The first sight of the factory from outside the gate was
stunning and beautiful. Three buildings that were three different companies of
the same organization stood close to each other and each looked like a master
piece in civil engineering. Lush green lawns filled with flowers in full bloom,
adorned the areas surrounding each of these buildings. Many times a new recruit
gets so overwhelmed with the sheer grandeur of these types in a large
organization and would never know the imminent political undercurrents that
would soon engulf him. It was the same with me too. It was my first job and my
father had come with me on the first day and waited outside till I disappeared
through the entrance to the factory reception area. He was proud as would have
been the case with any parent, as he could always hold his head high in his
social circle and tell his friends and relatives that his son was with one of
the biggest engineering giants in India.
It took about a week for the orientation to slip by and then
I met my first superior. I looked at him like I looked at my teacher, with so
much reverence and awe. I was already given the role of a shift supervisor
along with a senior supervisor. Before my boss stepped into the bay every day,
he would bend and touch the ground first and then his forehead as a mark of
worship. I liked it and I also started putting the cross before I stepped into
the bay. Sometimes it’s funny that we tend to learn many things from our first
superior. I liked the way he walked around the bay with his hands behind his
back like an army officer.
When he found some time he would tell me that he would spend
some time with me to teach me CNC programming and he led me to a few manuals
related to the same. I think due the busy schedules that he go into later, we
never really got a chance to sit down. The manuals were soporific to be frank
and I really battled with it in my night shifts, trying to get something out of
it and all attempts turned out futile. Each time I saw my boss go past me I always
had this feeling he would ask me about what I have done in CNC programming and
I really could not do much. But a few days later, I found a friendly worker
Freddy Cunningham who took me up the CNC horizontal boring machine and gave me
a good introduction to CNC programming with all the practical nuances. And with
that I really took off well.
But although we saw each other many times, my boss never
asked me what I was into or what I had learnt. We smiled when I wished him each
morning and his smile would reveal his grayish yellow teeth dressed with the betel
that he was constantly chewing. He was bald and very beautifully kept the few hairs that remained on the central part of his head well set. On some days especially when
the workers showed extreme dissent, and things were beyond his control, I could
see him sitting alone in his cabin with his hair ruffled and his composure all
gone. I would be sitting just outside his cube in the department room and the muffled
hum of the machines and cranes would still be heard through the closed door. The smell of coolant from used waste cloth and
that of tools and inserts that lay around would be all over the room. There
were two glass panes for his cube through which people from outside could see
him. All the supervisors would be out in
the bay and I could see my boss sometimes sit just gazing and allowing his
thoughts to drift through his mind. Having been there by then for a few weeks,
I had also got to hear the political scene out there and what my boss was going
through. This face of my boss, that face of helplessness in the middle of
extreme tension and pressure, had and still does have a great impact on me. This
is what makes me unconsciously run away from political scenes anywhere.
Our CEO would walk through the factory bays on a few days in
a week. No one knew when he would do that. But the moment he stepped into the
bay, there would be people who would quickly send signals to all the
supervisors and managers and the whole place would assume theatrical
dimensions. My boss would rush to the
latest horizontal boring machine that had been procured just months back and
which was the cynosure of the top leadership. He would then join the workman on
the carriage and go up in it at about twenty feet and be there in the pretext
of having extreme focus of the machining that was in progress.
Once the CEO
left, my boss would leave the place as though the Scene 1 of Act 1 was over
with no emotions attached to what went by. I did not like this facet of my boss. A lot of
supervisors in that bay copied this behaviour and joined the boss with their
own theatrical performances. I saw one of them go under an iron casting that
was lifted by a crane, to wipe the base and make it clean from coolant and
metal chips. This was something that he could have done just standing besides
the lifted casting, but he went underneath taking that risk of his life, in the
desperation to portray extreme involvement when the CEO was around. During
these times I would withdraw quietly and sit inside the department as I found
it extremely difficult and embarrassing to put up a performance like this.
Twenty three years have gone by and I still am a misfit when
it comes to performances of this type. And on the contrary being too direct and open
has also had its ramifications. May be there is a balance that I have to strike
and I want to strike that soon. But I don’t know why, I still feel so much for
my first boss and for all what he was going through. Many times there are thoughts
like these that you can never take out of your mind.
