Story of a submariner: Play of fate - Defense aspirants must read

This is a story of an officer, told at Naval Selection Board, Vizag. I do not remember his name properly but his rank was commander. For the ease of story, I am assuming his name as Ajay, Cdr. Ajay. The story involved his friend Sucky and some other incidents till his successful career as a submariner, instructor and defense strategist. At the end there will be a question for defense aspirants asked by him, so try to read it till the end. 

Ajay and Sukhy:

Ajay was a nerd in his schooling and was only concentrated in academics. His dad was a lawyer and mom was a homemaker. The only set of goals in his life included making shit loads of money, having a beautiful wife and settling down in United states. From the beginning Ajay was clear that the only way he can achieve that, was by cracking entrance to IIT.   

Ajay had a Khalsa friend Sukhdev Singh AKA Sukhy. Sukhy was extremely disciplined and immensely passionate towards joining Army. He also was a big fan of Hollywood character Maverick from  the movie Top-Gun. Sukhy in the summer of Delhi use to go for a ride by wearing lather jacket just like Tom Cruise in Top-Gun. He also had developed six pack abs and biceps by his tough fitness regime. 

Guys, having 6-pack abs in late 80's, early 90's was a macho thing.

The NDA Exam:

One evening, during the study holidays of the 12th grade, Sucky comes to Ajay's place and tells "Hey, Bugger! NDA ka form nikla hai, bhar dena" (hey Ajay NDA form is out fill it).

Ajay asks "Ye kya hota hain?" (what is it?)

Sukhy says "arre army ka hai saath mein jaathe, exam dene" and fills the form on behalf of Ajay and submits it.

Both of them write the exam in nearby center and clear it. Sukhdev does remaining procedures as well on behalf of Ajay and they get the call for SSB interview at Bengaluru. 

The SSB:

The interview was scheduled from 19th August and the reporting was at MCO of KSR railway station, Bengaluru.

On 14th August Sukhy, comes to Ajay's home. "Hey, Bag Bharna start kiya ki nai?" (Have you started preparation and packing or not?)

Ajay told "Arre, mein nai Aaraha, army sabi mere bas ka bath nai hain. tum chale jana!" ( I am not in a mood to come, Army is  not my cup of tea, you go ahead)

Sukhy uses Ajay's weekness and influences him by saying "hey! Ajay Banglore Masth jaga hai! Khoob ladkia hote hai, train se jayenge akela Maza ayega chalo" ( Hey! Ajay Banglore is a fantastic place! you will get to see lot of girls and you will enjoy the journey too) 

Ajay packs the bag and prepares himself thinking about girls all the way :-)

The D-day comes Ajay and Sukhdev report at MCO and five days flies by. Ajay enjoys those five days at SSB, as he had limited outdoor exposure before coming to Bengalore. On 23rd August. They both finish the SSB conference( last activity of SSB interview). There were 30 odd candidates. Ajays chest number was 24 and Sukhdev's was 26. All the candidates were made to stand with their bags, under a tree and officer in-charge was giving motivating lecture and started announcing chest numbers of recommended(selected) candidates.

A bus to take them back to railway station had come. Ajay was thinking about catching first seat in the bus, so that he gets a window seat of his choice. Ajay was fiddling with his bag and getting ready to board the bus. Suddenly officer in-charge shouts "chest number 24!, chest number 24!"

Sukhdev pats on Ajay "Hey Bugger! tum select ho gaye ho" ( hey Ajay! you are selected).

Unfortunately that day chest number 26 was not called and Sukhy sadly went back. Ajay was in dilemma and was thinking "is this for real? "

Sukhdev really went on to sad mode. Sukhy felt like he was cheated!

Destiny of young boys:

Anyhow days went by Sukhdev left his dream and joined a local engineering college as he did not have any backup plans. Ajay joined NDA. As both of them were in different boats which they did not desire, they struggled. Struggled  a lot.  Ajay struggled to cope up with physical fitness challenges and Sucky had to sit for long, to study. 

Days went by, now Ajay is commander Ajay, a submariner, a strategist , a researcher. With number of decorations commander Ajay is doing well off in his career in Indian Navy. On the other side Sukhdev has his own investment firm, home, number of cars and a beautiful wife right in the city of New York. 

The moment of surprise:

One day, Ajay was coming back from his 45 days submarine sail at sea. He was in blue Dangri, stinking, sweating, extremely tired and had not taken bath for last few days. As he enters hall of his home, he sees a well suited Khalsa man having tea. They both were dumb struck for a while, then came back to reality.

It was evening at 1600 hrs, Ajay tells "Hey Sukhdev, Nahake aata hu" (Hey Sukhdev, I will take bath and come back). 

They sat in the sea facing balcony at 1700 hrs sipping drinks and munching on snacks. Talks went on till 2330 hrs. Ajay's wife call both of them for dinner.

At the end of the talk they realize, they both are living each others dreams, exchanged!

Sukhy says " hey bugger! you are living my dream-life and I am jealous of you for that"

Commander Ajay replies "so you are sukhy! I am jealous of you too!" 

Water fills up in both of their eyes and silence persists.

                                                       ***************************

The question asked by Commander Ajay to defence aspirants was

 

"On August 23rd,on the SSB conference day, did Sukadev loose something? Or Ajay gained something? Or both of them gained/lost anything?"

The same question goes for you, let us know your opinion in the comment section below. 

 

Sewage system and water crisis in Indian cities

The other day I was traveling through city of Bengaluru by BMTC bus, suddenly I happen to see a big channel beside, parallel to the road. Initially I thought it’s just a water passage or something. After getting down I went to check it, yes it was a water stream but a stinky one. Yes it was a sewage water channel. And I even saw a heap of plastic in it, which was not only filthy looking but it was looking like a growing devil which had potential to choke the entire passage. Suddenly a thought struck me while major cities including Bengaluru are facing acute water crisis, why are we wasting huge amount of water mixed with sewage and let it flow into our valuable water bodies(lakes, ponds and even to river)?

Instead cant we reuse this generated gray water to clean up our vehicles or may be to feed our garden?

Sounds simple right? But it is not, this simple matter has made a so much ruckus in the city.

After going back to home 'curious me' went to search about these huge sewages around the city. As expected I came to know so many astonishing facts about our poor sewage/water management.

Here I have tried to put those facts and ways of better management of it below.

Water source to Bengaluru: The capital city Bangalore nicknamed as garden city.

It actually had gardens and city full of lakes. Before urbanization of the city it had more than 500 lakes. As the city started filling up with buildings; the industries started budding and ultimately the farms, gardens and lakes started to vanish. Well unfortunately the city is not longer a garden city anymore.

 In early 90s the Bangalore had more than 500 lakes. Those were potential sources of water of people. Now most of the lakes have either drained or filled to build the city, and the count it has gone down to only 17 good lakes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakes_in_Bangalore)

. Once with self sufficient lakes and ground water level the city was independent for its water supplies. But now it mainly takes water from Kaury River which is approximately 100 km s away from the city and urgent needs are fulfilled by sucking up the leftover ground water.

80 percent of this used water being converted as sewage and only 40 percent of the it is treated. Bangalore in total generates approximately 1400 MLD (million liters a day) of sewage a day if its 60 percent is untreated then the number would be 840 MLD well that is a huge number and more dangerously all of these untreated water, including chemicals from industries are contaminating our water bodies every single day. This number for whole Karnataka state is 2500 MLD.

This contamination is not only making the water sources inaccessible it is also contributing contamination of ground water surrounding city. In fact this whole process is one of the contributors towards city’s water crisis. This year Bangalore city was about to hit acute water crisis and in 2022 city is expected to witness zero day.

As we are near to the line of limit I strongly believe this is the high time to address this problem with higher priority. This is not only a story of Bangalore, over 21 major cities of our country including Bangalore are expected witness worst water crisis of all time in 2022 according to data. If we consider quality level of available water, it is not really drinkable state. Facts shows us, India is in 120^th position in 122 countries as per as the water index is concerned.

Question for you, isn’t it a freaking factor that we are not actually recognizing it? Cant we come to a common solution by treating sewage and reusing it?

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zero day is a term used in cape town south Africa to explain zero ground water level and apocalyptic stress among citizen of it.

This very same situation is expected to occur in 21 major cities including Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai.

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Where does the sewage come from and go? is it a serious issue?

The sewage mainly consists of used water mainly domestically. If the sewage used is in the kitchen and washbasin, obviously, it will have less of suspended partial and it will be less polluted, such type of water is called as gray water.  The gray water will have larger scope of reuse with less efforts in treating it.  But only problem is that we don’t have proper STPs at societal level. And hence it is mixed with other sewage and it goes untreated.

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BASICS OF SEWAGE TREATMENT (IN INDIA):

Sewage is basically used water with suspended waste materials in it. To make the sewage completely reusable we have to treat it in three stages those are primary, secondary and tertiary. In primary treatments the floating debris and floating materials are removed with meshed and other filters and this allowed for sedimentation of some waste materials. This makes a consistent watery  feed for secondary treatment where anaerobic microorganisms are added which helps in digesting organic materials in the waste water. This microorganisms are later removed with addition of chlorine to the water. This secondary treated water is  now eligible for non-potable purposes like toilet-flushing and gardening.

Tertiary treatment involves more advanced processes like reverse osmosis (RO) and de-mineralisation. Dissolved solids and nutrients get further removed during these processes. Depending on the grade of tertiary treatment, recycled water can be used for drinking, as coolant in industries, or in precision industries like electronics.

 

The most common sewage treatment method used in India is Activated Sludge Process (ASP), which had been invented in England over a century ago. ASP mainly reduces BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand), fecal coli-form level, turbidity etc. Extended Aeration, Sequential Batch Reactor (SBR) and Up-flow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Reactor (UASB) are some other conventional treatment technologies. These are mostly variations of ASP itself.

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As above mentioned in Bangaluru generates total of 1400 million liters of sewage every day and 60 percentage of it is untreated. This untreated water eventually gets drains out in lakes, rivers and other water bodies around the city. Main of such water bodies are Vrasabavati river(AKA Kengeri Mori), Ballandur lake and Varthur lakes which are well known for the hazards which we have created and high pollution levels of it. In past these water bodies have also made into headlines because of fire incidents(by bio gas generated in it) and clouds and foam formation and death of floura and founa around it.

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Currently, Bangalore generates 1400 MLD wastewater, as per BWSSB’s conservative estimates. The city has total treatment capacity of 721 MLD, but only 520 MLD gets treated on average. Here is a map of the existing and proposed STPs by BWSSB/BBMP in Bangalore.

Below is a list of existing STPs operating in the city:

Plant	Capacity in MLD
Vrishabhavathi Valley	180
K & C Valley	248
Hebbal Valley	60
Madivala	04
Kempambudhi	01
Yelahanka	10
Mylasandra	75
Nagasandra	20
Jakkur	10
K. R. Puram	20
Kadabeesanahalli	50
Rajacanal	40
Cubbon Park	1.5
Lalbagh	1.5

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Every year we see videos of froth filled Bellandur lake flashing in the news. You also must have seen incidents of lake water catching fire. People/residents surrounding lake goes to strike, it hardly affects government, BBMP or local corporator for that matter. The fact is that we do not have enough STPs around the city those are there are not effective enough to handle the flood of sewage. We all see the today's state of the river Vrshabavati, we it is known as Kengeri Mori.

How can we solve it together?

1)Government is being ignorant that is Crystal clear. Now it is left to us, we have to work together and set up small secondary STP s at societal levels such that we can reuse the water in non portable forms such as gardening and flushes. This problem was earlier tried to solve and addressed to. it was also made a law to set up mini STPs in societies and apartments, but people started to retaliate by calling strikes to oppose it. After seeing this one thing is clear that the problem is not only a economical problem it’s a social+economical problem.

 It is not only an economical problem it is a socio-economical problem.

2)Gray water and its cleaning:

Having small filters, STPs built in at house level and atleast treating the water in primary level will have its own benefits.

3)Bringing behavioral change: 

As it is socio-economical problem, Bringing behavioral change in the society by star campaigners, celebs and politicians will have impact. As saving lakes and sewage as important as other problems its just underrated. AND giving proper awareness and educating people is much needed.

4)Floating treatment wetlands (FTW) and other modern techniques will help to solve it. state governments can collaborate or seek suggestions from other state, if they are doing progressively good work.

5)Working together: As most of our city's problems are not yet solved by miscommunication and lack of cooperation between different government organizations, working on problems closely and together will definitely give solution to it. 

6)Planting, Rain water harvesting and less water usage are conventional methods by which the water can be conserved and used to recharge the groundwater level. 

Chennai is first one to make a mandatory law for rainwater harvesting but its has not been implemented properly.

Bottom-line:

The fact is: we all know that, It is a haunting problem like every other environmental problems. It is a high time to address it but unfortunately the government and citizen are being ignorant about the severity.

references:

http://bengaluru.urbanwaters.in/wastewater-treatment-and-reuse-49

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/chatbot-that-unites-artists/articleshow/69285257.cms  vrsabavati