is fine. What did the VC do ?
Nothing !
I have heard many such stories from him not only as VC but
in his earlier avatars as Executive assistant ( or equivalent ) to Dr Kota in
ADA. But I never got any clarity about what he did. That troubles me a lot.
His PHD days : I was his co- guide. He did not understand
anything although the problem was simple. He wrote nothing , programmed nothing
( Bhate did ) and got PhD . He published not a single paper. Completely
undeserving.
Dr TSK : Again I owe him a lot. He was very sincere in his
work in structures though not very capable. He would be honest about his work,
capabilities and would not cut corners. I gave him or approved only average
grades to him.
But his PhD was a disaster. Problem was difficult and his
guide at IISc , Prof Shrinivasa , was too mathematical. TSK simply could not
handle it. It was way beyond him. Ramki was the one to program and get results
and we ( Ramki and I ) would interpret. Again no publication whatsoever.
I question myself and am left with guilt. I helped them to
get their PhD s but was it correct on my part ? Sometimes I have reasoned that
I helped my friends. But lately I have come to a firm conclusion that I was
wrong. Guilt remains.
Now let me come to operative part. As I said earlier , there
were four categories of people.
One : they were not sincere, not working and not capable.
Razak , Kulks , Samuel , Shenoy ( IRS core team ). They should have been
dismissed.
Two : they were capable but not sincere, not working . AVP,
Col Pant ( director ; they said in Insat
reviews in Palo Alto he used to open his mouth only to eat biscuits ) ,
Arvamudhan ( director ; very prompt in going home ) , Dr Kosta ( joker ) ,
ASPrakash Rao ( fossilized ) , Ashiya , Dr Ramgopal , Dr Gambhir , Dr Srinatha
( that man from Swansea ) , MKP ,
Seshadri of facilities , Srikanth ( known and known only for asking tricky
questions in interviews and questions
collected solely to humiliate someone ) , Dr Patnaik who was sent to
Insat and came back to ditch ISRO ---- I would warn them ; try to put fear of
God into them and failing any improvements dismiss them.
Three : capability medium but sincere and hard working
; Kannan, TSK , Ananda Murthy,
Shirolikar, Dasgupta , Mohammud , George , MN Satya , Krishna --- I have a lot
of respect for their work and their sincerity. They needed to be preserved ,
trained and motivated.
Four : Highly capable and also extremely sincere and hard
working ; Dr Nair, Ramki , Dr Bonde, Dr
MSR, JTG , Dr MGC , Goel, Dr Reddy, NCBhat ( a push once in a while to motivate
) , Dr Jayaraman , Sridhar Moorthy ,
Venkat Rao of Integration as well as IRS core team , myself -- I would value them immensely and promote them ( not necessarily in grade but
to handle more responsibilities ).
I would have made JTG head of Analysis within a year or two;
Dr Nair as head of all Rocket Technology developments or Group Head ( Str,
Thermal, Mechanism ) , Bonde as Str head, MSR for all developments , or vice
versa , Krishna to head CAD , Dasgupta for all fabrication of ISAC , myself
sent for training so as to become Project Director soon and so on . Names and positions are only
indicative and I want to show the intent. The tragedy was that there were so many capable people willing to
shoulder responsibilities. We missed it all.
The point is that there were no exit paths for people. No
accountability.
