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Cynthia
Rodrigues
Jamshedpur is home to numerous people
who have been employees of
Tata Steel for the second and even the third generations.
In rarer instances, one comes across families whose
service to the company spans the fourth generation.
We profile one such family whose sense of loyalty to
Tata Steel and the city it calls home is complete
Steel is a crucial ingredient
in their constitution. This proud family in Jamshedpur
can stake claim to the distinction of having four consecutive
generations on the roster of Tata Steel.
ES Rama Rao and E Satish Kumar,
the third and fourth generation of Tata Steel employees,
are proud to count among their forebears two others
who have served the company well.
The tradition was established
by E Mallaiah Naidu, the grandfather of current employee
Satish Kumar. Mallaiah Naidu worked in powerhouse number
3 of the Tata Iron and Steel Company for 35 years from
1909 to 1944 .
Satish Kumar’s great-grandfather
E Nag Boshanam was the next to join the company. A subedar
in the Ninth Madras Infantry, he had retired from the
army. He worked in Tata Iron and Steel from 1924 until
his death in an accident in 1926.
Father ES Rama Rao beat the family
record for long service. Joining in 1955 as a Grade
III clerk, he retired in 1996 as the assistant planning
officer in production control after more than 40 years
of service.
Having lived in Jamshedpur all
his life, he avers that there is no better city to live
in. He says, “I have toured all of India in the
course of my work. I can truly say that Jamshedpur is
the best city in the entire country. The sanitation
and other systems are very good. Our city is also very
peaceful. During the Partition, the entire nation was
torn apart by religious conflicts. There were disturbances
everywhere, but Jamshedpur remained
untouched by all the tension.”
Satish Kumar himself has been
working in Tata Steel since 1980. He joined Seamless
and worked there until 1997. He was then transferred
to the Tata Tubes PT finishing division. Now established
in the PT mill, he has recently become a member of the
union and hopes to put forward the opinions of the workers.
His dearest wish is that his eldest son may work in
Tata Steel someday.
The hope is shared by the entire
family. “If you are honest and hardworking, then
there is no better company to work for than Tata Steel,”
asserts Rama Rao proudly. “The company offers us
job security, which is a very important consideration
for us. We are treated as family members whose welfare
is of genuine concern to the company.”
Working at Tata Steel as a tradition
has not been restricted to fathers and sons alone. Rama
Rao’s voice quivers with emotion when he reveals
that his four brothers have also been proud employees
of Tata Steel. Three of them have worked in the drawing
office, the sheet mill and the planning department respectively.
One brother worked as a metallurgist.
Between them, the family has
seen the company grow by leaps and bounds, from being
an Indian steel company in India to expanding its operations
to foreign shores. Rama Rao began work under the managing
directorship of Sir Jehangir Ghandy and retired during
Dr JJ Irani’s tenure. The company that his son
works for today has B Muthuraman as its managing director.
However, even as things have changed, some things have
remained the same. The man who worked as Rama Rao’s
supervisor is now his son’s supervisor too.
More than a decade after his
retirement, Rama Rao continues to consider Tata Steel
as his own company. He still follows the achievements
and accomplishments of his company with delight. “I
was glad to hear that
our company has acquired Corus. I am always pleased
to know that Tata Steel is making waves. This is a great
time to be with Tata Steel.”
This loyal family has looked
to Tata Steel for the satisfaction of its needs, happy
with its association with the company. Ambition, for
the members of this family, is working hard at the company
and rising through the ranks to attain a better position.
Job satisfaction means knowing that every action of
theirs has the potential of benefiting their company.
Between them, the family has
cumulatively clocked more than 97 years of employment.
Not surprisingly, this family looks upon its long-standing
relationship with Tata Steel as a reason for justifiable
pride. Together, they bear the fact of their employment
as a standard to be carried aloft.
Uploaded
in August, 2007
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