CHEAP THRILL

One of my friends is an elderly gentleman in his sixties but filled with the energy, enthusiasm and abilities of thirties. Confident. Always right. Knowing everything and no doubts about anything.

When I reversed my car into the roadside ditch and managed to push it deeper with my efforts to get it out all by myself, was looking foolish and helplessly wringing my hands - he came, he saw, got into the driver’s seat, moved and kicked all the levers and pedals simultaneously and brought it out in a minute. He also gave me a lecture about reversing and retrieving cars but I was not in a condition to absorb the knowledge.

When my neighbour’s toddler pushed a pea up his nose and started wailing, all of us were running helter skelter clue less as to the course of action, expecting the child to choke and die any minute. We were searching for the doctor’s number (which was nowhere around) and were attempting to remove the pea by hook or crook using pins, chisels and screwdrivers. Our man heard the commotion, strode in confidently, assured the parents that there will be no harm as the child can breathe through the mouth if only other helpful neighbours allowed it to do so, held the child upside down by it’s legs, patted it on the head and got the pea out. A lecture on safe parenthood and first aid followed.

Another friend bought something in the supermarket and the clerk swiped his card for Rs 20,000 instead of Rs 200. The owner of the shop brushed off the incident, quoted nonexistent rules and regulations and packed my friend off with an assurance that once the money is realized, the excess will be returned. Friend returned home meekly and spent a sleepless night. Our dynamite heard about it, pumped courage into the man, dragged him to the store by his collar, twisted the ears of the owner and made him cough up Rs 19,800 on the spot. A lecture on proper care and cautious use of credit cards followed, Along with an advice not to bow down to ‘dadagiri’.

I always wished I had at least a fraction of his dynamism, foresight, knowledge and confidence.

He and his wife were going abroad by an early morning flight and he had planned to drive to the air port and leave the car with a friend living close by. They had finished their packing and kept all the necessary things together so that there will be no confusion or rush in the morning. He had checked the car the previous day and was satisfied that everything was in order.
He opened the car door in the morning and called for a piece of cloth to wipe the mist from the windshield. His wife came out with the cloth and just then a gust of wind pushed the main door shut with the keys inside.
All the luggage, the documents, the tickets and the keys were neatly placed on the table. All the windows and doors were latched securely.

When I answered the doorbell at 4.00 in the morning, I found an entirely different person whom I did not recognize at all. His shoulders were stooping, face had shrunk, he was sweating even in the early morning cold and cursing himself repeatedly for his stupidity. He had the phone numbers of all the help – the carpenter, the fabricator, the lock smith and so on but everything was inside the house. The whole world was peacefully asleep, It was getting late and he did not know what to do!
As we usually do at such times we started going round and round the house hoping for a miracle. There was another gust of wind and somewhere a window shutter banged. We ran there and found one shutter open but there was the grill. I remembered that I had treated a man for tooth ache recently who had said that he was a carpenter. I managed to retrieve his telephone number from the haphazard entries of my day book. (I note the telephone numbers of all my patients but it never goes into their records). Just a few days back he had woken me up at three in the morning and so I knew he would not refuse my request. He arrived in ten minutes, removed the grill, entered the house and opened the door. The couple reached the airport on time and I was happy that I was of some help for them.

My friend was happy that everything ended Ok but was cursing himself for being careless and leaving a window unsecure!

I always longed to be like him but had a cheap thrill seeing him looking stupid and silly like me for once!