Today there was an ugly situation at our residential area. The matter was, of course, settled after some deft handling of frayed tempers but the whole fracas did tax the patience factor.
There was a repair work, on the toilet outlet pipes, that has been begun in one of the multi-storeyed buildings which entailed the inmates to refrain from using the toilets of that particular section. Adequate warnings and door-to-door instructions were passed on to the affected population by the contractor, himself. The fact was that the workers had to work in extremely difficult conditions as their work space was a small platform on each floor that restricted their movements. Anyone, using the affected toilets even unknowingly, would bring about any of the following two situations:-
(a) the entire muck would get splattered onto the poor worker in his work station.
(b) the resultant wetness/soiled state would momentarily make the worker lose his balance resulting in a
fatal fall down many floors.
The work had commenced on Monday, the 7th and all of us heaved a collective sigh of relief for an unblemished day, with no untoward incident. But today happened to be otherwise. Someone had used the forbidden toilet in her house resulting in the splatter of muck onto a poor, unsuspecting worker perched on the uncomfortable position. And all hell broke loose. The affected youngster charged to the recalcitrant house and let go off his disgust at the lady of that house!
No amount of apology from the contractor and the caretaker could pacify the fuming young lady subsequently, insisting on an apology from the protagonist himself who simply refused to do so, despite advice from his employer, insisting that he wasn't at fault. The stalemate would have continued but for our intervention because stoppage of work was not in the interest of the inmates and the housing society. To retrieve the situation, I'd personally apologised to the young lady on behalf of the society and left her with the query, 'how'd you expect the man on whom you'd splattered filth - even though unknowingly, perhaps - to apologise to you, especially when he's a casual labourer without the backing of education and for whom, chivalry was an alien word?' Thankfully, it did have the desired effect!
Tailpiece.
The contractor has, however, promised that the boy would ultimately tender an apology, to the lady, in the course of the week when he sees light to reason! The young man's a nice guy after all!
There was a repair work, on the toilet outlet pipes, that has been begun in one of the multi-storeyed buildings which entailed the inmates to refrain from using the toilets of that particular section. Adequate warnings and door-to-door instructions were passed on to the affected population by the contractor, himself. The fact was that the workers had to work in extremely difficult conditions as their work space was a small platform on each floor that restricted their movements. Anyone, using the affected toilets even unknowingly, would bring about any of the following two situations:-
(a) the entire muck would get splattered onto the poor worker in his work station.
(b) the resultant wetness/soiled state would momentarily make the worker lose his balance resulting in a
fatal fall down many floors.
The work had commenced on Monday, the 7th and all of us heaved a collective sigh of relief for an unblemished day, with no untoward incident. But today happened to be otherwise. Someone had used the forbidden toilet in her house resulting in the splatter of muck onto a poor, unsuspecting worker perched on the uncomfortable position. And all hell broke loose. The affected youngster charged to the recalcitrant house and let go off his disgust at the lady of that house!
No amount of apology from the contractor and the caretaker could pacify the fuming young lady subsequently, insisting on an apology from the protagonist himself who simply refused to do so, despite advice from his employer, insisting that he wasn't at fault. The stalemate would have continued but for our intervention because stoppage of work was not in the interest of the inmates and the housing society. To retrieve the situation, I'd personally apologised to the young lady on behalf of the society and left her with the query, 'how'd you expect the man on whom you'd splattered filth - even though unknowingly, perhaps - to apologise to you, especially when he's a casual labourer without the backing of education and for whom, chivalry was an alien word?' Thankfully, it did have the desired effect!
Tailpiece.
The contractor has, however, promised that the boy would ultimately tender an apology, to the lady, in the course of the week when he sees light to reason! The young man's a nice guy after all!
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