SPA News Autumn 2012 - Shell UK

Bombay street
– even more interesting! The worldwide
crude shortages caused by the Yom
Kippur War only increased the pressure.
We arrived in Bombay only a few months
after the end of the 1971 Indo-Pakistan
war and at the tail-end of a poor monsoon.
This had serious implications for the city,
which received a large proportion of its
electricity from hydro-electric schemes. As
time wore on we suffered restrictions on
the use of air-conditioning, and poor
harvests due to the inadequate monsoon
rains meant rising food prices, leading to
labour unrest and several general strikes
or “bandhs”. These were usually one-day
affairs but meant that we had to stay in
the plant for 36 hours at a time to maintain
operations. I usually volunteered for the
night shifts, which were very pleasant.
We had an occasional requirement for
diving operations when repairs were
needed to our big salt water intake
pumps, and developed a good
relationship with frogmen from the Indian
Navy who, not long before, had been
in action in Karachi harbour. After a few
successful diving operations at the
refinery, the company donated a
television to their mess – a huge luxury,
as TV had only just started in India. We
formally presented this to them on board
their vessel in Bombay naval dockyard
and had the opportunity to take a look
at the navy’s latest ship – a locally-built
licensed copy of a British “Leander” class
frigate. Of even more interest sitting out
in the harbour was the light cruiser INS
Delhi – formerly HMNZS Achilles of
‘Battle of the River Plate’ fame.
My wife Nancy and I had a spacious
flat in the senior staff colony near the
refinery, which eventually (after some
nagging of Camp Services) became
quite smart and comfortable. Our
neighbours were a wonderfully diverse
group of Indian families from all parts
of the country and of every religion. Most
were very sociable and we began to
appreciate the huge diversity of Indian
culture and cuisine. Nancy was in
demand to teach the basics of English
cookery – especially roast dinners –
which became a regular midweek
cookery class. This eventually developed
into a series of weekend lunch parties
featuring delicious cuisine from the
various regions of India. One particularly
gorgeous biryani required the
preparation to start on Thursday evening
to be ready for lunch on Sunday!
Everyone naturally recommended that
we should visit their home region. With
only two weeks’ local leave in our twoyear
contract this was going to be a tall
order. However, with the amount of
overtime we worked during major
shutdowns, my very understanding boss
let us take more leave than was due.
Our leaves usually coincided with one
or other element of the transport system
going on strike, which didn’t help with
planning; however, we managed a big
circuit of the South, including Bangalore,
Mysore, Madras (now Chennai), and
Kerala. In the latter, we stayed in Cochin
and had an overnight visit to a tea
plantation whose generator was
powered by an old Crossley gas engine
Water Taxi
FEATURE ARTIcLE
– probably installed by my grandfather!
Later on, we spent a week in Kashmir
living on a houseboat on the Dal Lake
in Srinagar, and towards the end of our
stay spent a few days in Delhi, from
where we visited Agra, including a visit
to the Taj Mahal.
By the time we left Bombay in September
1974, India was in deep economic
trouble. A few months later, the foreign
oil companies were nationalised and
Burmah-Shell became Bharat Petroleum.
Mrs Gandhi declared a state of
emergency, which stabilised the
economy but at great cost to individual
freedom, especially for the working
classes. We always believed that
economic liberalisation and investment
would enable India to move forward
rapidly, and although it has taken so
long, it’s great to see the progress now
being made.
SPA NEWS | 19