@ RELIANCE

Back in IITM, I did not have a choice. And then after ITC and Schlumberger, Reliance was supposed to be a Mech guy’s best bet. Even if it wasn’t, we (atleast me) did not have the temerity to wait for GE (with all the infinite rumors that the PR’s and the Class rep were spreading) knowing fully well that if it didn’t make it I might well land up at a sugarcane crushing factory or a rice milling center or who knows may be even a fishing outlet. Fortunately or unfortunately I made it. Unlike many for whom it would have been a matter of celebration, for the IITM Mech junta it was a sigh of relief – lucky enough to escape the wrath of someone whose name had everything from SHUNning to MUGging to HAMming

The experience here has been awful to say the least. Reliance is supposed to be a FORTUNE 500 company; India’s largest Petrochemical manufacturer; owned by the world’s 3^rd richest and what not. But once inside the complex you see the real stuff. Nothing truly belongs to Reliance. They just own it. Every single equipment has been outsourced. You can very well call it a SHELL or DUPONT plant and yet not be very far from the truth. There is no RnD. Fuck! These people even buy off RnD from Shell. All that these people have to show for RnD is a bicameral air-conditioned building with infinite computers with no one to use them. All that these people do is maintenance- make sure that Shell, Dupont,Tata and what not machines are in working order. Follow up the troubleshooting manual and incase it does not work out call up the respective companies to send their installation engineers. People in top posts are “Diploma” holders. Part of my intern is actually solving the assignments and home tests for one of the Diploma holders who is appearing for a correspondence B.Tech degree( ! ! ! ) to make sure that his growth is not stalled. And then there are the engineers. They spend all their time playing pocket tanks. They land up here at 9 – wait till 9:30 for the breakfast – play pocket tanks- tea at 11:15 – play pocket tanks - wait for lunch – lunch – play pocket tanks – play more pocket tanks – have tea at 3:15 – play pocket tanks till 4 – start getting ready for the bus that leaves at 5:45 pm.

And then we (MECH junta) have been assigned projects that are nothing more than CUT-COPY-PASTE. The mentors (probably the only knowledgeable guys around) are very busy. One of them spends most of his time at the Shell plant in Amsterdam; another has been on a holiday tour to the US for more than two weeks while another even fails to recognize the student working under him. These guys are really good but my only issue is the mindless objective of assigning them a student when they already have infinite prior engagements. Its not only been the case with the Mechanical Section but even the Meta trainees are undergoing the same.

But the only saving grace have been the Chem. guys. From whatever I have heard and the little I understand they have been allotted projects that are not mere hoodwinkers. Ganesh is actually working on something that might lead to profits in excess of 1crore. And then their mentors actually devote sufficient time to the student projects. May be I am biased that I am overlooking all these factors. Reliance is at the end of the day a chemical industry and as such the major thrust should ideally been on them. And then it is not into design – so the mechanical sector ultimately boils down to maintenance and servicing. From this perspective I believe that this internship is certainly not for people who want to patent the next big mechanical invention but who just wish to make sure that official stand of 2 credits is completed.