Thoughts and happenings of a day

Something’s wrong with the people around me. They have not identified the greatest achievement of my life. Instead they believe the big change I effected in my career is the greatest achievement of my life. I am proud of the change but it is not even my second greatest achievement. Thinking about it, I realize, shockingly, that it is not even my third greatest achievement. Recently I attended an Alumni meet. I spent a refreshing day catching up with people I did not know and did not really care to know. By the end of the day, many of my more stranger than friends batch mates got to a state where they found it hard differentiate between sky and the ground. Watching the scene, I was reminded of the Wet Wet Wet song "Love is in the air".  By love, I don't mean the Romeo - Juliet type but more the Jesus Christ type. Every human seemed like an angel for most of the on-verge-of-disintegration people. Many walked over to me and congratulated me on "my greatest achievement". I smiled and mmm-ed and ahh-ed through it. I did not dare to explain that I thought otherwise.

Earlier that day, I had made a fool of myself by taking part in a discussion on career changes. During the discussion the word passion crept in. The discussion took a nasty turn. It seemed to people that I went through the change to start working on my passion. I like what I do but it will be a stretch to call it a passion. As a matter of fact, I was earlier working in my area of passion. One of my fellow batch mates (whose existence I did not know till that day) did not like the use of the word passion and objected. His objections were not directed at me but at one of my panel-mates. Later, just as I was leaving he caught me and started tearing me apart. Much as I would have loved to be torn apart, he timed it wrong. I put a pleasant smile and said in a pleasant voice something rude and walked away.

I don't have problem in people harping about my achievements. I am not afflicted by the disease called modesty and have no problems in people praising me. But how do I make them realise that for me, the achievement they talk about is not an achievement at all. For heaven's sake it comes fourth; not even a bronze medal. I can't even take the credit for having thought about it. Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that people should not talk about my accomplishments. Please don't talk about that; talk about this.

*************

As I walked from the railway station, I saw a man sleeping on the pavement. He did not seem like a homeless person who had made that pavement his home. He was more like a person who had fallen midway to his destination. He was lying on his back, his left knee was bent up and his right knee was over the left one. He was fast asleep. I felt a pang of jealousy run through me. The fellow was asleep in a crowded, noisy, dirty and stinky place. He was oblivious of the many footsteps forming around him. The din of vehicles probably did not even get to his dreams. He was enjoying his sleep. As I went round the corner, jealousy had given way to logical and pious thoughts.

************

I was glad the long day was coming to an end. It had not exactly gone as well as I had hoped it would but it was not bad either. I was looking forward to getting back home. The long drive listening to music that I love seemed like heaven compared to listening to other's thoughts, hopes and wishes. The traffic was smooth for a Friday evening and I got through the crowded parts of the city. The traffic in the suburbs, which is usually light threw me a shock. It was down to a snail's place; not a constantly moving snail but one that stopped every few seconds. During one such stop, my mobile started singing. As I looked down at it, the snail started moving. I took my leg off the clutch and the car, which was in second gear, jumped forward and stopped.

I tried to get the car started with no luck. It went click-burrr-buzzzz-zzzzz. I tried turning it once more and it resulted in a similar click-burrr-buzzzz-zzzzz. I had faced a similar situation a few months earlier and knew the problem precisely. The battery was down and the car required a jump start. By this time, the drivers in the vehicles behind got impatient and started honking. I switched on the hazard signal and waved my hand to inform that the car will not move. I don't think they understood and continued to honk. I waved my hands some more. Finally, they moved out of the lane and went ahead. Every one of them glared at me. I started melting. With shivering  hands, I called the roadside service and requested help. They said that help was on the way and should be with me in one hour. I could not contain an incredulous sounding "one hour?". They reassured me "within one hour". I had no choice but wait.

I kept a watch in the rear view mirror. Most drivers noticed of the hazard lamp and took care to move away from my lane. Fortunately, the car stopped at left edge of the road and not at the center. But it stopped close to a crowded signal and the whole place was choked with vehicles. Some autorickshaws and goods vehicles did not take heed of the hazard signal and came right behind the car and honked. I waved my arms to inform them a combination of "my car is not starting and I am stuck" and "go to hell". They moved with great difficulty from behind my vehicle and stared at me as they passed by. I stared right back. After sometime I got tired of staring at people and started staring at my mobile. A few people on two wheelers, commented and wanted me to move to the side. This effectively killed my thought of getting out of the vehicle, standing behind my car and waving the other vehicles away. At least inside, one can stare at the mobile and miss the comments.

Forty five minutes later, there was a knock on the glass. I looked up and saw a policeman. I have not grown out of jumping out of the seat on seeing a policeman. So I promptly jumped out of my seat. Since the insides of the car did not have room enough for me to jump out anywhere, I fell right back into the seat. I opened the window. He asked "What happened?" I said "The car stopped and needs a jump start." I reassured him that help was on the way and should reach soon. He responded "the place is too crowded and your car will cause a jam" without realizing that it had already caused enough jam to fill a few Kissan bottles. He continued "I will get a few people to help you push the car". He got into the service lane and asked an auto driver and a person with a vegetable bag to help. The auto driver agreed readily but the person with the bag seemed confused. He pointed at the auto and seemed to be saying that he did not want to ride the auto. The policeman explained patiently the need and they walked towards the car. The policeman asked me to steer the vehicle into the service lane. I nodded a nervous yes.

The next time the traffic moved, the two people pushed the vehicle. The traffic stop within a few metres. The autorickshaw driver walked by and asked what the issue was. I informed him about the car stopping and it requiring a jump start. He face brightened and he said "Oh! You should have told me earlier. All you need to do is the put the vehicle in second gear as it moves and the vehicle will start". I looked at the driver incredulously. I had heard about this trick but did not know the details and did not realize that it worked on these modern car, which is controlled by computers and other rotten fellows. I thought such tricks worked only for cars made in the 80s and 90s. I asked "so what should I do?" Before the driver could answer, the policeman asked "If you are not sure, do you mind if I do it?" This man's politeness was killing me. He was turning out to be everything I did not expect a policeman to be; not that I knew much about policemen. As he got into the driver's seat he said "you can go and push the vehicle".

As we waited the traffic to move, I heard the passerby cribbing to the autorickshaw driver in Hindi that he was getting delayed and had to go home. The driver waved his hand and said that he will be free to leave in a few minutes. As the traffic ahead of the car moved, I pushed the car but the driver stopped me. He said "lets wait for a bit. Let there be enough space in the front for the car to move." We waited and soon started pushing the car. It moved jerked, moved again and stopped. The traffic ahead had come to a stop. I went up to the driver's seat and asked the policeman "It did not start, right?" He smiled at me and said "of course not, it has started." I nearly fell on the road in joy. I got into the driver's seat and beamed a smile and thanked the autorickshaw driver and the policeman profusely. The North-Indian-in-a-hurry passerby was nowhere in sight. The two of them smiled at me indulgently.

As I continued my interrupted journey, I felt stupid. I did not know much about the vehicle I was driving though I have been driving it for more than a decade. On the bright side, I had learnt something on this day and it might come to use in the future.

As usual, this cloud too had its silver lining.