Professor of Repair and Renovation

Actually the architect and the contractor were hand in gloves in the matter of repair and renovation of our building. They were seriously behind schedule, and wanted to find a scapegoat. They thought I would do well as one. Maybe they got the idea from one of the coordinators who had tried to do the same to me during the reign of one of the past Deans. “We cannot work because the entire ground floor is full of stuff that the user department has not shifted out" the contractor said. I was the head of the user department. The statement was wrong because the contractor had supplied people to shift stuff out of our vacated department to a godown he had build, under instructions from the architect. “We handed over the premises to you," I said, "and you were to shift stuff out to your godown." "The godown is full. It was decided in the Dean's meeting that the user department would find place to put the stuff” he said and flashed a paper in front of me.” ''That is not my job," I said. “Don’t say it is not your job” shouted Professor of Repair and Renovation (who is actually a professor of one of the paraclinical departments, but has devoted his life in the institute to the building repair and renovation” “Please don’t shout” I told him firmly, partly because he was shouting right into my right ear, and partly because I don’t like people shouting at me, definitely not when I am right and they have no authority to shout at me anyway. He stopped shouting. "I don't have any authority to use any space in the campus unless it is given to me. Show me the paper.” The contractor handed the paper over. It had nothing to this effect. “There is no mention in this document that I had to find space to store the stuff while you repair the building” I pointed out. “No, it was said but was not written down” said the contractor. Either he was dumb and did not understand procedures, or he thought I was dumb. Who is supposed to decide where to store stuff? Call that person" I said. The Professor of Repair and Renovation (we shall call him Professor of RR in short form) knew who it was, and that person was then duly called. I wondered if he knew who that person was and why he wanted me to say it was my responsibility. Either he was dumb, or he thought I was dumb, or that he could just bulldoze me by shouting at me. The concerned administrator came and when he learnt that the work was stalled for a month and a half, he asked why he was not informed a month and half ago? “Let it go, man” said Professor of RR. "Now let us find a place to keep the stuff.” While they set about finding a place to store our stuff, I wondered if Professor of RR was also hand in gloves with the architect and contractor, since he seemed quite keen to cover them up, while as a person devoted to this work he should have known the problem and sorted it out as soon as it came up, or at least informed our department’s professor of repair and renovation to have it sorted out. Before thy decided to go out and look for space for storage of the stuff, I broached the subject of their running the water and drainage lines right through the middle of our operation theater roof. The architect said it could not be changed. Our department’s professor in change of coordination of this work said, "If it cannot be done, let us keep it that way and move on." "No," I said, "you will retire in two years and me in five and a half years. That we will not be here to suffer from a water leakage into the theater is not justification for allowing it to happen. As head of department, it is my duty to see that things are done the right way, so that there is no trouble in future." That quieted him. Just then the Director arrived. When he was through admonishing the architect and the contractor for tardy work, I explained my problem to him. He firmly told the architect that the pipes had to be relocated to the outside wall. “But what we are doing will ensure there is no trouble for 7-8 years", the architect said. “NO, we want work done that will ensure no problems for 20 years," the Director said. “You cannot say there will be no leakage until the monsoon or something like that." That was exactly what I had been saying all along, and the architect was ignoring me. But he could not ignore the Director, and meekly agreed to do the needful. Later in the course of the on-site round, our Professor of RR kept finding fault with my logic and reason-based approach and kept telling me I should change the way I worked. He kept telling me we had to do work that others would not do, so that the project would progress. I could not see the logic behind it. It would be more appropriate to make people do their own jobs. If I had to do those, I would have to leave my own job to others like this professor did. Finally I got bugged and told him, "See, I do my job using my left brain." "No," he immediately contradicted me probably out of habit, "you should use the right brain.” I was nonplussed. “No, never," I said, "the right brain is only for forwarding e-mails to other people." This was I think a good one - the architect whose inadequacy I had just exposed grinned all over his face. As an afterthought, I feel perhaps he disliked this Professor of RR even more than he disliked me because he bugged him every day while I bugged him once in 3 or more months.