Still in uniform During naval service, I wore Navy blue in UK and in winters in Delhi. The rest of the time in the navy was in whites, except for the year I spent with DGS. Bath where everyone wore civilian dress. My ten years in Mazagon Docks limited and Mukand were out of uniform. From 1989 when I joined TVS, I was back in uniform.. After several iterations, we have now zeroed in to Navy Blue trousers and white half sleeved shirts- a mix of summer and winter naval uniforms. The shirt carries the name ‘TVS’ in white in a blue background. The company logo, a galloping horse, appears in red in the right (half) sleeve. There is no mark showing rank or status in the uniform, which is the same for everyone from the Chairman downwards. We chose white for the shirt, so that dirt would show up! The idea is not to hide but to highlight dirt and grime. Our plant is so spotlessly clean that our white shirts remain unsoiled when we go home at the end of the shift. We learnt this from Honda Japan, who use all white uniforms. In olden days, the so-called blue collars wore blue colored boiler suits, so that the dirt would not be seen! Supervisors wore white boiler suits. It was a given that the workplaces would be dirty and the clothes would get soiled. The Japanese ended that fallacy for good. When I was a young Lieutenant in Naval Dockyard, Lt Srivatsa was my counterpart in the electrical department, in charge of motor rewinding and repair shop. He was a natty dresser, a Raja type, unlike poor me, a plebian. He ran an old FIAT car in 1963, an unheard luxury for naval lieutenants those days. When we returned in the evening after the day’s work in the dockyard, my uniform was covered in sweat, dirt, oil and grime thanks to working in dry-docks and messy surroundings. Vatsa’s uniform used to look whiter than in the morning! I used to tease him that he had a washing machine in his shop (probably the blighter had one!) I can claim that in the HIAOOU fold I am in the In uniform category!
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 13:07:16 +0000
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