Yardstick or Metrestick? The CPWD Dilemma!

SS Kaimal 20 April 2021

Economy & Nation

Readers may perhaps find the following rather difficult to believe. But I swear by all that I hold sacred that it is the truth and nothing but the truth.

As I had mentioned in some earlier articles that the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) in which I worked is responsible for the construction and maintenance of all civilian buildings of the government of India, including the residential accommodation for personnel.

These were divided into categories and the amenities to be provided in each category were standardized in meticulous detail, including floor areas, number of rooms, number of doors and windows right down to the number of hinges in each door and window shutter and the number of screws in each hinge. These standardised regulations of amenities were generally referred to as “yardsticks.”

In the late 1950s, India changed over from the British system to the metric system. In the initial days both were allowed to run in parallel and there were occasional confusion and hiccups.

One day in 1960, I happened to walk into the room of my colleague Subramanyam, who was working in the head office of the department. After the usual exchange of pleasantries, Subramanyam asked me in a grave tone:

“Mr Kaimal, do you think we should change over from the word ‘Yardstick’ to ‘Metrestick’?”

I thought he was joking. “That is a funny question” I said. “Are you really serious”?

“I am serious” he said.

Then he turned to the rack of files on his side, picked up one of them and threw it on the table and said, “Have a look at this”.

I picked up the file and leafed through it. It had already accumulated about 50 pages, all full of solemn official notings, dozens of initials of bureaucrats of all levels in its marches up and down the labyrinths and ladders of officialdom, the margins cluttered with numbers of diary register and peon book entries, etc. etc.

The first page of the file was a note by a deputy secretary.

It was written in excellent English, with some references to classic English literature, and he had concluded the note submitting the earth-shattering question whether the CPWD should be ordered to change the word “yardstick” to “metrestick” in consequence of the country having changed over from the British to the metric system.

I smiled.

I could visualise the dynamic young deputy secretary mentally shouting “Eureka”, calling his stenographer and dictating the note.

He might have been a lecturer in English grammar when he competed successfully for the Civil Services examination.

He must have expected due recognition and appreciation for his highly original question, probably even a trip abroad to do further research on the subject.

Unfortunately for him, the further notings in the file seemed to suggest that everybody, who got it on his table was in a hurry to push it out quickly with some casual comment.

“I think you should suggest that the matter should be referred to the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary and get the file back into orbit,” I told Subramanyam and returned to my office.

I got transferred to Madras a few days later and never heard of that file again. Probably it is resting in doubtful peace in the National Archives.

Meanwhile, the CPWD continues to use the word “yardstick”.

(SS Kaimal is former chief engineer of the government of India and former chief technical adviser to the United Nations (UN). He is also the founder joint secretary of the All-India Confederation of Central Government Officers' Associations, which worked in the 1960s and 1970s for reforms in the administrative apparatus and to convert it into a modern, people friendly organisation, liberated from the Macaulayan snail-paced redtape rituals.)

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