Recently we came to read the deaths of 2 nuns in the newspapers.Two nuns who were walking by the convent backyard got hit with heavy concrete hollow blocks from the goods lift of the building whose construction was going on at the back and died on the spot.
This made me recall the following incident which was indeed the most shocking one in my life.This happened when I was working as a site engineer in one of the leading construction companies of Kerala.I was in-charge of a 7 storey building which was nearing the end of its construction and was to be handed over in a few months.Only a few service works and interior works were left.
The day was a public holiday.I dont remember exactly what holiday it was but I remember it happened in Jan of this year.The main workers and the contractor weren't present that day.Infact the contractor had asked me personally to keep an eye on the site the previous day while he was not present.
There wasnt a single day in which the goods lift wasnt used.It used to be operated either by the contractor or by one of the masons.As they were not present that day there needed to be someone to operate the lift as the fire escape works were going on then.The huge red pipes couldnt be carried manually to the terrace.That day two of the workers who wanted to carry pipes to the terrace floor approached me since they couldnt find anyone to operate the lift.So I went around asking workers if they knew to how to operate the machine.None of them knew it except the storekeeper who told me he had done that before.I agreed hearing his past experience and accompanied him to the operating platform.
This made me recall the following incident which was indeed the most shocking one in my life.This happened when I was working as a site engineer in one of the leading construction companies of Kerala.I was in-charge of a 7 storey building which was nearing the end of its construction and was to be handed over in a few months.Only a few service works and interior works were left.
The day was a public holiday.I dont remember exactly what holiday it was but I remember it happened in Jan of this year.The main workers and the contractor weren't present that day.Infact the contractor had asked me personally to keep an eye on the site the previous day while he was not present.
There wasnt a single day in which the goods lift wasnt used.It used to be operated either by the contractor or by one of the masons.As they were not present that day there needed to be someone to operate the lift as the fire escape works were going on then.The huge red pipes couldnt be carried manually to the terrace.That day two of the workers who wanted to carry pipes to the terrace floor approached me since they couldnt find anyone to operate the lift.So I went around asking workers if they knew to how to operate the machine.None of them knew it except the storekeeper who told me he had done that before.I agreed hearing his past experience and accompanied him to the operating platform.
The 2 workers got into the lift with the big pipes and waved at me to tell the man to start the lift.So I said 'up to the terrace'.He tried to start the machine but couldnt.So one of the workers came and did it for him.He then pulled the lever down and up raced the lift in such a speed that for a moment I thought the rope would break and both the workers would come down dead.It even went above the terrace to the topmost point of the scaffold and it looked like the scaffold would collapse any moment.I looked at the storekeeper and saw that he didn't really know to operate the machine and the workers in the lift were trembling. He kept pulling the lever up and down, didnt know when to stop or start it.It looked like the workers were floating up and down in the sky.I screamed at him to get them down at once. It was a question of 2 lives.The irony was that the operator wasnt serious about this.He kept laughing(which made me laugh too for a moment seeing the helpless workers screaming in the air).
Now there was another construction site opposite to ours.All the workers there came up to see what was going on here.Few of them kept shouting at me to stop the lift.Now my heart was pounding badly I thought it would burst out.And finally the operator pulled the lever up inorder to get the workers down.The lift raced down as if it were competing for the olympics.I screamed at him "will you slow down the lift??u'll kill those people."The lift slowed down a bit reaching the 2nd floor and finally to the ground with a thud.The workers in the lift stood on the platform vibrated...Then the whole crowd of workers came to bury me with spankings.To tell me never to repeat that again.I had been very irresponsible indeed. I've never regretted any of my decisions before.I had always thought I was right.I had learnt my lesson.
The only moment I thanked God from the heart!!!.He had saved me from being responsible for two lives...
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