Day 6: Employer Strikes Back

This has to be one of the most bizarre days I've seen in a long long time. And trust me, I have seen a lot. I received the it-would-rain-anytime weather early in the morning with disbelieving eyes. It had been like this since day 4 of my intern, and for the heat-habitual Delhiite, this was quite an incredulous fact to accept. A smooth tempo ride took me to the plant, and I was inside my beloved office in no time at all. It was freezing in there, I have to say. The temperature was falling below 25 degrees, and my chair had been placed directly in front of the air conditioner- which would be a most delightful proposition for me on any other day. I almost froze to death before rushing out into the open, forgetting to take even the helmet in my hurry.

I bumped into too many random characters today. Some of them were pleasurable meetings, and the conversations that followed were most enjoyable, but most of the others turned into largely nonchalant talks, while a few became simply too hostile. Miffed by all this, I went about my tasks just the same. I was to be introduced to the grandest machine yet in the plant today, the CONCAST machine. The ladle carrying the liquid metal would travel all the way from the furnaces to this humongous machine that was situated at one extreme corner of the plant. The metal would flow through the top, along the many twisting and winding paths and through to the bottom succession of wheels where the now cooled steel billets would pass and be collected at the end. The system captured my imagination just as all the others.

The terrace tops was where I had an objectionable and most needless encounter with one of the workers, for no real reason at all. I would be writing in some detail about the same very soon, hopefully. Everywhere I went today, a host of labourers, officers and middle-men seemed to follow me. The plant looked extremely crowded with humans today, too many of whom felt like sharing their ways about matters relevant and irrelevant with me. I hope to mold all these incidents into something readable. In the end, I was very glad to pick up my bag, wave some hurried goodbyes and rush off home.