Down The Memory Lane: Some Funny (and Painful) Moments

For a change, let me divert from dry technical discussions to some lighter moments from the early days of my career.

Myself, our R&D team, the marketing engineer, and our company as a whole were newcomers in the field—bursting with enthusiasm. Our marketing team bagged a big order for epoxy flooring in a mechanical industry plant. The client requested a tailor-made formulation with exceptional flexibility, because strong mechanical abuse—such as dragging heavy components or accidental falls of heavy objects—could not be ruled out.

Our R&D team rolled up their sleeves and developed a formulation with exceptional flexibility! (?)

The customer initially asked for a one-year guarantee, but based on the bragging confidence of the R&D team—and to firmly seal the order in our favour—our marketing manager boldly offered a three-year guarantee.

The material (our exceptionally flexible, tailor-made formulation) was processed, the application team went to the site, completed the job in record time, and returned to the head office with jubilant faces.

Just within a week, we received a call from the customer asking us to visit the site. The marketing manager was confident it must be for the first instalment of payment. He and I eagerly went to the site.

The client's General Manager welcomed us with a cunning, mischievous smile. In a fraction of a second, I realised the reason for that smile.

The epoxy flooring we had applied was not there at all—as if we had never done the job. The floor looked as virgin as it had before we started. We were totally confused, and it was clearly visible on our faces.

To add to our misery, the GM sarcastically asked:

"Mr. Pathak, are you looking for your flooring with THREE YEARS guarantee? Yeh? It's there in the corner—rolled up like a carpet."

I rushed to the corner.

The brainchild of our R&D team—the specially formulated epoxy flooring applied just a week earlier—was pitiably standing there, rolled up.

The Culmination of Multiple Errors

• In our enthusiasm, the R&D team made the product too flexible.
• We committed a criminal mistake by applying epoxy flooring on concrete that had been cast just one week earlier.

When I look back at this incident, I cannot imagine what my face must have looked like—probably like "Bhoomi Kanya Sita", pleading with Mother Earth to swallow her whole!