Metro 3: Mohan

February 15

I called Mohan today.  He works at a large, industrial steel fabrication plant across town in Greenpoint.  They are dealing with things like I-beams and thick, crudely-welded building parts.  Massive piping and trusses.

Read: no artwork. 

Mohan reminds me of this every time I come to him with something that requires more than a 30-second explanation.  The minute an idea can’t be conveyed in that span of time, or in a CAD drawing, he gets nervous.  But I have to convince him, because I don’t have time to weld this myself.  So I carefully stripped down my initial description to make it seem less threatening.

He interrupts me almost immediately.  “I told you we don’t do artsy fartsy stuff,” he says in a lilting Indian accent.  “Look,” I continue, “it’s just two cylinders welded together with a top piece.”  He hems and haws but eventually tells me abruptly to just stop by with a drawing.  I think I got him.