Once upon a time I was working as an Engineer …only for four months… not more…
It was just after the Tsunami catastrophe. The site was a big housing project at Southern province. It was a sudden bloom of construction field. So, there was a lack of skilled workers everywhere…four engineers at the site. Three of us were not experienced…just passed out... only one Engineer with experience… Though there was a Project manager, the position was vacant most of the times. A project manager comes… he gets a better offer within few weeks…he leaves…like that.
Other staff also same… consultant even try to steal staff from contractor to another site where he works… the owner of the construction company also same…(This worked very well for around 2000/+) it was such a struggle … not much experienced people… some technical officers were at their training period… still it was like that. It was about the site staff.
Work force…
It was also same… sub-contractors were not professional...most of them had no experience about work sites…some had, still in small scale. One I can never forget, from the far end of Southern province, he is very hot tempered, still a very good man… one I have ever seen. He is a traditional mason and a carpenter both, with his deep knowledge of our heritage of construction…, when I had a little bit of relax; I used to grasp little bit of his knowledge. Anyway he was the worst person to get adapted for a site.
All were more or less like this…they just want to work five or six days per week, in their rhythm, get money, go home and again start work in the next week… how awful for a site.. We were hardly struggling to go for construction target …
Masons and carpenters from my village were working there, among the other sub contractors. The nicest experience is that…they used to tell me “chuuti noana”, when I was a kid… still if they see me at home…even today… if they meet me…
They worked for my instructions at the site… yes, it was very well ok… but if they work at my home and ask for my idea…
Oh My God…
My father thinks that they knows it better than me…he says “Do it in your way.., she does not know… these things…much”
What a nice experience…
My father was so happy when I became an Engineer… at my convocation… but still I m the baby girl who played with extra cement and sand making any of the structure I could make with various small small cups I had…in his point of view...
I don’t know why I got these things into my mind suddenly today… and what s the reason it made me to write in English… Anyway it came into my mind… and made me to write in English…
This was the first time I moved in the real world of construction other than my training period; probably last time too... But that good old memory still makes me please…
Photo: http://www.crcna.org/site_uploads/uploads/crwrc/images/relief/SriLanka_4yearson.jpg
Photo: http://www.crcna.org/site_uploads/uploads/crwrc/images/relief/SriLanka_4yearson.jpg
memories....the only thing that we've got....and 4 the record...no matter how grown up we r...4 our parents...we r still their sweet hearts....and the ohter thing is parenting never ends...i remember this quote from a movie .."there's always lookin after".....:)
ReplyDeleteWow! This is a true fresher note but mostly unspoken. Set of pictures/slides moving in front of me, what would have been that site. Dear that is the most precious professional life exposure. Nicely composed, bravo.
ReplyDeleteDuring early 80s in my final stage of a course I had an assignment to submit a paper on quantity survey methods of local construction industry and programming design. In preparation; I still remember thick books I have gone thru. When I start talking to couple of Baasunnahes (of course from Galle) all of those books were no much use. With their indigenous knowledge I was able to do a great job.
That’s the beauty of Indigenous Knowledge, unfortunately as a nation we do not have scope in retaining, develop and transfer them. That is the real Universe City of knowledge.
Hope it does not have any connection with my latest photo album on Face book... ha ha ha....
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion Every person's memory is his personal literature.....
ReplyDeleteWe are always baby in our mom and dad's heart..Coz it doesn't change with our growth... We are the breath of them....As a result they try protect us with their wide hands......k....Nice post.... :)
Shadow, ඊයෙ උදේ මේ මතකය එකපාරටම අලුත් වුනා... ලියන්නත් හිතුනා... මොන හේතුවකටද මන්ද, මතකය සුන්දරයි...ගොඩක්, දෙමව්පියන්ගෙ ළඟ රැඳුන මතකය ඊටත් වඩා සුන්දරයි...
ReplyDeleteඅය්යෙ,
ReplyDeleteමම සයිට් එකක වැඩ කරපු මුල්ම වතාව නිසා මට මේක හොඳට ම මතකයි.... ඒ අතරෙ ඔය කියන බාසුන්නැහෙත් මට අමතක වෙන්නෙ ම නෑ, නිතර ම කෑගහල රණ්ඩුත් වෙනව...ඒත් ආයෙම පොඩ්ඩකින් හරියනව. දවසක් මෙහෙම වැඩ කරන්න බෑ කියල වැඩ නතර කරන්නත් ගියා... ඒ උනාට හරිම හොඳ මනුස්සයෙක්.. ඒ දැනුමෙන් ටිකක්වත් අපිට තිබුනෙ නෑ කියල තේරුනෙ එයත් එක්ක කතා කර කර ඉ‍ඳෙද්දි, ඒත් එයාලට හරි අමාරුයි මේ විදියට වැඩ කරන්න, එයාලට හරියන්නෙ නැකැත් බලල, පාද බෙදල, හරිම පිළිවෙලට වාස්තු විද්‍යාත්මකව හදන ගෙවල්... මම ඉන්නකම් හැමදාමත් ඒ සයිට් එකේ හැදූ ගෙයි මිනුම් වැරදියි, ගිනිකතුර ට අහු වෙනව ඒකෙ ඉන්න බෑ කියලමයි කිව්වෙ, ඇත්තටම අද ඒකෙ වියදම් කල මුදලෙ හැටියට ප්‍රයෝජනයක් නෑ... මිනිස්සුන්ට ඉන්න අමාරුයි.. මට හිතාගන්න බෑ ඒකෙ හේතු අතරෙ ඒ කිව් හේතුවත් තියෙනව ද කියල
අනේ අය්යෙ මම ඒක දැක්කෙ නෑ, දැක්ක නම් මේකට "once upon a time" කියල දාන්නෙ නෑ, මොකද ඒකෙ හැටියට මේකට "once upon a time" කියන්න බෑ නෙ.. :D
ReplyDelete♠GaŋGster♠™
ReplyDeleteමම දැන් ඕක හරියට ම තේරුම් අරන් ඉන්නෙ, ඒ හින්ද දැන් මම ගෙදර වැඩවලදි කට පියන් ඉන්නව.. අනිත් අතින් ඇත්තට ම තාත්ත ජීවිතෙන් ඉගෙනගත් දේවල් මම තාම ඉගෙනගෙන නෑ නෙ..