Two years and counting, I am still “stuck” at the same place. Friends and people around me have been visiting places. At least they pretend doing so. Well-wishers have stopped asking me whether I plan to switch or take MBA exam. I am an incorrigible case to them. I have succeeded in pacifying them and making them believe that I have finally made peace with the bureaucratic system of my present organization. Well this is what many of them feel. I am really thankful if they feel contrary to what I proclaim. I am here to give all my well-wishers a feel good factor, a write-up which would possibly make them feel that I am not getting wasted, a notion which even I had once in mind.
Lets start with the fact that I had never visited a steel plant in my life. I could only imagine any such entity, that too partially during occasional distraction from the mischief and sleep during the class. So when I came here it just captured my imagination. I realized that its far bigger than the reach of the hands of our professor, a man with a penchant of saying “huge blast furnace” with 2 hands held parallel over the head, who taught a course on iron and steel-making to us. The sight of red-hot iron flowing out, crude steel getting formed into slabs, red hot slab coming out for rolling, mesmerized me for an instant. The things in the theory made some real sense. But this is very hygienic version of a steel plant. A crude version is far more exciting. Read on.
How can production go on unabated for 24x7x365? It seems just amazing that while we are sleeping, eating, talking all the time there is iron flowing out of furnace and sheets coming out of mills. And to make it possible a colossal human effort required. Its not easy to control these beast of machines to run according to you. It requires some thinking on the part of engineers who are constantly slogging to run the plant. To whom the dirt and sweat on the shirt at the end of the day just mean the Medal of Honor. And believe me when I say it, because this has been going on for past 100 years, unabated and unhindered.
It is imperative in my job that I develop a same rapport with a down-the-line worker as with a high level officer. The real HR professional are made on the shop floor. This place gives me an opportunity, for an ephemeral second, to be a hero of Ayn Rand. Because when you are responsible behind that flow of iron, or making of the sheet or in short, the formation of the world, you can at least once in a while feel that you are the Atlas, bearing the burden to support the world on his shoulders. The rush of adrenaline is unparalleled. And hence I am “stuck” at this place. Someday I will move on but that day is not coming in near future. I am yet to absorb the whole thrill.
This write-up, in spirit, is dedicated to all those workers of steel industry who are stuck there on their own will, to few of my colleagues working with me and to all those good people who have mentored me constantly.
