The White Helmet

I was never too fond of wearing a helmet, neither while taking a quick ride on the bike in my vicinity nor while travelling long distances. And I habitually don’t strap it, when I wear it. My father nit-picks about it all the time that I must at least put the strap on, but I don’t. It’s not safe to leave the helmet unstrapped, but it’s not a cardinal sin right? That’s the lame excuse I make my father all the time. Well, that’s irrelevant because I’m not talking about just any helmet; I’m talking about the white helmet.

It was my first day of internship at Larsen & Toubro Construction. I was a summer intern for 4 weeks at their NISER Project at Jatni in Bhubaneswar. Now, Jatni is not technically in Bhubaneswar. Its twenty kilometers away from where I reside, so I commuted on my bike. The NISER project is a 500 crore endeavor by the Government of India. The campus has seen 85% completion and has been exquisitely planned and constructed on a hilltop with lush green lawns and stunning concrete structures. What attracted me the most in the construction was the meditation center which is built on top of a hill which is connected to the auditorium on the foothill with the help of a flight of stairs.

I was required to intern in five departments viz. Safety, Quality, Structure, Finishing and Planning. On the first day I went to the Safety department as the saying goes ‘Safety First’. On my way to meet the department head, I observed that the employees wore a variety of helmets. Some wore Yellow; while some wore Blue. There were a few employees wearing white ones too. I met Mr. Patel, the safety supervisor on a site who wore a green helmet. I was taken to a warehouse where I was shown an induction video which presented the safety procedures to be followed while working at the site. I watched the video keenly, while Mr. Patel told me it’d take him a while to bring me the helmet and the gum boots.

There was this animated guy in the video, who explained about the strange color coding of the helmets. The Yellow belonged to unskilled workmen, Red for the Electrical workmen, Blue for the Site Supervisors, Green for the Safety Supervisors and White for the Engineers. This was when Mr. Patel handed me the white helmet. I put it on as directed in the video and went on to learn various works at the sites. I was oblivious of the hierarchy of helmets, until one day I met a site supervisor who looked after the structural works at a site. He addressed me as Sir, and treated me as someone who was above him in the organizational chain of command. He was a middle aged man in his mid-forties. I explained him that I was just a trainee and humbly requested him to call me by my name, but he refused. It was a situation I had never faced in my life before. Had I not worn the white helmet, would he have given me the same treatment?

It’s bizarre how we associate respect with a lifeless entity such as a helmet. That was when I understood wearing a helmet was not such a bad idea. Though it was an awkward situation, yet I relished the courtesy and respect that he garnered me with. They say, ‘With great power comes great responsibility’, I felt accountable to the society as an engineer. The Helmet was not a mere object but had sentiments attached to it. It is a powerful symbol for us fellow engineers, the forthcoming policy makers of the society.