The Journey of A Small Town Boy - Ankur Dwivedi, TAPMI

A middle-class upbringing in a small town in Bihar, had its own advantages. With my father in government service, life was literally a journey, because we moved frequently due to his transferable job. The upshot was that I turned out to be extremely resilient and adaptable. I developed strong survival instincts, innate courage and alacrity of thought, even averting a train robbery once.I have also learnt to struggle and stay determined in different circumstances. I didn’t give up after the Joint Entrance Examination and after joining the engineering college I kept working on fundamentals of the subjects. And consequently this helped me in getting through a big opportunity in a hundred year old company, TATA Power. After completing Engineering, I began my career with India’s leading business house, Tata Power, where I was hired as a GET and posted to one of its power plants in Odisha. As a trainee, I was actively involved in the regular maintenance activities of the plant and spotted some abnormal vibrations in critical plant equipment. Directing senior workmen to inspect the unusual occurrence, I discovered, to my surprise, that a small part of the machine had worn off and required immediate replacement. Coordinating with the team members, I was able to arrange for the part required from the tool workshop at short notice and get the same replaced. This not only averted a major loss of operational time, but also gave me the confidence to act promptly and effectively in a crisis, and leverage diverse sets of stakeholders, in collaborative and focused manner.The complex nature of operations in the power plants habituated me to the expectations of operational excellence and gave me vital grooming in Project Management. It was one of my responsibilities to ensure the safety of workers. Once again, my acute powers of observation and instinct for prompt action helped avert a major safety incident in the boiler area of the plant, preventing loss of life and money. This experience consolidated my strengths, making me adept at taking ownership under challenging circumstances.The intuitive leadership traits that I acquired within the demanding environs of the power plant and the professional acumen that I gained from discharging heavy responsibilities with aplomb, has been enriched further with the help of collective experience of the TAPMI community. I have learnt and shared some key insights with people and operations department by participating in different events like “Ops Diaries” and other platforms provided by different committees of the college.