Engineer

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Becoming an engineer was my dream. When I received a public transport license to drive I knew I would never be an engineer in my life. But working with engineers in the organisation I have learned something about their work.

Few days back I was deputed to one of the construction sites, not as an engineer but driving her to site to office. She is a terror at site. Anything goes out off technical specifications and complex drawing, she will order me to demolish with a hammer. Following her instructions I have destroyed few cubic meters of plain cement concrete already laid.

A kind lady, perfect mother at her home, stringent professional in her field, not so fluent in Bengali but every worker at site fears her presence. She believes that if smaller things are taken care of from the beginning the bigger will take care of by itself. To prove her words I demolished first day's works on her instruction. True to her belief the remaining works had come to her satisfaction. Yet I did not hear her speaking a word of acknowledgement to them.

When I showed an exuberance to learn she took out an order to drive her till the completion of works. I would not become an engineer but she would definitely groom me to be one, an engineer without certificates. As much as I love to read and drive I would equally love to learn the technical job.

Before laying of Plain Cement Concrete she taught me the ratio of 1:3:6. I have learned that for 1 cement bag 3 bags of sand and 6 aggregates were to be mixed. The measurement was on volume and for the workability reasons she handed me the calculator to design the box. I failed at first but when she told me the volume of a cement bag the remaining came after few scratches of my head.

At site I was made to stand near the batching place. I was instructed to count the boxes of ratio and that I should not let them over use any sand or stones. I learned that correct ratio meant quality. She was talking on water and time for mixing but those were too complex for me. I stood blank and smiled at her. She laughed at herself and simplified to count the boxes.

Like a pole I stood near the mixer machine eyeing each material they mixed.

Upon reaching home I was simply tired but I felt I had achieved my ambition of becoming an engineer.

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