hierarchy

It all started with some boxes of ceramic tiles arriving one late evening in our house. No, not delivered wrongly. It was in response to a call from an interior decorator who was doing some work for a neighbour's flat.Some tiles were extra he said, with panic in his voice and he needed to hand over possession the next day.The tenants who were arriving the next day wanted the house clean and neat and empty, sans any left over tiles. I never thought through what i will do with a few boxes of assorted tiles. Somebody was in need and i said okay and invited the tiles over for temporary shelter.

They occupied pride of place in the front porch. I never realised that they were going to be in the way of our normal routines. The potted plants had to be watered and the maid said her hands dont stretch that far.The kola maavu for adorning the front portion of our house was in a nook there and again another place had to be quickly found for that, if our house should not go with kolam.And then we got a brand new lady bird added to our family! it had to squeeze itself between the tile boxes piled now all over the place. Y had developed a great knack to do the gymnastic but anybody else will have massive issues with extricating the same from the porch.

So the pressure was steadily building up on me to find some use for these tiles. I commandered the creative juices to flow and waited for the flood. It arrived no doubt, and I decided to have the walls of the rear verandah duly tiled . It also comprises the work area and the walls tend to get messy. I had asked for the 'family odd job man' through proper channel. He arrived immediately and said it could be done, but then wait for the 'tile specialist'. He seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth for all we cared. Numerous phone calls to powers that be elicited the response that it will be done the next day, positively. When this happened with fair regularity it left me wondering. I was told that tile work is a very specialised work and he would not want to employ any tom dick and harry but wait for that special specialist who will do a very thorough job. But more time elapsed and my wonderment grew! Dussera came and went and so did deepavali but still no 'tile man'. For the benefit of the uninitiated, these festivals offer excuses for any hired help in the informal sector.There is the north east monsoon of course which cohabits with the peak festival season in Chennai. It always comes in handy even after the festivals have come and disappeared from the seen not to be seen till next year.

But then two days back a pack of three arrived by 9 am with necessary tools and earnest looks and surveyed the scene once more. They said they will get the cement and be back. But then they did not come back. The family odd job man appeared in his motorbike and asked the whereabouts of his workmen. I told him the last i saw them was alongwith him going away from my house. He too disappeared.

Yesterday the three of them appeared again , slightly sheepish (could be my imagination) and said they would start the work.I was quite excited that the work would finally start. The entire rear verandah became like a battlefield and so did the entire house from the front porch, drawing room and dining area. There were these tiles of all shapes and sizes and colours which had to be colour matched . I thought this area could really be a kids playpen when they play 'colour colour what colour'. Y quickly surveyed the scene and said, yes there were a riot of colour tiles here but then the kids would feel cheated as the tiles were slightly short of some vital colours like red and dark green!

The actual job appeared quite simple to me. There is this 'senior techie' who will wait for the tiles to be plastered on their rearside with a liberal dose of cement mix by the 'unskilled asst' and then put it on the wall and gently tap it with a small hammer. That's it; the tile is fixed. So the operation went. The senior techie could operate a simple cutting saw which could cut the tiles in a jiffy. He could handle technology well, whereas the junior just sat and saw and mixed some more cement mix. The hierarchy appeared very strict; not for them flat organisations. The divide was most clearly visible when the lowly asst had to go and fetch tea. No, the senior will not demean himself to go for any fetching, even if a hammer is lying by his side, he would call out to the asst to fetch it and give it in his hand! All the time i hope the lowly assistant was learning fast, so that he could do the same thing to his under study some day.

I offered them tea in the evening and the same story was repeated, the tea cups had to be fetched and washed by our understudy.
But then i was left wondering if this was the skill level in short supply that I had to wait for four months. But i am told experts are those poeple who make a specialised job look simple.
It looks neat and clean now, this rear verandah. It looks so good that i will now have to look for another work area!