Alma Mater - Part I

Wow, what a packed couple of days its been!

Thursday afternoon saw us at Paradip Port, on an Anchor Handling Vessel we recently financed, to be deployed for SPM Maintenance and Operation off the Indian coast. If some of those terms went completely bouncer, lets switch back to regular English. I will translate the terms and explain what such a vessel does in complete detail in a later post. Meanwhile this is what it looks like. Its absolutely beautiful to behold, and much bigger than what the photo suggests.

This was my first visit to Paradip Port, or to any port for that matter, and it was an amazing experience. Paradip is one of the 12 major ports in India, situated on the east coast in the state of Odisha, at the confluence of the river Mahanadi and the Bay of Bengal, about 100 km from Bhubhaneshwar. It mainly handles bulk cargo of iron ore, coal and crude, and has 14 berths with a max draft of 14m, capable of accommodating bulk carriers of up to 100,000 DWT. This is what it looks like from an aerial view.

Just to put it in perspective, here's a screen grab from Google Maps. Its amazing what all you can do on the computer nowadays using the internet and some simple software.

The port was a beehive of activity, with 10 bulk carriers, either offloading coal, or loading iron ore. All were geared vessels aided by on-shore material handling cranes. Amazingly, the website maintains up to date information on exactly which vessels were berthed where, and the exact amount of cargo transferred on each day, available the very next day. Impressive information management systems for a govt. enterprise. We were incidentally right next to MV Jag Rani and MV Monica P  

The port is equipped with broad gauge electrified railway line of East Coast Railway (ECoR) right up to the harbor, which allows the cargo to be loaded / unloaded directly onto railway wagons, or alternatively, taken via tippers to high stacking piles covering several square kilometers and surrounded by screens to prevent coal dust and fines. The slowdown in iron ore export was evident, with ore-filled trucks lining two entire lanes of the Chandikhole - Paradip Highway NH 5-A up to a distance of 30 km from port.

So, this post is threatening to turn into quite a long read. You must be wondering by now why this post is titled Alma Mater. Well the trip wasn't just about a port visit, a vessel inspection, and a day spent away from my desk. I also grabbed the opportunity to drop by my alma mater Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubhaneshwar, for a post dinner QnA with the 1st and 2nd year students. More about that in the very next post. Cheers!

 

The Introduction

Having browsed through numerous online introductions and summaries of eminent and not-so-eminent personalities (the latter being friends and acquaintances :P) i have come to the conclusion that modesty is lost on the human race. So in the interests of following the herd, i shall do the same with mine own.

< Statutory warning > Many of the sentences in this post will start with an 'i'

I am currently pretending to be a credit analyst at a leading financial institution in India, which basically allows me to sit at my desk the whole day typing away at my laptop, whilst staring at spreadsheets and financials full of numbers.

On a more serious note though, the asset finance division where i work is concentrated on building a portfolio of niche equipment with specialized applications like heavy lift cranes, work-over rigs, aircraft pullers, trans-shippers and anchor handling tugs. Having grown up in awe of (and wanting to someday operate) all types of huge machines, probably explains why i love my job

The profile also gives me an opportunity to travel to sites where the assets we have financed are deployed. Somewhere along the short two year journey, I realized that any other finance professional (read i-Banker, hefty pay packet, BMW/Audi in garage, typing away at his presentation for 15 to 20 hours a day) would never get to experience the exhilaration i look forward to in my job. So, just to make up for the lack of those materialistic things quoted above, I will expand in great detail about the amazing trips and how these man made marvels work, in later posts.

Meanwhile, proceeding in reverse chronological order, the two years i spent studying for my MBA, before taking up a job in finance, have been the most productive years of my life. Luckily, i stumbled into an awesome set of friends who made life on campus an unforgettable experience. It is possible that they may, too, have a few posts dedicated to them somewhere down this road.  

Time off from work is generally spent in a variety of sports. Luckily i am quite good at very few sports, so there is always space to improve, be it badminton, football or cricket. Of late, cycling has entered my life with some regularity on Saturday mornings and also brought with it the beneficial side effects of cutting out Friday night binges. Of course, like almost every other person in this world, I can also be found on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Until next time. Cheers.