Perfect Start (or lack there of)
This incident happened on 18th December 2010 (a Saturday for those looking to find patterns or omens). I was getting ready to go to work in the morning, and the driver reported that the car would not start, not due to a dead battery, but some other hitherto unknown reason. This being India and inside a large residential complex, I asked my driver to call his driver brethren, and all of them gave me a jolly ride in and around the complex, while I tried in vain to jump start the engine. Very soon I realized that we are into unchartered waters, and asked the driver to call in the mechanic and get it towed and looked up, while I waited in the house. An hour later, they could not find out exactly what went wrong, and I called the Ford service technician as a last resort. He gave an appointment and after hearing the problem description over the phone, diagnosed the problem and gave my driver a quick remedy. Lone behold, the car starts, and it is an air leak in the fuel system and needs repaired, but as a stop-gap solution, we can pump out the air in the system and the car would work fine, and it only happens if we leave it idle overnight.
Now, both Geetha and I have decided to go ahead with our initial scheduled plan of visiting her friend's place (we should have learnt our lesson based on how the day started for us.. No, we didn't). So, we grabbed our little ones and headed for their house. Theirs is a duplex apartment, converted by internally linking 2 apartments one over the other in 3rd and 4th floors with a spiral stair case. Pranavi's favorite spot to throw a fit is that spiral stair case, her so called 'Alaka Griham'. They have a son Nikhil (9th grader) who loves to play with Dhruva and Pranavi and vice versa. That is another reason why we decided to march ahead with our plans despite the small hiccup with the car (coming to think about it, the car kinda has a hiccup and we have to clear the air pocket...). So, we are all having fun. Kids are playing with Nikhil, Geetha chatting with Narmada and I am discussing which amplifier to purchase for Murthy's new entertainment system (this guy has a separate entertainment room that you all would be proud/jealous of depending on the take). Pranavi said she was tired and wants to sleep and went into a room.
Room Alone
A little while later, I hear Pranavi crying, and since we were in the higher floor and voice being very feeble, assumed that she was downstairs and Geetha assumed that Pranavi was upstairs. Fact of the matter is that, she went into a room (upstairs) and the door closed behind her and got locked up. She could not reach for the lights and it is dark inside. However feisty little gal she is, she is still afraid of dark (partly/mostly because we use it as a weapon to feed her) and is crying scared inside.
When we realized that she was inside, they were panicked and started looking for the keys. Guess what, we tried over a dozen keys, but not able to open the door. Pranavi's cries have gone louder and she started coughing heavily, which could only lead to one thing -- she is going to vomit. Murthy and Narmada are getting anxious and trying to call in lock-smith and I even tried my Credit-card swipe technique. It did yield favorable results. Meanwhile, Pranavi went silent. This bothered all of us, and we are not sure what she is up to. Geetha kept calling her and tried to calm her down.
A true testament to our re-adaptation to the mother land, neither Geetha nor I were panicked. We were simply assessing the situation and looking at ways to solve the problem. It is heartening and comforting to see ourselves so composed in a situation like this.
"Kshana Kshanam".. (Sridevi and Venkatesh trying to sneak out of her apartment)
It is Nikhi's room that Pranavi got locked in, and he is in real panic. He told me that the window ( a large sliding French window) of his room is open and I went in to check from the other balcony. It sure is open. I have gauzed the situation and I can walk out of the balcony of the hall and cross over (about 4-5 feet) and reach the AC Unit outside the room and get past it and then slide into the room through the window. It is only fourth floor and it is dark outside, so I cant even see how high up I was. So, while there is a small contingent of people attending to Pranavi, I walked out of the balcony and reached the other room. A small detail worthy of mention is that there is no balcony in the room that Pranavi is in, as they converted even the balcony into the room to make it bigger. So, here I was hanging on to a rod 4 floors above ground trying to get past an AC unit attached to wall so I can get inside the room. Can anyone say "Kshana Kshanam"..
The hosts just realized what I was doing and they got panicked even further for both of us. Slowly and steadily I made past the AC unit, and grabbed the window and slide it open. I pulled myself up and slowly into the room. I was behind the computer desk and made my way through the opening to the front and there is Pranavi crying her lungs out and hugging Geetha dearly. Did I miss something here? I guess so...
While I was doing my own adventures, Geetha asked Pranavi to hold her hand (which she slid under the door) to appease Pranavi. In doing so, little miss Pranavi somehow managed to turn the knob and open the door. Poor kid was traumatized severely and was in a sorry state. She held on to Geetha like she wouldn't want to leave her at any cost, and in uncontrollable state. She is only 3 years old, but this is the first time I have seen her soft.
In the end, I was very pleased that she managed to open the door by herself, but it was kind of anti-climactic.. Don't you think...
So, I'm left with admiration for Murphy for his universal law... "If anything can go wrong, it will.."
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