my hair forever. In the coming few weeks, we spent thousands of rupees and dozens of reels of thermal paper, sending drawings over the fax and receiving comments/approvals from Hitachi. Every time the fax machine rang and I saw a message from Hitachi, my heart would sink (here goes another thermal paper roll worth Rs. 800 and several hundred rupees added to the telephone bill!). Two months after shaking hands with us, Hagiwara San realized that things at Enpro were not going exactly as planned. Hagiwara San would be on the phone with me every single day, running through the minutest details of our order. “Mistal Kalkale you told me a lie!” he would shout on the phone (meaning you did not do what you said you will do.) If I told him that a part did not arrive because a truck broke down or a supplier could not be contacted as telephone lines were not working, he would simply fail to understand what were to us common facts of life. After about a month of shouting (his) and cowering (mine) over the phone, Mr.Hagiwara decided to take things in his own hands. He packed his bags and landed up at Enpro with one of his sidekicks, Kudo, and a welding expert Mr. O Tanaka whose entire vocabulary in all foreign languages (including English!) was “Namaste!” besides a big smile (which, fortunately, is understood the same way in all languages). But when Hagiwara San arrived, he had another universally understood expression on his face: a highly contemptuous and contorted frown. For the next two months he took virtual command of Enpro, questioning anything and everything he felt affected the execution of the Hitachi order. Once, a worker was distributing pedhas to celebrate a new vehicle he had purchased,
30
“Mistal Kalkale, what is the wolkin time at Enplo?” “8.00 am to 5.00pm Hagiwara san”! I replied meekly. “All these people came to Enpro after 8.30? You must be fie (fire) them at once!!” j
and offered one to Mr. Hagiwara. “Why Now!” he hissed with a contorted viscous face. “Is this eating time? Please go and work on Hitachi Order!” One day he was about to attack me with his most viscious abuse for our daily ‘non performance,’ when his expression suddenly changed from extreme anger to extreme fear and almost started shivering with fear at the sight of something behind me. I turned around to see it was just a common house lizard lurking on the wall! Another day, he started frothing at the mouth and almost burst with fury when he saw one of the much-awaited plates for his job being delivered to our shop on a bullock cart! One day, I arrived at the factory at 9.00 am and found Mr. Hagiwara sitting at the gate on a chair with a notebook in his hands. He followed me into my office, brandishing the note book that had a list of names written in it. “Mistal Kalkale, what is the wolkin time at Enplo?” “8.00 am to 5.00pm Hagiwara san”! I replied meekly. “All these people came to Enpro after 8.30? You must be fie (fire) them at once!!” We started serving him tea in steel mugs after he broke a couple of china cups during one