The "Test"

“Mr. Karan, you’re an electrical engineer, no; the forklift is not starting!”.

This was the moment we were told to dread whilst students in college – a test by the workers on the shop-floor.

This happened on my second day in the central maintenance (plant engineering) department whilst a trainee engineer. Until that moment, I had only seen forklifts moving around in the plant and in some parts of the motor factory.

He had walked down from the forklift section towards where I was sitting along with other workers and the shift supervisor.  There was pin-drop silence; something unusual for the shopfloor. When he came to me and told me this, all eyes on us, I knew this was my test. This was confirmed, when he told me he’d brought the forklift to the department.

I went with him to where the forklift was parked, studied the drawing and spent 10 minutes asking questions. I then asked him to get a spring from the store, having identified that a particular part was not working because of a faulty spring.

“Can’t be the spring because it’s an electrical problem;”, he said. When I told him I’d get the spring from the store if he didn’t, he went and brought a new one.

We replaced the faulty part; with a silent prayer, I turned the key and the forklift started.

So that everyone could hear me, I told him somewhat loudly, that if he had a problem, to just let me know that he has one. It’s got nothing to do with my being an electrical engineer.

There were no ‘tests’ after that day. Unknown to me then, a beautiful relationship with the staff in my department had begun. One which has lasted to date, though I left the plant in July 1992.

(This was published as a post in LinkedIn in Jun 2025)