I think either the Indian mind is innovative, and it becomes more so in our campus. This one is about the contractor doing the building’s repair and renovation. He put up a generator for emergencies, should the electricity supplied by the city’s supplier fail any time. The first time it failed, it was the middle of the night. The generator did not kick in, and the OTs were in blackout mode for a half hour. The next time it happened right in the morning, when the routine OTs were in full swing. The first time the Boss did not know about it because it was the middle of the night. The second time he had first hand experience, when the endoscopy monitor blinked off and the operative field became void.
‘It must be the rainwater leaking through the corrugated roof of the shed on the generator’ the contractor must have thought. He put up thick plastic sheets over the roof to stop the rainwater. This being the routine for all illegal huts in the city and roadside hawkers during monsoon, we had known about it.
“See that water collected at the edge where the plastic has sagged?” someone pointed out through an upper storey window. “It should not collect there.”
The roadside vendors push off the collected water by elevating the middle of the plastic sheet during rains. The contractor did not want to do any maintenance. He just want to finish work, get paid, and move on. The water remained.
“Get the water off” I told his supervisor.
“Let it be” he said. “The birds can drink it.”
“They can even bathe in it” I said. But there are a lot of puddles around. We don’t want one more.”
“This is a rooftop puddle” joked a colleague.
“It is not possible to get the water off every now and then” he said. “The shed is pretty high.”
“It does not matter” I said. “It is hazardous. It is breeding mosquitoes. It is spreading malaria in the hospital from patient to patient. The civic administration will not like it.”
That did the trick. The next day the plastic was wrapped around the edges so that it could not sag and collect rainwater.
Two questions remain unanswered. Why did a brand new roof leak? Was the generator trouble sorted out by the plastic cover over the roof?
‘It must be the rainwater leaking through the corrugated roof of the shed on the generator’ the contractor must have thought. He put up thick plastic sheets over the roof to stop the rainwater. This being the routine for all illegal huts in the city and roadside hawkers during monsoon, we had known about it.
“See that water collected at the edge where the plastic has sagged?” someone pointed out through an upper storey window. “It should not collect there.”
The roadside vendors push off the collected water by elevating the middle of the plastic sheet during rains. The contractor did not want to do any maintenance. He just want to finish work, get paid, and move on. The water remained.
“Get the water off” I told his supervisor.
“Let it be” he said. “The birds can drink it.”
“They can even bathe in it” I said. But there are a lot of puddles around. We don’t want one more.”
“This is a rooftop puddle” joked a colleague.
“It is not possible to get the water off every now and then” he said. “The shed is pretty high.”
“It does not matter” I said. “It is hazardous. It is breeding mosquitoes. It is spreading malaria in the hospital from patient to patient. The civic administration will not like it.”
That did the trick. The next day the plastic was wrapped around the edges so that it could not sag and collect rainwater.
Two questions remain unanswered. Why did a brand new roof leak? Was the generator trouble sorted out by the plastic cover over the roof?
