365 DAYS 365 TALES

The 'Lift'

'Yeah! Yeah!' Shankar fumed angrily at his mother, having no idea what she was actually saying as he plucked his car keys. He was already thinking about the quickest way to get to the office. He glanced at his watch almost horrified because he was sure that someone had bewitched the damned thing to go faster than necessary. It was 7.45 just a few seconds back. It could not be 8.05 just yet. It just could not. ....Ritvik would kill him if he was late today.....

But then today the day was just jinxed.

The whole morning right from the time he woke up ten minutes late had been impossible.

The taps were leaking, the pressure cooker for whatever reason was unbearably slow (Or it could just be that Shankar was paying attention to the damned thing for the first time in his life.....) and his nosy neighbour had picked a rather lousy time to show-case all her creative talents for gossiping about the locality. And his mother instead of making his breakfast was very busy listening to how Geetha, the girl who lived two houses away was doing some rather suspicious things...Shankar was sure he was going to find something really heavy to whack the neighbour had the neighbour not left the time she had....

It was thinking all this when Shankar stopped outside his house and now he was horrified....

His car...

Shankar started the car, when the damned thing was silent. Like completely unresponsive kind of silent. The 'I am not going to start no matter what', kind of silent.

Still horrified, Shankar pulled his cell phone. 'Ritvik! Car's not working, man!' Shankar shouted as he was wondering whether he really had time to tinker the vehicle and find out what was wrong with it.

'YOU ARE STILL AT HOME?' Ritvik, his part time friend and full time partner in his company, yelled so loudly that Shankar was sure that even without the speaker on, his mother who was a few meters away, heard Ritvik just fine.

Shankar should not have heard nothing. Ritvik was screeching so loudly that the speech was above normal audible frequency.....

Shankar glanced at his watch again as the minute hand still was creeping up. Wasn't there a law that watches had to stop when there was a traffic jam or some other mess......

Shankar swore angrily as he got out of the car and wasted his time some more, by yelling at the car in just about every single language, as if that was going to spur the vehicle into action.... His mother was watching him slightly horrified, probably worried more about Shankar's language than the fact that the vehicle was not working.

'I am sending a mechanic to repair the car.' Shankar said as he had run out of his breath and words to yell at the car, as he handed over his car key to his mother. Normally, he repaired everything himself. But right now......

This was mutiny....He thought angrily looking at the car. The car did not want him to be on time to office and wanted him to miss the meeting.....The meeting....

Shankar got on the main road and the first thing he did see was a car driving across. Instead of walking across to the bus stand, Shankar though about Ritvik's angry face and he stopped the car.

'I need a lift!' he said breathlessly at the woman who was driving. 'I am late for a meeting!' The woman was watching him completely shocked and she did look like she was going to drive away, when Shankar said the magic word. 'Please!'

The brown eyes of the woman studied him for a few seconds. 'Get in!' was all she said.

And Shankar regretted every single minute of the next twenty five minutes which followed.