So very proud of our DMC students. They were even more excited about this day then I was! Tom addressed the DMCs and explained to them what it meant to be part of Cummins and watching those young boys and girls as they saw our future CEO in action was so cool.
While this may seem just like an other restroom in a Cummins facility, it's not. These restrooms in the PDC took much convincing early on in the project to convince some of the "old school" team of the importance of creating the right environment for our employees. Essentially these restrooms were not in the original plans for the building and had to be added at a later stage.
Tom Linebarger was present to inaugurate the facility along with Anant, Raj Menon, Doug Sunkel, Marc Gotoh, Boon Teo, Tim Updike, Dinesh Castelino and many others. Taking Tom on a tour of the PDC that I've watched go from whole in the ground to a world class facility was very rewarding. And having Tom tell me it's not worth living in Baramati compared to being closer to the site will certainly help me convince my team as well :-)
Here are a few of the PDC employees cutting a delicious black forest cake to kick off the celebrations after the formal festivities. As many of my employees were fasting for Ramadan I've been lured into throwing another party at my bungalow for the PDC team. I'll definitely need some catering help as I'm sure I would be able to prepare macaroni and cheese for 150+ employees!
After a day of festivities at the site and 8 gulab jamuns that Ankush managed to arrange for me from the canteen (quite an accomplishment as the usual "ration" is just 2) the NRPI team decided to celebrate at a ancient fort that had been converted into a hotel in between Phaltan and Pune. Fort Jadhav Gadh was beautiful! Imagine a mix between a super cool archaeological site and a 5 star hotel and you have Jadhav Gadh.
Looking out off of this balcony felt more like Tuscany, overlooking small farms and farm houses, rather than the outskirts of Pune.
It was on this balcony that while popping the second bottle of Prosecco I nearly had a OSHA recordable by striking Sandeep with the cork! We've decided that moving forward, safety glasses will be required along with champagne classes at our NRPI celebrations.
With the facility being inaugurated I've been spending more and more time in Phaltan which means.....the first night at my Phaltan Palace! When preparing to leave Pune to embark on village life I prepared a care package for myself, equipped with the essentials: raisins, almonds, protein powder, Combos, soda water and Johnny Walker. After my first few days I've now found this absolutely will not be enough to tide me over and will have to prepare better this week :-)
The first night at the bungalow was nice. The air is so clean, crisp breeze over the mountains and the moon and the stars shine so bright outside of the city. Additionally many of the neighbors were sheepishly peeking over my wall to see me which was pretty funny as well. There was a police officer who drove from a nearby village to see me and let me know if I ever needed an help I could contact him.
There are 2 or 3 local hotels in Phaltan that are probably 2 star at best, but I've risked my bowels for a meal at rather than starving after coming home from the Megasite. On Friday night I tried a hotel called Madhudeep which is also a permit room (bar) and serves non-veg options. I tried the chicken tandoori and it was delicious! The "accessaries" were also nice.
After washing down the chicken tandoori with a Kingfisher or two I had to use the restroom and was fortunate enough to meet the janitorial staff all huddled in the restroom with me....
The owner of the hotel has a really cool old "Jeep" that I want to buy from him. It's so vintage and would really help me blend in with the locals :-)
The only downside with this hotel, asides from the "janitorial staff," is that it seems to be frequented by local politicians and their henchmen. I was introduced to a group of guys from Baramati and they pestered me the entire evening to come and meet Sharad Pawar. For those of you that are not up on India politics, Sharad Pawar is a politician who is revered in this area as Baramati is his hometown, but he is also reportedly involved in acts of corruption. Pawar currently serves as Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution for the Government of India and is also the president of the International Cricket Council (ICC). I politely declined the invitations throughout the evening.
On Saturday morning while leaving my bungalow to head to the Core Warehouse I came across what Shashi, my driver, described as a "snake house" in my front yard. Initially curious (and then quickly terrified) I decided to take a few photos of this. You see, when I think of a "snake house" I assume garter snake having grown up in OH, not the type of snakes we find here in India.
Notice the idol that has been placed on top of this "snake house?" It's a cobra! Yes, this "snake house" is where cobras live :-( Last week there was a festival where the Hindus fed the cobras milk. I'm sure these cobras will not be going anywhere soon now that they taken a liking to being fed milk.
Having left the bungalow, scared out of my mind of the cobras, I headed out to the Core Warehouse where I arranged a "Hand Pallet Truck (HPT) Olympics" for our associates. I've seen forklift rodeos in the past, but never a hand pallet truck event; however, since our associates had never even seen a HPT we have to start small.
The event was a lot of fun and both teams did an excellent job focusing on Safety, Quality and finally Productivity during the relay. Team 1 ended up winning the event, but there was some controversy that Team 1 hadn't been fully unloading the pallet during the receiving portion of the relay, but instead were simply lifting the boxes and then setting them back down on the pallet. After about 5 minutes of bickering a shy girl in the group spoke up and declared that both teams were winners as there were only 2 small safety incidents (when a pallet on the HPT struck one of the boxes we had laid out as an obstacle this was declared a safety incident and the participant had to back track and start over) and no DPMO incidents on the product being used in the event. Both teams agreed this was correct and congratulated one another.
There were 53 one-on-one shots with me after this team photo. I tried to remind the team that I'll be here for a while so no need for photos, but I'm sure they wanted to show their friends and families that they're part of an American based company and that is really cool.
Many of the female employees really REALLY want to be trained on operating the MHEs. They've been repeatedly asking me if they are "allowed" to go through training. It is so wild to me that they are asking if they are "allowed" to attend the training, but in this part of the world it is not common for women to drive so I guess I understand the apprehension they have when asking for permission to go through training.
The associates are not just your average PDC employees, but are amazing artists as well! One of the girls brought me her book of sketches and was so proud to show me her work. As you can see the sketches are beautiful; hopefully she'll get an opportunity to do something with her artwork in the future.
Also, this week I had heard of a regal, old British bungalow in a village nearby to Phaltan. I went on the hunt to find the "Chairman's Bungalow" as the locals called it. After about an hour of scanning small villages I found it and while outside taking in the sites the caretaker came out and invited me in. Language was a barrier, but he was able to tell what I would be interested in and proceeded to take me on a tour of the property and all it's antiques. The home had originally been inhabited by an Australian engineer named William Buchanan from 1936-60 who was working at the local sugar factory.
The bungalow was such a cool place and was currently being lived in by the chairman of the local sugar factory's son. As it was being inhabited by a local family I didn't take any photos because I thought it may be a little intrusive, but did get a picture of the guard dog, "Scooby," who is guarding the pavilion.
The village with the bungalow was so quaint and even had a telegraph office!
And last, but not least, for all the bathroom humor fans of my blog... A few weeks back while on a recruiting trip in Phaltan I stumbled across a frog in the restroom of the college I was recruiting at. This frog was huge and in one of the squat toilet stalls. All day, on and off, I watched as that stall was used with the big frog in the corner :-(
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