The Accidental Desk Jockey!!

Current Situation:Unemployed, I first considered selling a Kidney, and then Dad made me an Offer of working for him. I thought about it and decided I shall keep my over sized jelly bean. I didn’t think my other kidney would be able to handle the pressure of working all by itself (Performance anxiety works for body parts too you know, my bladder is proof of that, It will be perfectly fine and humming along. The minute I get into a long distance bus, it suddenly realizes that it is at the point of exploding).
 So dad made me an offer I didn’t want to refuse, and I was now the newest entrant to the world of Desk Jockeys.(Triumphant and fanfare music,.... no?...oh alright move on.)

Dad is the MD of an organization which is setting up a solar power plant close to Madurai. He wanted me on board at the starting stage so I could start at the basics. I had a strong feeling he wanted me joining at this stage because this way I would inflict least damage on myself or on his Dream project.

So I walked into the office and was immediately whisked away to a meeting with BBA(name changed very badly and is fooling nobody, looks like no identities are going to be protected) whose work on site I was supposed to watch, coordinate with and supervise on behalf of the Company. Being introduced as the MD’s son helped and they couldn’t smell my ignorance immediately. I sat down and tried to look as important as I could manage to without making an ass of myself. I nodded intelligently, took notes , pursed my lips and even narrowed my eyes when spoken to. The works!!. BBA left the meeting either thinking that I am the newest threat to their company, or that I have severe constipation. Former would be better, but I suppose the latter is inevitable.

Was given a pile of files to read through and bring me up to stat with the project. I settled down and pulled out the top most file and started reading the first page. One hour and 2 files later I leaned back and decided the project files were not working so I looked around to make sure no one was looking and having established my reputation was going to be unharmed I Googled “ HOW DOES A SOLAR POWER PLANT WORK?”, realizing this might lead to advance level reading material i revised it to " WHAT IS SOLAR ENERGY".

If there is one subject I hated as much or slightly more than mathematics was electrical. In fact despite being a marine engineer and having to work on electrical equipments on a regular basis, and also have to study and give exams, I am still not sure how a current actually passes in a wire.

If I were asked to explain to a kid how a current passes through a conductor I would first take a deep breath and look for the closest exit,if i did end up talking to him about it, at the end of my talk he would probably end up thinking that electricity is the work of  fairies and elves and that Harry Potter is real. I would totally prefer giving the kid the talk about the bird and bees  .

I have been always lucky to have an electrical officer on board with me leaving me to focus on the mechanical side of things. If something electrical didn’t work I would first stare at it and alternately threaten or  plead for it to work, I would then poke it with a stick, if that didn’t work I would whack it between three to eighteen times, If it still didn’t work I would say the magic words “ Electrical Officer HHEEELLLPPP”.

The only time I had ever used Solar energy before was when I used a magnifying glass to burn a piece of paper. Unfortunately a power plant is slightly more complicated than that, and fortunately it turns it is not Rocket science either. So looks like I might be of some use to the company after all.
Survived day one, and I am actually excited about day two. Well Here Goes Nothing.