Engineering-a-Solution

Sulekha, 13 June 2001
 

Engineering a Solution
 

tinmoorthy

Ramesh inquired if he could borrow my gas cylinder.

"What happened to yours," I asked.

"Arey yaar, when the first one got exhausted, I did not book for a replacement. Now both are empty."

He wanted to take my only cylinder and thus finish cooking. My kitchen work could suffer, according to him because I am single but he has a family -- the family members cannot starve.

I told Ramesh that cylinders were not for borrowing. He ought to be more careful. He is an engineer. He should be able to engineer solutions to problems faced by him. Here was a challenge.

"Okay, yaar! I agree I am careless. I do not have to hear this homily every time I come to borrow your pen, mixie, thermometer; box spanner set or use your telephone. What do you do when your mobike goes flat, out in the wilderness? You have to take help occasionally and it is not wrong."

"Only that many of your predicaments are avoidable."

"What do you mean by that? Do you say that I deliberately allowed the second cylinder to get exhausted?"

"No, I only suggested that if the possibility of your failing to book for the replacement was recognised, you would have organised for a third cylinder."

Ramesh certainly did not like that.

He retorted, "What if I fail to book a replacement even with a third cylinder? What are friends for, if they cannot rise to these occasions?"

I said my suggestion was still valid. It had not become irrelevant. I explained that cylinders are exhaustible. They need replacements. And they have to be ordered. All these envisage some personal discipline that Ramesh did not possess. Ramesh is just human prone to slips. What we needed was a system immune to his anomalies. Experts call that fool-proofing.

Ramesh was yielding to listen. I outlined that Ramesh can run a pipe from my cylinder. The pipe can save, at least, the relocation of the hardware every time Ramesh needed a reserve supply. He will get gas immediately, while waiting for a refill. That was a good idea, he admitted. He was also visibly relieved in that he would, no more, have to listen to my discourse each time a cylinder got exhausted. He would get an uninterrupted gas supply. And that was the end of his troubles. It is a well-engineered solution, he conceded.

He however, did not like a further suggestion of mine wanting to incorporate a valve on the line.

"I shall have the controlling rights," I declared.

"But you will choke my supply -- that is not fair," he argued.

I justified saying that a valve alone can motivate Ramesh-like people to book for the replacements as soon as a cylinder in use gets used up. It did not convince him. He thought I was being nasty. I pointed out to him that the same line may also be used for carrying gas from his house to mine, should there be a need. For that purpose establishing a post at his end was in order. He can also have a controlling right, if he so chooses. That concept appealed to Ramesh and he readily agreed.

"Come on. We have seven apartments in this building. We can pipe the gas to all of them. Instead of just the two of us, there will be seven families who will be as happy as we are planning to become. No more exhausted cylinders -- second or whatever. No more frantic calls to the gas agencies. No frayed tempers. In short -- happier days."

Ramesh was thrilled. He said he would immediately go and coax Gupta, Sharma and Jasbir into accepting the wonderfully engineered solution of ours.

"Relax, my dear friend," I told him, "A social reform like this, should be extended to the entire street, without being limited to just one block. It will no doubt cost a trifle extra, to network the gas to the entire neighborhood. Are we not already piping TV programs? It is similar."

This was also acceptable to my new-found admirer. I could not contain myself. In a mood of overflowing generosity I proposed that the whole city of Kolkata must be piped for gas. Then there would be no more cylinder problems in the entire city.

However, I admitted the concept of having to live with many cylinders at many locations, that too being mesh-connected to each other, was not appealing. We should do something better. We need have only one cylinder for the entire city. But make that a little bigger than normal. A quick calculation showed that the cylinder will be roughly as big as four living rooms put together. Nonetheless it was a brilliant scheme. Ramesh has rushed to lobby in the corridors of Udyog Bhawan to sell the concept. He hopes it will be a sell-out.

We have not been able to plumb the whole city for gas, as of now. But we did network our block of seven flats. There is no more gas problem. The supply is uninterrupted, no matter when the deliveryman arrives. Overhead tanks have been connected. Water problems have certainly been reduced though not eliminated completely. We pooled our power inverters. Bijli (electricity) failures have been taken care of.

We even terminated the telephone lines on a private branch exchange. Incoming calls are no more lost. There is always somebody to respond. We also installed a Local Area Network with a proxy server to take care of all the messaging demands. We now have a choice of several Internet Service Providers. One or the other is always accessible. Our communication expenses have come down dramatically thereafter.

One or two cars leave for downtown everyday at eight in the morning and return by dusk. There are always more then four passengers in the each vehicle at any given time. The petrol bills are now contained.

During the Diwali festival, a man from Sadar Bazaar sells us the crackers on wholesale. What we have achieved is not another Amul co-operative movement. It is something better -- an enhancement in performance and productivity. That is why people from far and near come to witness our experiments. The local paper has labeled it as the Neighbourhood Prosperity Scheme.

Ramesh is often seen giving interviews on TV. He is called a youth leader. His opinions are sought whenever there is a scandal. He gets invited by all and sundry. He addresses meetings. He is also contesting the forthcoming elections.

A vote for him is an affirmation of our faith in his drive for efficiency. I am sure you will support him. If only you let him win he is confident he will become the Minister for Culture and spread the productivity wisdom over the entire state. Later the same thing can be repeated at a national level, he promises. Do you want your country to prosper? Then the time to act is now. Please elect Ramesh as your MLA.

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