Those were the days when getting admission to study engineering was hard. In all of Rajasthan there were only four engineering colleges: Malviya Regional Engineering College, Jaipur, MBM Engineering College, Jodhpur, Govt Engineering College, Kota and CTAE, Udaipur (only for Agricultural Engineering). In all, there with hardly 500 seats. One had to make it to the PET merit list to be admitted to one of these government-run engineering colleges. I was a studious guy and was able to get a good rank in PET. This allowed me to study electrical engineering in Jodhpur. I loved engineering and would always correlate the theory I had learnt with what was happening around me, and the other way round too. I would ask questions like, how is electricity produced in trains and at generating stations? How do machines like fans, mixers, tube lights, ACs, cars, scooters etc. work? Why can I not produce electricity by attaching a generator to a fan and feeding it back to the fan, making it run automatically and without stopping? This strength enabled me to both learn and earn good marks in theory and in practice. Those four golden years flew by and the day for the final year results arrived. Early in the morning, a friend of mine knocked at the door of my hostel room and informed me that I stood second in the university. I was so happy to learn that.
After earning an honours degree in electrical engineering, I returned to my home town of Udaipur. I was thinking of applying for a job in some other city, or of pursuing a master’s at one of the IITs. My economic condition wasn’t good, I knew I should not pursue a master’s but should look for a job and try for a master’s after a few years. My room-mate Manmohan and I visited Pesticides India to inquire about a job. The HR Manager there looked at my mark sheet and said that I had done wonderfully well, why didn’t I try for a job at their sister concern Secure Meters, they need good electrical engineers, and I would get an opportunity to learn and contribute there.
Next morning, both Manmohan and I searched for Secure Meters and finally reached there. At the reception we asked about the company, submitted our resumes and returned home. After a few hours Manmohan called me and said that his scooter had got exchanged. I did not understand what he meant until he came back to my home. Actually, when we had gone to Secure Meters, he picked a scooter that looked exactly like his but was not his. We rushed to Secure Meters again, parked this scooter and took his scooter, without anyone knowing. Soon after both of us got a call for an interview. Mr Nagarajan (Head-production), Mr Jhalora (Head-PAC) and one more gentleman took our interview.
The following day, I got a call from the HR manager saying that I had been selected in marketing, and I should join. I joined Secure on 11th May 1994 and the first thing I enquired about was the scooter. That scooter belonged to Mr DP Khandelwal Sb. (PA to MD). He was not so surprised to learn about the scooter exchange incident; the lock of his scooter was bad and could be opened with any key.
After two days of induction, I was sent to the Product Assurance Cell (PAC) and was asked to work under the guidance of Mr S Ramesh. I was to learn about the electronic energy meters, meter reading instruments (MRI) and STOD8 (the base computer software used at that time). I quickly (within a week) learned the fundamentals, including meter connections and basic operations, and started CLEM testing under his guidance. Mr S Ramesh was happy with my progress and understanding of fundamentals. Mr Sunil Singhvi would call me daily at 8:45am to check my progress and clear doubts if I had any. He is an expert on CTs-PTs and I still remember his nice explanation of the differences between measurement CT and control CT, shorting a CT secondary during live connections, different types of errors in CT-PT, etc. [CT and PT are current transformers and potential transformers. They are an essential part of LT and HT metering systems, as meters cannot be connected directly to high current and high voltage system. A CT steps down current to 1A/5A and a PT steps down voltage to 110V/63.5V, to bring them under the measurement range of meters.]
Knowledge and skills are very important, the more you share these, the more you learn. A few weeks later a new batch of GETs joined. Mr Jhalora called me and asked to take a session on electrical fundamentals and basic metering for the GETs. They were of my batch only but from other engineering colleges. I was a little puzzled and worried. Would I be able to answer their questions? What happens if I do not know the answer? Mr Jhalora had confidence in me and told me not to worry if I could not answer a question. He said, I should note down the question and he would explain it to me and I could give them the answer in the next session.
My heart was beating fast as I entered the class; it was my first time as faculty. I was about to start, suddenly the telephone rang, it was Deepesh saying, “Best of luck, Khan” for my first session, that too within three weeks of joining. I started with confidence and was able to answer all of their questions. I still remember that first class, it gave me tremendous confidence in speaking and teaching. It was awesome. That was the day I have never looked back from, and since then have taken numerous training sessions on electrical fundamentals, basic and ABT metering, mask, four quadrant and summation metering, product portfolio, validation, home control products, quality processes at Secure and at YMPL Metering School. After completing six months, I was supposed to go back to my parent department, i.e. marketing, but my line manager was so happy with my learning and performance that he asked me to continue in validation. Since then, I have worked in CLEM (Control Language for Energy Management for writing embedded meter applications) and metering firmware development. I was Head of Product Validation, Head of Product Management, Project delivery manager and currently am Head of Quality Assurance.
In summary, knowledge and skills are very important, the more you share these, the more you learn. In my journey at Secure, these have been the key to personal and professional development. One learns better and recalls more when teaching others.