K CONSULTATION | design and engineering consultancy firm based in India for Water Treatment Plants and Solid-Liquid Separation

Kcon PMC Pvt. Ltd. is a 25 years old design and engineering consultancy firm based in India. We specialize in water treatment systems and solid-liquid separation. We work in private, industrial, municipal and government sectors. Our founders have a cumulative experience of seventy years in this field.

We have to our credit about 600 plants around the world

How AWWA President David Lafrance and Shirish Kardile
of Kcon shared a 20 year history
while having met for the first time in November 2013.

Find out in this month's issue of the AWWA journal

One of mankind’s oldest questions is whether our lives are determined by fate or by free choice. We’ve all known that person who has unexplainable good luck, and we think—it must be fate. And we also know that person who, if they didn’t have bad luck, wouldn’t have any luck at all, and we think—hmm, must have made some bad choices.

It is a great question—fate versus choice—and although I tend to subscribe to one over the other, there are moments that leave me scratching my head, like when I met Shirish Kardile. Shirish is a consulting engineer from India and a longtime member of AWWA. Shirish and I met for the first time in November 2013, but unbeknownst to us, our lives have been connected for 20 years.

Our connection began back in 1994; Shirish was 34 years old and I was 30. AWWA was hosting its Annual Conference and Exposition (ACE) in New York City and coincidentally both Shirish and I planned to arrive in New York City the day before the conference started. This was the first ACE for both of us, and as young professionals we were very excited—and somewhat intimidated—about attending this prestigious event.

Another parallel was that it was not easy for either of us to get permission to go to ACE. Shirish was motivated, perhaps even on a mission—as he said in his letter to me—“to break the shackles of conventional wisdom of the Indian water industry.” To do that, he had to “beg and borrow” to finance his trip. For me to be able to attend ACE, I first had to summon the courage to call a well-recognized water professional whom I had never met and persuade him to let me join the committee he chaired. Once on the committee, I had to explain to my boss that I had a committee meeting to attend. So in my own way, like Shirish, I “begged” the chair and “borrowed” from my employer.

We both arrived at JFK airport—I remember it was unbearably hot, but maybe it didn’t feel that way if you were arriving from India. Shirish carried with him a letter of introduction from one of his professors, which he would use to meet Professor Emeritus Dan Okun of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Shirish went to the convention center and found the room where Dr. Okun was presenting. The room was packed with people, so Shirish waited outside for the professor. When the professor emerged, Shirish approached him, presented the letter, and also showed him a well-worn copy of a book co-authored by Dr. Okun, Surface Water Treatment for Communities in Developing Countries. Shirish had carried the book with him from India because he considered it “one of the finest books [he] had ever come across.” In that moment, as they met and exchanged pleasantries, Shirish knew he was in the midst of a “living deity of water treatment,” and the impact of that feeling is something that resonates for him today as he speaks of AWWA and his first ACE.

For my part, I had to get to the meeting I promised my boss I would attend. With a mile left in the cab ride and stuck in New York traffic, I opted to pay the driver and jog the rest of the distance. I arrived hot—really hot—and tried to cool down before entering the meeting room. I put my blazer on, straightened my tie, and opened the door. I entered and saw “the legends” I knew by name and reputation but had never met. Like Shirish I felt an overwhelming sense of being with greatness. It was intimidating for sure—but only for a moment—because within minutes I was welcomed into the AWWA community by these water leaders.

That was 20 years ago, when Shirish and I both began our relationship with and commitment to AWWA. The fact that we were both there separately in the same city at the same time—was that fate or choice? And what about the fact that AWWA has remained vital to both of us ever since . . . choice or fate?

Next month, 20 years later, ACE14 will be in Boston, and once again Shirish and I will be there. But this time—for the first time—we choose to experience it together, not separately. Shirish is coming with many—and I mean many—other water professionals from India. They are all part of a growing coalition of water professionals who are helping to bring AWWA’s membership and educational experience to India. This is a project that’s been years in the making and is now becoming reality.

Think of this. Now, 20 years later, is it fate or choice that has brought us into partnership to bring AWWA to India? Perhaps we will never know, but perhaps more important for you, if you have chosen to attend ACE14 in Boston, you may not know what is in store for you . . . and you might not know your fate for another 20 years.

If you have any comments or concerns, please write me at OpenChannel@awwa.org.

5/87 Shubhankaroti, Vidya Vihar colony, Nasik Road, Nashik 422101, Maharashtra, INDIA
Tel : +91-253-6450126, 2456655 Email : kcon@vsnl.com, info@kconpmc.com
website : www.KconPMC.com