The noiseless shipyard

I had spent a good portion of my last semester break as an Engineering Implant Trainee at Cochin Shipyard Ltd. during the month of January this year.

So, on a particular day, when I was done with the training at the shipbuilding department's dock, I was moving back to the training institute to sign and submit my safety helmet back. This training institute is actually more than a kilometre away from the building dock inside the yard compound. I had given my full that day and was so tired and some rest was indispensable.  

You won’t find seats anywhere because it’s not a place to sit and enjoy. Everybody is busy, it's an industry where each second has its worth. ! On the way to training institute, near the last avenue, there was a tree and a concrete block kept near the steel stockyard. Cochin Shipyard has got a long road that lie straight from Ravipuram to Thevara inside the yard compound.

I went and sat underneath the tree.

Since I had an exposure to the CSL way of life of an intern inside and I understood that the only option to spend time after you're done with the training is to go and sit somewhere without getting noticed (of course in a permitted area). I found this place as very peaceful, there is no continuous operations of gantry cranes etc. Only thing that I required to fear was bird droppings. I think even birds drop only in peaceful places inside the yard. I never saw bird droppings anywhere else.

Once I was there, a person with wheatish complexion, aged like fifty something came and sat on my right side. His face looked very serious and resembled like one among the CSL workers wearing navy blue workshop khakis and shirt. He had a very good physique. Gone are days when shipbuilding was always a macho man job. But, still it isn’t hard to find such people at CSL.

I just thought of initiating a conversation with him.

I simply threw a "hello" and there was no response from him.

I again yelled “brother" in Malayalam. Still, there was no response from him, he was like he is the iron-man of the shipyard, and no one should talk to him.

After five seconds, he gave a sharp look to me like questing what I am doing there. 

Well, I decided not to engage in initiating any further talk with him as I am an outsider. 

We sat like that for around 2-3 minutes. I was like a dumbstruck fool getting stranger-zoned by an old man.

I saw another person coming ahead to us through Main Avenue in CSL workers uniform. Unlike the already met person, he wasn't as serious as him, also he didn't possess a strong physique like the former person.

Unlike our iron-man, this man gave a smile upon seeing me. I thought he was there to ask something to his colleague.

But, he waved his hands saying 'hello'. 

Wow! I realized that all CSL people do not behave ideally the same during evenings.

He started showing something with his fingers. I didn't feel good as I was resting after a tired day and the old man is puzzling me. I was at the wrong place with wrong people, my mind said.

Then he started showing something with his hands and fingers to our iron-man. 

Ouch! Then only I realized that two of them near me right then were dumb and deaf. They just see me. That's all and they are working in a heavy industry. 

Many thoughts came into my mind then. 

‘What are they doing with their deficiencies there? How do they adjust there? How do they even hear the alarms in case of any emergencies? '

I felt great of them. The mammoth ships that you see floating and sailing way from CSL are the product of their sweat too ,in one way or other, it's a rough scene out there and it's a heavily rugged industry. It's that cool you find people like them in such an industry. May be they do small jobs, but they are also part of the shipyard. They have their own contributions to The Cochin Shipyard Limited. It's their Shipyard too. Initially, what I had felt about them was sympathy, but on a second thought, I understood that they are not just one among people with disabilities, but someone having their share of contribution to his bread & butter company and thereby to the nation.

Then, both of them started talking in their own sign language pointing me at regular intervals. 

'Did I do something wrong?’ I thought myself.

Then, the last arrived man came to me. I made move to raise, but he didn't allow. He came near me and asked something.

I felt like he was asking; what I was doing there.

I then thought of how to make him understand that I was there for internship.

But, I was lucky enough. He himself was trying to make clarification of something.

He started showing some representations using his fingers and I understood nothing, after lot of wasted efforts, he came and sat near me, showed me his left palm, pointed out his right hand's index finger and started drawing something.

It went as 'E ... N ... G ... I ... N .... . . . ..

‘Engineer!'  I yelled, that's it. . He looked at my mouth's action and he too understood.

Then, his eyebrows and cheeks bulged inwards and his face expression was like he envied engineers very much. He closed all his fingers and pointed two thumbs up at me. 

Let me tell you the truth ,for the past 3 years since I have signed up for engineering ,nobody has given me such value ,I hope the same applies to almost more than 90 % among us.

That one experience made me realize that the value of engineers has not faded everywhere and still many people regard so much about engineers. Anyway he was not bluffing up, because he was so innocent to bluff.

The workers their value engineers so much, they are their bosses! I thought of how people outside consider lakhs of engineers passing out each year. But, there are instances like these when we, this generation engineers in the making get such notices.

I know many studying in various engineering colleges without investing any effort in making up with the course. I felt that each of them should have experiences like this to understand the value of what they are up-to.

Then, he took my college ID card and he started reading it. He made the point that I was a 'naval architect' too from my ID card. He reads and understands English too. It's a shipyard and many know who's a naval architect. Anyway, it isn’t same outside.

Somehow, after all these interactions between us, our iron-man somehow managed to give me a smile, anyway my feeling about him had changed entirely.

Days passed and I understood that the man who interacted with me was a gardener there and he was doing his share of duty to keep up the CSL greenness in the same way. Whenever he saw me, he would wave his hands and I too. When I left CSL after the completion of my tenure, I went and somehow bid good-bye and he took initiative to give me a shake hand. I will never forget him.

Despite having his own difficulties, he works there, there might be many others like him there. But it's great that especially able people like him work in such industries.

A few days out there, I too had started feeling 'the Cochin Shipyard spirit’. May be there are strikes in Public sector industries in India, but a good portion of them really have the ‘josh’ or the indomitable spirit. That's something that needs to be noted first. When you leave CSL, there’s a slogan at the main gate ‘Have I given my shipyard the best today ? Shipbuilding is a pain of thousands, but a pain that is a pain of passion, when you see your final floating beauty sailing away, the pride that you get is something special.

It's a jagged atmosphere inside a shipyard. Shipbuilding is a very labour intensive industry. People do the tough job of fighting with metals in a plethora of activities using state of the art cutting edge technology. People working in shipyards face lot of pollution and results in other health issues. Many becomes ill due to different kinds of illness. Many are exposed to intense lighting in welding, many has black lungs and problems are many. But still, they do it!

I miss Cochin Shipyard ,it's Sanctum Santorum: the docks ,the quays ,the massive gantry cranes ,the aircraft carrier for Indian navy ,FPVs for Indian Coast guard ,the dredgers and above all : the officers ,the trainees and the workers of the shipyard whom I had spent lot of time interacting and with whom I had made good friendship.