You are the reason - MD.

The Muser joined a private company owned by a friend of twenty odd years. In the nineties the company was manufacturing elastomeric products and later diversified in to the production odd aerospace components as well.

The MD wanted help in developing new applications and products. He requested Muser to spend his retirement time to oversee the efforts. He might have been sizing up Muser for all those years.

Muser started organizing the Lab where the pilot study would start. He was dismayed at the next to non-existent facilities and wondered at what he was hoping to accomplish there.

In his professional life, prior to this assignment, he had developed new applications but was bitter that none of them were implemented whole heartedly.

He grabbed the chance, thinking that here was an opportunity for immediate industrial application for the hoped-for developed products. However, he had to acknowledge, the spirit of doing difficult things and to do it better than others was mutually shared.

Being a private company, the MD had to shift focus from one development to other on the basis of emerging bottle necks.

This forced the Muser to shift priorities from development to application techniques & solutions for technical problems. It was totally new and Muser resented interruptions. But he bit back the resentment as the technical problems were affecting established products plunging MD’s reputation toward land of disrepute.

Any solution had to be worked at lab level and in quick time. A cycle of investigation followed by a remedial action and proof testing would be a tall order for a well equipped lab – needs only thinking & execution.

Just imagine such a situation being handled in an ill-equipped lab and with slovenly staff. Even in that quest, the M.D would insist on no interruption in regular production.

This might seem paradoxical to anyone else but what do you expect from a lone head thinking of grandeur products and ending up delivering them half cooked.

Surely, the cause lay within him (MD). He was allergic to expenditure and welcomed any initiative not involving spending. He expected magic in coming up with a technical solution in minutes.

The MD possessed consummate skill in painting untrue picture as real to any one (customer) calling over phone. Might have become a successful screen play writer, if he had chosen to become one indeed!

The causality was always the developmental works, in various stages of advance. An avid reader of patents, he gets easily fired up in imagining his capability and sells the idea to some gullible customer. The dangled carrot is easily taken.

Both the M.D and the Customer did not pass to think that what was being bitten cannot be chewed. At home, he would reroute the development activities, turning it by 180º - the ills of carrying work to house.

Muser found the going tough .in his professional life so far, it was his focus and rigid approach that had paid dividends. Here the situation was opposite to organized attempts.

Many well shaping projects either got abandoned or ended too late. One such development that came too late was in-house treatment of a, manufacturer finished product, to be later converted as a critical space application component. Right from day one, the project had seen only hurdles – improper equipment, insufficient preparatory works and steady interruptions.

The bitter emotion was piling up in Muser’s mind and became a constant irritant. In small doses he vented out this bitterness in discussions with other friends.

One day, the M.D requested Muser to come to the Office. Three gentlemen from another Project had come for a status review. Muser realized that the discussions might have been going on for some time, since one the gentlemen asked the Muser a specific question. This gentleman had earlier met with Muser once or twice and knew of his woes.

As usual M.D might have painted a rosy picture. He introduced Muser to the other two gentlemen with some titles. MD followed this technique, of putting someone else in the spot, to gain maneuvering space.

Of the two gentlemen, one man wanted to know why the developmental project was running behind schedule. He wanted to know the exact reason for the delay. To play the role of an onlooker, MD asked Muser to go ahead and answer, which the MD always liked to do.

All the pent up emotions welled up like a tsunami. Muser spoke in a clear and unmistakable voice – You are the reason Mr. M.D

The readers can now imagine what emotions this would have evoked in those individuals.