Page 32 - Seniorstoday May 2022 Issue
P. 32
was in full swing, the boss started calling Every story has an end but here the end
me on the field phone. I gave a message was through a painful course. Soon after the
that I was busy and would talk to him later, conversation of the assistant with the control,
though I could have found time to talk to him. the pantograph of the very first train after
I had no intention of facing the fury of hell restoration got entangled. The action replay
before completing the work. The work was continued for seven times. The assistant was
completed, power was restored and the first by now shaken up but his pride got converted
train was allowed to pass. Before it negotiated into false courage and he continued to say that
the spot fully, my assistant officer spoke to the fault was of the loco department.
the control. He conveyed that everything was While the last entanglement was taking
ok, there was no defect in the OHE, and that place, a class four staff member approached
the problem was with the locomotive. By then me quietly and told me that one drop- down
it was past midnight, I was not sure whether fitting, popularly known as namaskar fitting,
the boss would still be awake. The controller just before the troubled spot, was defective.
would have briefed him if he was in touch The fitting had got the name due to its
with the control. I therefore postponed my shape. Class four staff is the lowest level of
talk till morning. employee in the railways. He had told this
The assistant officer was a supervisor to the assistant officer but the ego did not
in OHE before becoming an officer. I was permit the assistant to agree with the class
new to this department, having worked in four staff. Instead of taking the suggestion in
locomotive maintenance earlier. He therefore a positive way, the staff was ridiculed. The
had a free hand, Carte blanche. He was able fitting was almost in its place and as per the
to overpower the loco supervisors by using staff, the fitting was getting displaced during
my name. After conveying the message to the the movement of the train. The displacement
control, the assistant officer’s body language was very small and was not easily noticeable.
changed, his gait became that of Salman Khan It was like an error of half millimetre in a
in bodyguard. He was a good officer but for kilometre. It was the rarest of the rare disease
him Thomas Anthony meant “I am OK, you and only a great physician could diagnose
are not OK ‘’ forever. He took it that whatever it. For the assistant officer, superiority of
he hit was a target. People believed him since anyone in this field was not digestible, least
he was in OHE since his joining till date. The by the class four staff. Though I was not fully
conclusion of my assistant suited me, a by- convinced with the staff, with no alternative
product of his happiness. in sight, I asked him to go ahead. He quickly
climbed the ladder, reached the fitting and
tightened it. He completed his job while the
assistant was away at some other location.
The staff did it quietly and quickly, so as to
still remain in the good books of the assistant
officer. What was a Coup d’état for the staff,
was a Coup de grace for me! A train was
allowed to pass and to my good luck, it passed
safely. There after I watched a few more trains
for their passage, it was a perfect job. An ass is
32
