Today was a normal day at work.
Routine job with the spice of trouble.
The day started with the
additional responsibility of designated safety officer. As my colleague was on
leave for some post-marital ceremony at his native place, I was entrusted with his
day to day responsibilities also. So, I was out in the field, filling in daily
safety check-list (51 point check-list). Honestly speaking, that list will take
a good 90 minutes if filled after practically going at every work station and
observing. But, we in our organization are taught to multitask and hence we
normally don’t have more than 20 mins for this job. So, today also I mixed past
and present data to get today’s list filled.
After that I was called for my
daily work of topping up TTs. This work may sound very simple but it isn’t. You
have to be friendly with staff, while secretly suspecting them for overfilling
TTs. Their hatred evident in every word they speak with you and you bypassing
those words with the wisdom one achieves after working some time in oil
industry.
But today was different. One of
the staff people started complaining about one broken frame and pointed out
that he is bringing this up since long but no one is listening to him. I
replied that this was in my mind since last one year, but some other staff
person earlier stopped me from doing it as that person pointed out that it may
hinder loading arm movement (the pipe they put inside trucks to fill them with petrol,
diesel, etc.). It also happens that my boss has given this person a nickname
‘Chairman’ as he shows himself as the most important person in the terminal who
is most concerned about the well being of the place. So, Mr. Chairman, demanded
the name of his colleague who stopped me from repairing the frame. This I
denied quoting that this will only lead in animosity. This tipped Mr. Chairman
and he started accusing me of lying. I also retorted saying I need not lying to
him, as he was in no way important to me. I left the place to get the chore of
topping up done, meanwhile lining up with Panikkar the frame repairing job. I
also made Panikkar tell Bhavik (colleague of Mr. Chairman) about how long ago
we wished to carry out the same job but other staff person stopped us from
doing the same. Anyways, I instructed Panikkar to carry out the job as per Mr.
Chairman’s instructions.
Well, then I came back to my
cabin, had a tea and tried calling to my girlfriend (who left 6 messages and
one missed call last night after returning late from job). But it is always
difficult with people frequenting your cabin again and again. So, I put the
phone down and begun checking my mails when my colleague Dheeraj visited me. We
had a chat on how we need to tackle higher management, on ways of escalation
and such stuff. Meanwhile we downed another cup of tea. Talking to Dheeraj is
always some relief as he is one of the few guys in organization with whom you
can have an intelligent discussion. Discussion was brought to halt by the voice
of Mr. Chairman crackling on walkie-talkie trying to find me. After replying,
he asked me to come again to TLF as some more TTs have to be topped-up. I told
Dheeraj about the morning incident and how Mr. Chairman wants to irritate me by
calling me again and again for the topping up job. I jokingly told him that it
hardly annoys me anymore as it is good to be out in field (in warm sun) in such
cold weather.
When I returned the trouble
started. I overheard shouts of ‘Maro, maro’ nearby. On listening closely, I was
able to locate the trouble site which was the OMC room just besides mine.
Immediately I alarmed boss about the situation and went myself to assess the
situation. There I found Dheeraj was also trying to handle the situation. We
tried to calm the mob down, but the situation was simmering. That’s when my
boss arrived and asked the mob to leave the terminal premises. Mob (consisting
of TT drivers) alleged that the retail outlet owner present there beats them
when they go to his shop and hence they wanted to get the matter resolved. Boss
asked them to go to police station and lodge complaint, but they need to leave
terminal premised immediately. This resulted in dispersing of mob and situation
came under control.
Then, I went to the logistics
office nearby to assist them in their audit (mainly to participate in the lunch
following the audit). It was the normal audit scene, with all the auditors
asking questions at the same time, none waiting to let the responder finish.
Auditors trying to expose the unawareness of field personnel while establishing
their own intelligence at the same time. Logistics manager brought all of this
to an end by announcing arrival of tea. Over tea lunch arrangements were
discussed and straight after tea all of us moved to the guest house where lunch
was arranged. The cook informed us that he needed some more time to get the
food ready. So all officers decided to stand in sun and started discussing
their experiences (only thing one earns in our organization). Senior ones
having more to tell than their young colleagues. I also chipped in with one or
two of incidents that occurred with me (I am also 3 years old in this
organization, so kind of senior compared to freshers). Freshers listened in awe
to all these stories while stealing a glance in between towards the kitchen.
After about half an hour lunch started which consisited of both veg and non-veg
items.
Rest of the day went smoothly. In
the end came the fun time, the volleyball time. I changed into sports wear and
headed towards the court. I decided to play near net today and surprisingly was
very agile in that position, contributing a lot of points to my team’s victory.
I also had to manage the positioning to my team members to get maximum output
form them and they too responded to my strategies. After enjoying the game for
a good hour or so, we all headed back to our homes.
