Definiteness of Purpose

Definiteness of purpose is the most important quality that one must possess to succeed in life. All who accomplished great things had fixed their eyes on a goal, which sometimes seemed impossible and had a definite plan to accomplish it. It is the determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of our goals that enable us to attain the success we seek. Every experience in my life, I recollect, has been a stepping-stone which has broadened my mind, sharpened my intellect and has given me a better understanding of myself and most importantly my goals. Having realized a small part of this self-potential, I now stand at a very important milestone of my life from where I look forward to pursuing Masters in Shipping, Trade and Finance from your esteemed institute, the Costas Grammenos International Center for Shipping at Cass Business School, London.

I have always had an inherent quest for knowing, reasoning, finding facts, experimenting and exploring. To satiate my hunger for scientific aptitude I chose science as stream at intermediate level and henceforth secured admission in the Mechanical Engineering department of Government Engineering College, Thrissur, India (GECT) for my undergraduate studies.

The four-year rigorous engineering course has been an integral part of my overall personality development. I made a sincere effort to achieve a solid foundation in Mechanical Engineering balancing both intellectual and practical experiences. During final year, I was selected to work on a patented project of Premier Polytronics Limited, Coimbatore, India; an organization with a strong focus on research and development in the field of quality testing and on-line monitoring services for the textile industry worldwide. The objective of the project titled "Re-Engineering of Aero-Mechanical Individualizer" was to find a feasible and cost effective re-engineering solution to an existing design. This experience gave me an insight as to how the theoretical knowledge that I had gained in my college was practically applied in an industrial setting. At GECT, I tried to strike a fine balance between my academics and extra curricular activities. I have been an active sportsperson and pursued cricket, badminton and swimming extensively. Over the four years in college, I was actively involved in the extra-curricular activities like quizzing, dramatics and organizing various technical events. I was nominated as the program manager for Diffusion '02, a national level technical symposium organized by Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE) students' chapter of Government Engineering College, Thrissur.

During final year I got an opportunity to visit Cochin Shipyard Limited, the largest shipyard in India. This was my formal introduction to the world of shipping. On subsequent research, I found out about the role and importance of international shipping to the health of global economy. I realized that without shipping, intercontinental trade, the bulk transport of raw materials and the import/export of food and manufactured goods would simply not be possible and one half of the world would starve while the other half would freeze. The idea of becoming an important part of this industry excited me. Besides, as a career marine engineering offered excellent remuneration, competitive work environment, international exposure and the opportunity to travel around the globe. So I decided to take up marine engineering as a career.

Upon graduation, I was recruited by Eurasia Ship Management (presently known as Bernard Schulte Ship Management) Hong Kong, and sent to International Maritime Institute (IMI) for Post Graduate Pre-Sea Marine Engineering Training. There I learned about various aspects of marine engineering, naval architecture and maritime legislation especially in the areas of marine pollution, safety and security. On completion of the one-year training program, I joined Eurasia Ship Management as Junior Engineer and subsequently on obtaining MEO Class 1V Certificate of Competency was promoted to the rank of Fourth Engineer Officer. Then I got an opportunity to work with Anglo Eastern Ship Management, Hong Kong, one of the largest ship management companies in the world and a winner of Best Foreign Employer of Indian Seafarers award instituted by Ministry of Shipping, Government of India for seven consecutive years.

As a Fourth Engineer Officer at Anglo Eastern, I was independent in-charge of operation, maintenance and trouble shooting of various shipboard systems such as main propulsion plant, electrical power generation plant, steam generation plant and oil purification system. In addition to this, I was responsible for planning, scheduling and risk assessment of critical shipboard operations such as fuel oil and lube oil bunkering and successfully handled bunkering operations worth more than US$ 1 million. I was closely involved in budgeting, planning and procurement of machinery spares and stores worth US$ 15 million.

I also acted as a facilitator for classifications society surveys and various other audits conducted by Det Norske Veritas (DNV), United States Coastguard and Canadian Coastguard. I realized that efficient use of ship board ERP system ORPMS could streamline planning and scheduling of maintenance activities, inventory management of spares and stores and thereby save many man hours and millions of dollars for the company. So I took proactive interest and conducted a training program onboard for the use of ORPMS and ensured that the system was efficiently utilized. Due to my profound interest in marine ERP systems and active involvement in the implementation of ORPMS onboard, I was recommended for a short term assignment as Business Engineer at Ulysses Systems, Mumbai, India.

Ulysses Systems is a leading provider of business intelligence solutions to shipping industry. Their flagship product 'Task Assistant' is Enterprise-Wide Resource Planning (ERP) software that integrates various business functions associated with a shipping company such as purchasing, planned maintenance, crewing and document management in to a single platform.