The Crayons Tathagata Mukhopadhyay I had joined the Oil & Natural Gas Commission, in Bombay (now Mumbai), way back in 1980 after freshly graduating from the Indian School of Mines; my first job. The major problem those days for people like me in Mumbai was accommodation. In my budget, they were scarce. And there was a long waiting list for the allocation of the Company-sponsored flats. So I, and many guys who had joined with me, did not think twice to opt for field jobs - in the Bombay High Oil Field, which then was in the nascent phase of its developmental activities. A field job, at the start of the career, has its charms. For one, despite the hard work and rigorous hours, it gave me excellent opportunities to learn. Experiment, damage, damage-control, yet learn! Working offshore, of course, had its perks. We were on 14-day on and off hitches. This meant that after a fortnightly stay at offshore installations...