It was my first job after graduation in electrical engineering. I was assigned to maintenance department, in a large public sector enterprise. The Head of the department called for a meeting of all the new trainees and gave a briefing on the departmental activities and our responsibilities. In a grave tone he said that maintenance is a thankless job and summarized the nature of this profession with this story. “A devil of a man after his death met Saint Peter on the day of his reckoning. St Peter on going through his personal record decided to send him to hell. But on checking his resume he found that he was working in maintenance for thirty years. Then he thought that this man has already been in hell for so long and reversed his decision and opened the doors to heaven”. This story gave us jitters and we had no illusion as to what was in store for us.
My area of responsibilities included some machine tools and a lift which had been out of operation for many days. My boss with a smile said “You will be in charge of lifting many lives”. This lift in the administrative block, was outdated even by the standards of seventies, had no operational manual and many drawings were found missing. I with our maintenance crew in right earnest went through the available electrical diagrams step by step overhauled all the electrical parts, checked the mechanical components and managed to put the lift in operating condition. We were delighted when the lift finally took off and landed in the fourth floor, the ultimate and felt as though our space ship has landed in moon. This brought lot of cheers and relief to all the administrative staff. Unfortunately, this was not the end of the story.
The employees who were climbing the stairs now got used to the luxury of reaching their destination by lift. But the lift with the out dated design, and exposed electrical parts underwent frequent breakdowns. Our crew had tough time in attending to breakdowns. I had nightmares of our senior managers getting trapped in the lift and as a consequence getting fired. Our proposal to refurbish the lift was rejected as this was considered as a non productive expenditure. The management simply maintained that if people are not fit enough to climb three floors then they are not fit to work. When the opportunity presented me with a change to design department, I grabbed it with both hands, choosing peaceful living on earth over the heavenly abode post death.
This little experience in maintenance made me sympathetic towards maintenance personnel both in my official and personal life. However I developed altophobia after all the problems with the lift. Whenever I am forced to take a lift in high rise buildings, I am always reminded of the famous words of an astronaut after landing on the moon. Asked about his feeling on his achievement, he quipped “I am delighted to land on the moon but my worry now is that I have to get back to earth on the space craft made from the components purchased from the lowest bidder”. May be the lift I take, has been assembled with the cheapest parts!
