Mathu bhai and Missile madam at Do Villa and Baara Maala

You realise how much is in a name when you are talking to one of our masons on site and they tell you that Mathu bhai has asked them to go to Baara Maala! You are totally at a loss of words for a few seconds but then know very well that there is no point in trying to decipher this on call or even asking him to repeat! By now you know that all you have to do is go back into office and say this out and Sai should be able to tell you what he meant was that Mathew asked them to go to a penthouse on the 12th floor! 

Then there is the time when Missile Madam sends them to ‘Do Villa’ and though we all now know who the missile is, Do Villa was something to figure out. Now we know which site that is as well! 

There have been so many such instances over the years which have fixed us. Highlights for me would be one which had me totally confused when I first started working. One of the workers came and asked me for a ‘bolob’ and I was totally clueless! He tried hand gestures and everything and I was still blank! Finally Sai had to figure out that he wanted a bulb! How embarrassed I was! 

One of the best though would have to be when the carpenters have a list of materials to be picked up to an intern and she went around the whole day to multiple stores to get one elusive item on the list - the ‘isscrew’ . It’s only later when she came back and reported that no store had that one item that Sai broke it to her that all they wanted were screws!! 

These incidents make for few of our funniest and most embarrassing anecdotes and we love relating these stories when we sit together at the end of a long work day. Talking about all these words - from ‘Perment’ to ‘Bum senna’ which usually has all then newbie’s flabbergasted!

And then I imagine how these same stories will be recounted by the workers sitting around and catching up in the evenings. They must not understand half our names or why we are so confused about everything! Would love to overhear that conversation sometime! 

For now though I am sure Mathu bhai and Missile Madam loved working with all of them at Do Villa and Bara Maala as much as they did! Till more interesting phrases and words to figure out!