..Life on Highway..

Hello Everybody!

 It’s been long long time…. How are you all doing? I am good. Life has changed. Taken many turns, rather steep ones! Just wanted to share bits of stories from my side. In the month of May'14 I had a role change in my company.

Well the job description is like: I am technical service person of the Diesel vehicles, to which my company provides ancillaries. Shall share some details in course of this article.

I am a mechanical engineer and prior to my job rotation I was a part of my company’s manufacturing unit, responsible for product quality.

My new job profile is much broader compared to the earlier profile, as now not only I have to concentrate on a particular product, but need to have overview of almost the whole vehicle.

1st vehicle I worked upon was a Nissan Ashok Leyland Technologies’: Partner . It was a new vehicle that came to plant for service-training(that’s giver to field technicians and service managers, when a project gets On-road).

Someone asked ' kaisa lag raha hai' . I said ‘ bohot maaza aa raha hai’..he somewhat twisted his face n said 'huh...field k gadi me na, kuch bhi dikhayi bhi ni dega'.... so started my journey as a ' gadi ka mistri' as u can also say....!
The case I shared above was during my training session after which I was selected as a member of field competency team for eastern india.
The common rail diesel system is relatively new in India.  So OEMs(Original Equipment manufacturers) are cautious. .
My first trip*as an intern* was with my boss to Kolkata(my hometown) for training AL service managers and associates.  As my usual nature I was very very tensed. I went through all the material and documents that I managed to get. The session was better than my expectation!
My next trip was planned to Guwahati for giving training on diagnostics and technical details of a particular project.  I was still working in my previous job profile, as my earlier boss did not release me in such a short notice.  

The following month I had to spend in my previous profile only closing the open points.
On may 4th started forBangalore. 
After almost a month of rigorous training sessions both classroom and practical was finally allowed to leave for my final destination: kolkata. ... though the thought of getting dropped at the field made me procrastinate and tensed, yet I was excited as well as tired enough to put my feet at my home ground. !

I myself had rarely heard of or seen girls in vehicle service team, and here they send me as the technical ‘expert’ solving the critical issues, that the technicians are not able to solve.

I was provided with a number of hi-tech instruments and gadgets.

I started going to field for attending problems, for solving the issues. For Light commercial vehicles, Passenger cars things are different as in users the concerned about their vehicle and want it to be oK at the earliest. In case of Heavy commercial vehicles : trucks , tippers issues are different. Before attending the second type of vehicles I truly had some adrenaline rush…I have never been on truck before. And now there I am to take the 30tonner/40 tonner trucks on trial during investigation!(well, I don’t drive.) I sit up there, inside the truck with my instruments attached with the sensors and actuators, monitoring the values I need. And often dictating the driver to accelerate or to press brake or drive as he does normally. All these trials generally we do on highways with flyovers, where we can try achieving the maximum rpm! Its exciting, its fascinating…. Though I am a mechanical engineer I really never thought I would end up in such a job and moreover that I will like it!

Even when I go inside the service centers, I only try to concentrate on the case I am attending, not the surrounding that may be often distracting. Safety is often a concern for my parents, but as my company provides me a car and a known driver, I try to keep that part at bay.

I meet different people (while on field or over phone) coming from different background, the truck driver, the service technician the manager of the OEM. Many of them openly express their shocks seeing a girl in this service field.Ladies of my acquaintance often cannot actually realize what I do or rather how I do.

Training these people is also a part of my profile. When some new project is launched. I really don’t know or think whats in store for me in longtem future. At present I like my job and its actually a long way to go and vast things, still to learn.