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Although I’m a campus recruit to Indian Oil Corporation Limited,I believe I can answer your question on life in a PSU .There are a lot of answers to this question which talk about life during the induction and subsequent training .My answer will focus more on how life in the corporation is once you have joined your respective location and are entrusted with responsibilities.I have tried to answer in detail so its a bit long.A little background before I dive into the answer-I’m a mechanical engineering graduate from NIT Rourkela(Batch of 2019) and was recruited directly from campus.After two weeks induction program at IIPM, Gurgaon I was alloted the pipelines cadre(for those of you who don’t know,IOCL has 3 cadres-Refinery,Marketing and Pipelines).Pipelines division is notorious for it’s remote postings-but I had the good fortune of getting Delhi as my first posting.Since my office is the regional base, it is responsible for pipelines spanning across the states of Delhi, Haryana , Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan(around 500km in total).My job as an officer in mainline department is to ensure the safety and upkeep of all pipelines under base.Here is what safety and upkeep broadly covers:Ensure coating of pipelines is done regularly so that pipelines don’t fail due to corrosionPrevent pilferage : it’s a huge menace in NCR area.Survey sites regularly to ensure no encroachment occurs in Right of WaySpread awareness among villagers and liaison with public by conducting awareness programs and mock drills in villages where pipelines passManage a staff of approximately 40 ex-servicemen who are involved in patrolling along our pipelines areaSupervise crossings of other parties across our pipelines and ensure it is carried out safely(for example:electric cables,water pipelines,Optical fibre cables etc.)As you might have guessed,the job involves a lot of travelling and public dealing.There have been instances where I had to stay 3 days for stretch at a site where pilferage had taken place.Thankfully,the corporation provides a vehicle along with travel allowances for its employees.This one time I had to spend the night inside a Bolero in the middle of the fields,there were two gunmen provided for my protectionThere’s no particular routine as such for the job.You never know when you might need to visit the site in case emergency arises.However,when there are no construction or refurbishment works ongoing,and there are no emergencies,a “typical” day in the office goes like this:8:30 AM : Reach office,punch in,have breakfast9:00-9:30 AM : Daily morning meeting with team;decide agenda for the day9:30-10:30AM : Take reports of previous day’s patrolling from supervisor.If anything is fishy,immediately discuss with ACP and investigate. Similarly , gather reports from all stations under Base whether patrolling has been proper.A view of my roomContrary to popular belief there’s actually a lot of work to do,only depends if you are motivated enough or not10:30 AM-01:00 PM : Complete pending file work such as crossing permissions,crop compensation to villagers;talk to vendors and line up site work,complete daily station reports01:00-01:30 PM : Lunch,followed by some table tennis01:30-04:00 PM : Meet public to sort out grievances related to various issues such as demarcation of property,crossing issues,encroachments etc.04:00-04:30 PM : Attend scheduled office meeting (may be on safety,finance,mock drill,guard awareness etc.)04:30-06:00 PM : Complete pending files,plan activities for the next day,decide on following day’s patrolling plan based on feedback06:15PM-Back to home.As I mentioned earlier,you might need to visit the field any time and need to be available on call 24 hour.The above routine and timings are only indicative of what a typical day might look like.CHALLENGES: Like any other,this job comes with its own challenges.Initially I used to face a lot of resistance from especially the older members of staff (their average age is 50 and my age was 21) who were quite reluctant my instructions.However things improve when you take a stand for yourself and people begin to realize that you are someone who needs to be taken seriously.Also,you will most definitely find some people who are complaining about the lack of growth,slow promotions and lack of challenges and will be hell bent on demotivating you.Its up to you whether you want to be affected by them.SENSE OF SATISFACTION: There are good days and bad days in every job.However generally speaking,I come home satisfied on most of the days.The corporation is involved in a lot of CSR activities like providing solar lights,generators,building toilets in villages.Recently amidst the Corona Pandemic Outbreak,we distributed grocery packets,sanitisers and masks amongst the poor people of slum areas.Distributing groceries in slum areasThis answer is based on my very short experience of about 10 months in IOCL . It is not a generalisation of any sort on the experience of working in a PSU;just my personal experience.

EDIT: Please do not PM me about how to get a job at Google. There are a ton of brilliant Quora answers out there which will be able to guide you much better. Thank you.Disclaimers:1. All views listed are my own. Google doesn't endorse them. It may or may not be applicable to other Indian Googlers. Most points are based on my perception. Some one else may have perceived things differently. Let’s agree to disagree :)2. I worked in Hyderabad office. So some of the answers might be more applicable to Google Hyderabad vs Google Bangalore or say Mumbai. I have not worked in all the organisations at Google India. Most of them may be more applicable to my organisation than others.3. I am no longer employed with Google. I left to pursue higher education.What is it like to work at Google India? Let me share some of my experiences in form of short stories/snippets. I have divided the answer into 2 sections - Exceeds expectations (thing that Google India does really really well) and Needs Improvement (things that can be made better).EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONSa. PERKSOne fine Monday morning, I had a single ten rupee note in my wallet. I checked my wallet again on Friday evening and it still had that single ten rupee note in it.At Google I don't spend a dime during weekdays. I reach office in an office provided cab, eat at the free Google cafes, have snacks and dinner at the office itself and then reach home in one of the office cabs.One of my favorite perks of working at Google India was sleeping in the office cabs on my way to home after a hectic day at work. Also, the cab service is only offered in India. In US, Google provides a shuttle service but the cab service doesn’t exist in any other country (to the best of my knowledge).Talking about wallets, the security is pretty great. You can leave your wallet, watch, laptop etc. anywhere in the office and can expect to find it back in the same place the next day or with security. In my 2 years at Google, I never heard of anyone’s stuff getting stolen.Most roles allow for some overseas travel opportunities. I went on a business trip to Europe. I followed all the guidelines for daily allowances (which is pretty generous) and wasn't asked a single question about it. I had drinks when I wanted to and had all kinds of exotic food on the company's card. Some Companies are cost driven where as Google is Value driven. (The cost of asking for business justification for each & every bill is more expensive than letting the employee do some productive work in that time. See point no. 4 under culture)Google offers a generous dental and vision insurance on top of health insurance. I underwent LASIK surgery and it was covered by Google’s vision insurance completely. Generally LASIK is considered as a cosmetic surgery and is not covered in most insurances.I know a couple of Indian Googlers who will never leave Google just for the amazing health insurance that it provides to some of their family members who need permanent medical attention.During employment, if you undertake any professional course that is related to your job, then Google reimburses 2/3 of the total cost. In case of personal development, Google reimburses 1/3 of the cost. Guitar lessons, Dancing lessons, learning a new language etc. come under the purview of personal reimbursement. I have used personal reimbursement couple of times and it was a smooth process. (Upload the bills and fill a small form and done)Much has been said about Google’s food over the inter webs. I don’t have anything new to add to it, but you realise the importance of it during the weekends when you have to get your own food. (I am a bachelor who lives alone and doesn’t like to cook)Other perks that I have enjoyed during my tenure in Google India - On site Gym, playing table tennis, pool, xbox, foosball, concierge service which takes care of all your daily errands like dispatching a courier, paying bills etc. (not free but nominal), laundry service (not free), mail room where you can order all your Amazon and Flipkart goodies :D. Also, there is an in house coffee shop(free), library in the office, culture club, theatre club, football club, cricket club,basketball club (in Hyderabad at least).Google tries it best to care for you. They celebrate every employee’s work anniversary by decorating their work desk and offering them some massage points which in India translates to 60 minutes of free massage.This is how my desk looked like on my 2nd work anniversary. If it makes any difference, I was on my notice period on this day.9. Free Goodies. Team has extra budget? Great, let’s order some goodies. Organisation has some cash leftover from the annual budget? Great. Let’s order some goodies. I have received Google t-shirts (5–6) , couple of hoodies,external hard disk, wireless speakers, headphones, backpacks, selfie stick, neck pillow, keychains, pen drives, coffee mugs etc. in just 2 years. The amount of money Google spends on each employee is staggering.A lot of other companies would pat themselves in the back for saving some money from a party budget and carry it over to the next year. Not Google :)Talking about goodies, the grand daddy of them all - the annual Christmas gift awarded to each employee. I received a Nexus 5X last Christmas and an Android One phone the year before on Diwali.b. CULTUREGoogle allows you to be yourself. They don’t have a one screw fits all bolts policy. Come at what time you want & leave when you want to. There is no concept of attendance or normal office hours. One of my colleagues who got an exceptional rating last cycle had the habit of coming to office at 3 pm. (In his defense, he did work till 12 in the night.)You can wear whatever you want to. No dress code bullshit. You are not judged on how well your shirt is pressed.One of the unsaid rules of working at Google is - Be Nice and Be Respectful. People hold doors for you. You will hold doors for people. Expect to hear the word “Thanks” (or some variant) every other sentence.Elimination of bureaucratic bullshit. Google tries its best to eliminate hassles for its employees. There are proper channels for everything. Have a question about your latest payslip? Mail an email alias and get your concern addressed in 24 hours or less. Need to get some expenses reimbursed? Go to an internal portal and fill out a form and done. You don’t have to jump through the hoops to get things done. This is true for pretty much everything.There is an internal memes site ( check out Eric Schmidt’s book for more details) where you can criticise the CEO, senior VPs, management etc. without any repercussions. You can voice your disagreement and it is OK!. You can respectfully agree to disagree. Also, Googlers are the first to be up in arms against any decision taken by the company which may not be in the user’s best interests. ( Integrating G+ with Youtube was an unpopular decision internally and people weren’t shy when it came to expressing their disagreement)Google India celebrates multiple festivals every year by decorating the office and preparing special food on those days. It also has Bring your children to work multiple times a year where they install make shift slides & play houses in the office for children. Also, there are multiple initiatives organised by Googlers and for Googlers to give something back to society.c. WORKYour work will largely depend on which organisation you join and on your skill sets.Annual increments every year are quite generous. The only time people bitch about their increments is when they compare it against their neighbor. “I only got 20% while so and so got 30% last year blah blah”. Obviously, increments are dependent on your current base salary and your appraisals.You can say NO to projects. If the project doesn’t interest you, then you can decline to take it up. Obviously you need to convince your manager. Most managers will agree to not give you some project which you don’t want to undertake.Google has a pretty good internal mobility program. But the competition is very immense.( See point no.1 in Needs Improvement section)Needs ImprovementOne of my colleagues used to jokingly say that Google hires Ph.Ds to work as janitors. This is true to a large extent. Google hires CEOs to work as mid level managers. Most of the people who work at Google (and in India too) are way over-qualified for their jobs. If Google India wants to hire someone to write an email, they will go and hire a topper from DU. If they want to hire someone who can provide call support to users, they will go and hire an English hons. topper from DU (Do remember that you need some 99% in your boards to just clear DU’s cut off) . There are Ph.Ds at Google from IVY league colleges who just move data from one database to the other. You can see the pattern. This leads to immense competition.Most of the interesting roles are in Mountain View. The Engineering division in Hyderabad and Bangalore work on Google Apps for Work. It is a small team. I am not sure about the exact numbers but it is definitely less 1% of the total engineering workforce at Google. The two largest organisations at Google India are the sales org and the anti-abuse wing of Google which take down offensive content. If you come to work at Google India don’t expect to work on some cutting edge product like Driverless cars, Brain or Loon. Expect to work on something boring.Google India offers very limited scope for career growth. You obviously can’t become the CEO/SVP/VP working from India when more than 80% of your workforce is based out of Mountain View. The roles in India are very limited too since only a handful organisations are based out of India.Sooner than later, anyone, who has some iota of ambition and are not constrained by family, move to Mountain View. (The internal mobility is pretty great by the way minus the tons of competition for good roles. See point no. 1)Google runs a lot of programs to train its management and provides a lot of support to its employees to keep them stress free and remove all politics from the workplace. However, Google is a system run by people and at the end of the day people are flawed. Some politics does creep into the picture. It might be comparatively less than many other places but it does exist.Promotions in the non-tech organisations are very messy. It comes down to how much your manager is willing to push for your case. So, if you don’t have the best of relationships with your manager or your manager doesn’t like your face then find a new manager ASAP. If your manager is someone who backs down easily then say bye-bye to your promotion. I knew a guy on the floor who would stand behind his reportees like a wall (the noun, not Rahul Dravid). Multiple reportees in his team got promoted each cycle. Same cannot be said about the manager who had the reputation of backing down easily. It is not like there weren’t any hard-working or deserving candidates in the latter’s team. The scene is significantly different and less messy for tech ladders.Talking about Promotions, the lack of transparency around the committee who sits down to evaluate your candidature for promotion can be unnerving. Google allows you to be yourself & disagree with the decisions of the upper management. But at the back of your mind, you are always scared of what you say because you never know at what stage it may come to bite you in your backside. Almost any senior person on the floor can get you screwed out of your promotion. You absolutely cannot afford to piss off anyone who sits in one of those promo committees. What if the senior manager whose XYZ decision you disagreed with says he is not happy with your work in one of those closed committee meetings. If your immediate manager doesn’t fight tooth and nail for you, your promotion is gone.This point is specially true for Google India. I don’t think Google India managers are good at taking criticisms from their reportees. Almost all the questions asked during town hall meetings are anonymous. If the management doesn’t allow anonymous questions for some town hall, no questions are asked in that town hall. There is a lot of mistrust between management and non-management.This needs to be FIXED ASAP.Google India takes an awfully long time to weed out bad managers. Managers with bad approval ratings are given multiple chances to become better at their job. It can take anywhere from 3 years to Never for Google to identify a bad manager and ask them to either become an individual contributor or find another role somewhere else. Problem with this is the following : A bad individual contributor screws up a project. A bad manager screws up the career of their multiple reportees, multiple projects, the entire team and relationship with stakeholders.That being said, Google does put in some checks through the internal culture & escalation mediums that ensures that your manager will show consideration for you as a human being (unlike the notorious Indian IT industry where you are addressed as a ‘resource’ and not a human being).However, some people are simply not cut out for people management. I don’t blame Google for any of this. I simply hope they get better at filtering out such candidates early on and removing them sooner.They should also change the annual Manager feedback survey to bi-annual and make it more actionable & hold the manager responsible. Currently, the manager feedback survey is useless and is only used for the manager to self-introspect. So, if a particular manager thinks along the lines of ‘Hey. I am a good manager. All of these people reporting under me who have given me an approval of only 30% are idiots. I don’t care about this survey’ then the survey becomes entirely meaningless. There is no accountability for a manger with a bad survey rating.This might be slightly controversial but - Google doesn’t fire anyone for low performance. How is this a con? Let me explain. Amazon has a policy of firing 10% of its staff every year after stack ranking them. Google rarely fires anyone for low performance. At best after multiple bad reviews, they are asked to find a new team or job and are given enough time to do so.Both Google and Amazon in my opinion are at the two extreme ends of the spectrum. One leads to slack while the other leads to stress over fear of losing your job. I think a middle path is a more suitable approach. My 2 cents.That being said, Google does provide incentives for you to work hard. Hard work leads to good ratings which leads to better pay, more equity, better & faster career growth. However, you will occasionally find some people who are content with putting in their absolute minimum at the job and are simply happy with their take home salary and flying under the radar of the management.Google India is notorious at hiring people at the wrong level. I know so many people who were hired one level below than they should have been. If you are offered a job at Google India, then definitely try to reach out to an existing Indian Googler and evaluate which level is suitable for your profile and try to negotiate with your recruiter. Also, don’t let them push you around. Some recruiters think they have the birthright to hire you at the wrong level for a low salary because they are offering you a chance to work at Google.Again, this point is applicable only for non-tech ladders. Google uses internal tools for everything. You will learn a lot of skills during your job but most of them won’t translate to something that you can re-use in the industry. You will have to rely on your soft skills to get your next job.Open Work space: The floor can be very noisy at times (specially post 5 pm) and sometimes it can be impossible to work without your headphones on. For whatever reasons beyond my comprehension, a few folks used to take meetings from their desks and take 30 min+ personal calls sitting on their desk, happily oblivious of the amount of noise & annoyance they are causing to everyone in the bay. You either need to put on headphones or go up to them and request them to move somewhere else. Most often than not, it is you who will either put on the headphones or move somewhere else because you don’t want to appear rude.The amount of freebies & other perks can sometimes make you entitled. Some become more entitled than others. Some bad apples do treat the temporary employees (TVCs) with disrespect. Some engineering guys do look down on non-engineering guys. (Please notice the word - some. Some doesn’t mean all)Your work doesn’t speak for you. You need to spend a lot of time to market your work. This includes sending emails, reaching out to upper management during their office hours and very subtly praise yourself and your work, speaking out during meetings and again talking about your work and so on. This can be difficult for introverts and for people who are uncomfortable with boasting about their work.Related to Promotions - The amount of work put by you is completely meaningless. To get promoted, you need to deliver on projects and show impact. If the management keeps flip flopping on the scope of the project or you are collaborating with someone who doesn’t care, then either you need to Superman up and deliver the project end to end all by yourself or forget about your promotion.Also, even if you successfully execute a very complex project but for whatever reason, the metrics gods aren’t favorable to you and the impact numbers don’t look good, then it won’t do you much good. On the other hand, it is quite possible for someone to land a super easy project and gain a lot of brownie points by showing some good numbers thanks to business requirements of that particular product.The Microsoft Problem. Google India, like Google is expanding at a fast rate. This means more competition and lesser budgets for everything. The budgets for parties, gifts, events, off sites have decreased over the years. Don’t get me wrong, the perks and budgets are still very high, but every time the number of coffee machines on the floor get reduced or your favorite expensive candy in the micro kitchen go missing or the size of the packets of cookies in micro kitchen go from large to small, a lot of old timers start speculating about the upcoming apocalypse. (Apocalypse here being end of perks and culture as we know it)Throw Nooglers in the ocean and let them either learn to swim or drown completely (metaphorical). This is more of a Google culture and less of a Google India culture. As a new joinee, and after a couple of short meetings explaining the role of your team, you are expected to fly on your own. You are given a span of 3- 6 months to ramp up and learn things on your own. If you run into a problem, you are expected to reach out to someone and seek help. No body will come and ask you if you need help.I am not sure why I am including this in the needs improvement section. Google hires self-starters & ambitious people who like to get things done. However, in the beginning this can be very intimidating and you are expected to struggle a lot. Even basic things at Google from getting the right accesses and getting added to the correct groups to submitting a simple change in the codebase will require you to read some internal documentation or ask someone for help.Bottom line :You will come to work for Google India for the brand and leave to pursue better quality work elsewhere (either to Mountain View or to another company). Google India is a very good employer and treats you well but once the honeymoon period is over, it is the quality of work which will keep you satisfied (or dissatisfied) at the work place and no amount of free chocolates or other freebies will be able to compensate for it. So choose your role wisely and don’t expect flying unicorns or something. Do keep in mind that all the free stuff will cease to excite you..just like your cell phone isn’t exciting anymore and just like your last car or clothes stopped pleasing you after a couple of days/weeks.

In answer to this question, let me recall an old question and my answer and the comments.GVOld Question:What are the fees per annum at BITS Pilani if I clear the BITSAT and if I get in through the management quota?My answer:I have no answer to this. We never had a management quota then.You asked about the fees.Here is a nostalgic tid bit of information on the subject but perfectly useless to you now.I am Bitsian. I got in in 1967. I graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering in 1972.Those days the BE(Hons) course lasted 5 years.BITS was the most expensive Engineering college in the whole country.Believe it or not, the fees were Rs 450/- per semester.Yes, you read that right. There are no missing zeros.In words: Rupees Four Hundred and Fifty only.(compared to Rs 200/- and odd at IIT)My first monthly mess bill at Krishna Bhavan was Rs 120/-By the time I left Pilani in 1972, it was around Rs 180 to Rs 200.We cribbed and whined a lot. BHU students boasted of the least expensive mess. Their monthly mess bill was Rs 70 compared to our Rs 120/-Here is a message for any present day Bitsian who is also a Quoran.If the occupant of Room No 1076, first floor, new wing, Krishna Bhavan is reading this, then I would like to say Hi to him. I occupied this room in 1967 -1968. This room was on the first floor. It had a steel door, painted green with glass panels in the upper half of the door unlike an all-wooden door for the intermediate T- Wing and the front and back wings. When I opened the door I could get a direct view of the clock tower and I could hear the chimes. We shared our mess with Gandhi Bhavan. Any changes now? Are the room numbers the same?Just wondering.GVComment from Nirant KasliawalAlso, we still do not have Management quota (yay!) . BITS Pilani is expensive and the fee structure comes to around 2.2 - 2.5 LPA, including living and personal expenses.My answer:Thank you for the answer!Compared to 2.2-2.5 LPA now, my Dad spent a total of Rs 15000/- (Rs 3000 per year) on my Engineering education during those years (1967 to 1972)My trips to Mumbai (my home town during those years) used to cost me Rs 18 each way after availing of Student concession.The State Transport Bus to Delhi used to cover the distance to Delhi in 5 and a half hours and a non stop Deluxe Bus would take 4 hours. There was no railway station and we used either Loharu or Chirawa stations to access Pilani by Rail.The swimming pool and the bank next to it near the campus entrance and Malaviya Bhavan hostel building did not exist when I joined but came up during my stay.Does the Volga restaurant at Pilani's so called Connaught Place still exist?That was the only decent place we could go to eat when we wanted a change from the mess food.We also had a Nutan Market outside the campus. Non Veg Chaps who were fed up of mess food would collect a few chapaatis from the mess and go to Nutan market and buy meat and eat it with the chapaatis from the mess.All the messes were vegetarian at that time. I remember the war between the two sections of students (Veg and Non Veg) and the near riot that broke out when non veg food was first sought to be introduced in the messes. For a few months Non Veg food was introduced and dining hall was partitioned. The scheme flopped and soon everything was back to normal. I will relate the story in detail some day.Are the messes still serving only Veg Food?The Pilani Pedas were famous and I used to carry home a big packet during holidays.Memories flood me !I wish I could make a trip there now to see the changes.GVAshutosh Gupta’s comment:Volga's still exist. Nice vegetarion food. And yeah, the market's name is cannought place. Nutan is a Tea shop which is famous for student's after night out tea/ cigarette. Messes have both veg and non veg food now. Seperate dining area. VK Redi exists, and along with it, there are Krishna, Ram, Gandhi, Shankar, Bhagirath, Ashok redis as well. Akshay Supermarket is for our grocery needs..not sure if it existed then. We can't go to Gliders club now. It's closed for us to visit. Saraswati Temple is separated from Shiv Ganga now. There is a new Library and Lecture Theatre made besides FD1 buidling. C lawns no longer exist and instead there is a NAB (New Academic Block).The view from FD3's gate (under clock tower) to Temple in straight line is still intact. There is a new hostel with name CV Raman Bhawan made just beside the swimming pool and in between the UCO bank, in front of Ashok Bhawan.Nice to recollect all these memories. It's only been 10 months since I left the campus. I can not imagine how nostalgic it is for you. :-)My answer:Thank you so much! It is really nice to hear about Pilani after all these years. I left in 1972, and went back after 25 years for a Silver Jubilee meet in 1997 but the changes were very few.I still remember those years, the most formative years of my life.Do cycle rickshaws still operate inside the campus?The only time we students needed them was when we landed at Pilani bus stand or were going out of station, with steel trunks (VIP/Aristocrat Suitcases with wheels and retractable handles did not exist those days). We paid porters to load / bring down the iron trunks from the bus rooftops and load them into the rickshaws. The rickshaw waalas charged 75 paise to take you from the Nutan bus stand to the Bhagirath Bhavan/Ashok/RP/ and VK and 1 Rupee to Ram/Budh Bhavan and even more for Meera Bhavan.A cup of special chai (with adrak) was 30 paise at Nutan. The barber at Connaught charged 75 paise for a hair cut and 5 minutes of head massage.How is the male female ratio of students now?In my batch out of 300 Engineering faculty students only 12 were girls and nearly all of them were in Electrical Or Electronics.The branches preferred and in demand were:1)Electronics (Computer science was not known as a subject then)it was considered the best in the country. IIT students would forgo seats in Electrical or their branches if they could get into Electronics at BITS Pilani.2)Chemical3)Mechanical4)Electrical5)Civil.(Least fancied. Out of 60 admitted only 35 graduated in my batch. The rest abandoned their studies half way)There were no other branches.Those days when even TV did not exist the only entertainment was Movies. We had our own movie club and once every week in the main auditorium we screened Movies.The common room in the hostels had only one TT table and some carrom boards. We played tennis ball cricket in the hostel quadrangle between the new wing and the Tee wingFried aaloo and stuffed poories were the favourite mess food served once a week. Two types of Dal would be served daily (kaali daal and peelee dal, with and without mirch) along with one dry sabji, chapaatis and rice and pickles and paapad.Once a week we had stuffed Paraanthas with Dahi and aachaar.The thaalis (steel rectangular shaped with depressions for dal and sabji) and steel tumblers for water made a real racket and impatient eaters would rattle the spoons inside the steel tumblers if service was delayed and create racket!Mess bills were Rs 120 a month in 1967 going upto Rs 180 in 1972.Ah! the good old days.GV