Wednesday, September 14, 2011

'KILLROACH'

Of all animals, the least accommodating are the human beings. The fact needs no testimony; however, it got verified once again last month by the project KILLROACH.

It was the special day meant to mark freedom. Having celebrated the 65th anniversary of India’s freedom, I proceeded to my resthouse with the view of taking rest in the day’s second half. After all, it was supposed to be a national holiday. I hadn’t even finished my lunch when I picked the call from my SrDME. He seemed quite disturbed. I got to know that a serious complain had been made with the Chairman, Railway Board about the presence of pests in the AC coach of Capital Express. The extent of terror in my boss’ voice said aloud that we had run into some serious trouble. I tried to pacify him assuring that all efforts shall be made from our end and things will be alright. May be, he had got his worst ever rebuke along with some serious threats of transfer to some unknown place.

In bureaucracy, as in any hierarchical system, there are two kinds of admonishment or ‘fire’ , the latter being the more popular name of the phenomenon- one, which is initiated by you at your rung and goes down and the other one, which trickles down from the top rungs. The first one shows your involvement and dedication. It’s effectiveness is a measure of your efficiency. Contrarily, the other one is bound to produce results, that too, in proportion to the height from which it has started trickling. In this case, it had started from the pyramid’s zenith. I later came to know, that a copy of the complain letter was sent to the Minister of Railways too. The CRB had to hear a lot. He passed the dose along with added spices to the GM of my zone. Next in the line was my CME who had to undergo hours of classes by the honorable GM. In a typical setup in which you are doomed if your boss has to hear for your mistake, this was really grievous. After all, the senior-most man of Railways had to hear because of me, an officer on the junior-most rung. I could only wait for the ensuing nightmares.

As the train was mine, being maintained at my depot, the onus too had to be mine. It really took me some time to analyze what had actually happened. There had been complaints before too, but this one was special. The aggrieved party happened to be a very senior IAS officer. A small cockroach, which had been very well nestled in the grooves of AC 2 tier coach of Capital Express, went a bit too far for the after dinner stroll. Or as suggested by many learned friends, it must have been a tussle with his wife that had pushed him so far. The dude, in a bid to explore the unexplained, finally landed inside the ear of the wife of the Chairman of Human Rights Commission. The one responsible for defending the rights of every human, had been robbed of his own rights for safe and happy journey. He had paid to gain the right and thus now had every right to reclaim the damages. And who else knew the way better. It was like giving murder threats to the wife of Yamraj. Further, had the gallant dude entered the ear of the man, things would not have been that worse. It was now a question of pride for him. A bit of inaction now, and he would have lost all his glory earned till date.

The man did his best. He took his wife to the emergency ward of PMCH, called for the ENT specialist at 0500 AM, and while the offender was being extracted, he called the CRB. Later, he wrote a two page letter, most of which was in past indefinite tense, studded with many ‘if’s and ‘had it’s and attached the hospital slip. The letter demanded proper disciplinary action against the culprit and adequate compensation for the mental trauma his family had to face during the journey. I am sure the lady must have had a big heart, otherwise he would have lodged a court case.

The ‘action taken’ part had begun just after the information reached. The job of pest control had been outsourced in my depot and the contract was about to end in the same month. The firm, a renowned government agency, had been heavily fined by me in the past and hence was in no mood to participate in the next tender. In the wake of the things, it was decided to launch a special drive to kill the cockroaches departmentally. Officers from headquarter were allotted different rakes in which different chemicals were to be sprayed in their presence. The Coaching Depot Officer, which happened to be me, had to get all this done. After some internet based research to find most effective cockroach killing chemical, I along with my SrDME spent the whole evening of Independence Day in the wholesale markets of Patna finding the most suitable chemicals. Next morning onwards, the crusade was launched.

The chemicals were sprayed in double the recommended concentration. Every nook and corner was drenched fully. To monitor the effectiveness of the drive, all the killed cockroaches were accumulated and a coach-wise status along with the pictures of the decimated bodies, was sent to headquarter for every coach of every rake. The operation which continued till the calendar showed September, started at 5 in the morning daily and continued till late evening. To add to the nightmare, several senior officers came to inspect the rakes at different hours of the clock. The long hours of haul over the coals which CME had to go through, ensured that I was on my toes for the whole period. During the next fifteen days, several experiments were carried out to annihilate the little demon. Eight different chemicals ranging from propoxur to dichlorovos were used in heavy concentrations. Various pastes, tablets and boiling water were used too. The treatment frequency was made ‘every trip’ from the erstwhile ‘fortnightly’. The steel floors were opened out and the trough underneath was treated intensively. Even the undergear was not spared.

Keeping in view the hazardous nature of the job, I rotated the guys carrying the spray guns. The medically approved masks too had their limits. I had no replacement for myself though. All other important works were thrown aside both by the headquarter and the division. Everyone in the department had just one objective- to kill the cockroaches. As the days passed, the madness turned into frustration which found vent in the force with which the escaping cockroaches were thrashed by the boots. The religious ones keeping roja and other fasts too could not restrain themselves. A positive effect visible was that even the illiterate staff now talked like “1 in 15 solution of 20% EC cypermethrin has been used in WGACCN 00127”. The drive finally ended after consuming hell lot of efforts and money. Thousands of cockroaches were killed everyday, the number decreasing with passing days. The infestation level was fairly controlled as the little demon disappeared slowly.

Only for the time being. With every coach replacement in the rake, the devil returned, only to prove that it’s not easy to erase one’s existence. Though several thousands of them got killed, who won the battle is yet to be answered. Ironically, the fact remains that the probability of another complain has been attenuated but it still is not zero. The Humans could not win over the species albeit human rights did win over the cockroach rights. Didn’t it?

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