"CHUP! I KNOW YOU VERY WELL..."

It is another day… 

My wife had to leave for her Yoga session along with the Sun… and, I had to leave for my daily grind so that we don’t go to bed hungry at night. 

Morning time is hectic. We go about our schedule almost like a robot, all programmed. My wife had just left for Yoga at 6.45… and after ten minutes, our intercom started ringing. I thought it was my wife… Probably to call from the security cabin, “Darling, I am sorry, I forgot to wish: ‘A happy Valentine Day’!”

No, it was another woman! 

Someone had parked a car right behind this woman’s car outside her stilt… and, this woman, one of our members, wanted me - the Hon. Chairman -  to fix the problem! 

It was a Valentine Day for her, too… So, apart from the fact that I am always gentle and courteous with everyone even if they encroach upon my private space…, today, particularly, I did not want to offend or hurt a woman! It was a Valentine Day, yes… it was!

I courteously and patiently assured the lady that I would send the Security to each of the flats in their building and hopefully the problem would be solved soon. Immediately, I called the Security and left the instruction…

Ours is a simple, common-man’s housing society. Our maintenance amount is minimal… and, with the kind of money that we spend on our Security, we cannot expect to get a defense-kind of Security… “If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.”

This lady had started blaming the Security… and, I had kept my cool saying, “Ma’am, let’s see how we can solve this problem… Let’s have some patience.”

When, I was talking to the Security through the intercom in our drawing room, my mobile was ringing like mad in our bedroom. Finally, when I went to check, I learnt that it was that lady’s husband. I tried to get back, but he didn’t pick up. I tried to call the lady on her cell-phone, she didn’t pick up, either. I really thought, that they wanted to break the good news to me, “Mr. D’Cunha, sorry for bothering you at a wrong time… Our problem is solved. Thank you.”

But then, I was only left to guess… There was no response from them.

“Why was this man incessantly trying to call me?” I wondered.

“Maybe, he was feeling bad that his wife had to nag me early on a Valentine Day!” I consoled myself.

When I left home, after half-an-hour or so, I checked with the Security. “Saab, problem solve hogaya,” I was told.


“Very good. See that the problem doesn’t repeat,” I told those men and went about my way.

I got into an auto... and I got stuck in it! I hadn’t seen this kind of traffic for years. I kept hoping that the traffic would move… It did for a fraction of a second, again jammed. It was so bad, that people got off from their autos and buses and kept walking. I was getting late, so I hoped against the hope and thought it would move now. No, it didn’t. Finally, where I would have spent just Rs. 11, I had already spent Rs. 40… and, I got off the auto and began to walk. It was so bad, there was no space left to even walk!

On my way, I saw many men and ladies, who were late for their work, returning back, home… and, tensed mothers taking back their little children who were late for the school. I saw the men and women in those fine cars helplessly waiting… experiencing the futility of throwing tantrums in the middle of this madness. I saw the police men just clueless about how to fix this chaos… I also saw some couples having good time inside their ‘meter-downed’ taxis!

It was a Valentine Day!

It took about twenty minutes for me to reach my office. I was tired… a lot irritated, too. My students were waiting for me… but, then, I had asked them not to go back. Faithfully, they were waiting for me, their sir.

So, as soon as I reached, I had to straightaway get into teaching. 

“Sir, a happy Valentine Day,” some one cried from behind. 

“Not bad!” I thought. “Who is that?” I looked around. “A very happy Valentine Day, dear!”

That was about it. It was then, back to the grind.

In the midst of my lecture, I saw my mobile silently buzzing. Tempted, I saw whose number it was. It was the same man. “Yes sir… Good morning,” I really thought he had called me to say a ‘thank you’.

It was a nasty man!

And, I was in my nasty state of mind, too, by now!

He was going on and on fuming about the morning episode… That, he had to go with his wife out on an appointment (must be on a special Valentine one!)… and, because of our good-for-nothing Security, he had to ‘personally’ go to each flat – that early in the morning – and plead with his ‘folded hands’. Finally, he had found the culprit – another lady! And that, only after this ‘culprit-lady’ removed her car, that they could move their car… 

Then, he started talking about the light outside his stilt. “It is not working for the past two-three days… I have told the Security a hundred times… No use…”

Now, how do you deal with this kind of species?

I had picked up the phone in the midst of my class, purely, out of not wanting to sound impolite… trying to hear something pleasant, which, as another normal human being, my heart longed for… 

And, here I was landed!

I started on a very composed note. “Yes sir, but sir… You are right sir, but sir… I agree with you sir, but sir… I fully empathize with you sir… but sir….”

“The but,” was my perspective… the Society’s perspective. I was trying to tell him in a firm and gentle manner, “Sir, I am also like you, a simple human being… giving my private time for the larger good of the Society… We all are living in a Co-operative Society… We need to be more patient, more accommodating and helpful.”

No, this was not working with this man. He was not able to understand that he and his wife had encroached upon my personal space… and, even now, when I was telling him that I was in the midst of the lecture, he was so heartless to empathize with my situation…”

My patience had already waned. I lost my cool and blasted him: Left. Right. Center!

“Where are you, now sir?” I asked him angrily. 

“We are caught up here in this bloody traffic,” he yelled.

I was out of my head, by now!

“Bloody, traffic! What the hell are you doing in the car, sir…? Get off and walk, the way I did?” I blasted. 

Even if he started breaking his head on his car, that traffic wouldn’t budge an inch... So bad it was! Just because, I was budging – being a gentleman – he thought he could get away with breaking my head this morning. 

Well, he had his wife 

next to him in the car. 

He had an option ,there inside the car, 

to fume like a possessed man 

or simply to put his arm 

around his Valentine 

and whisper in her heart, 

“Honey, what an alone time! 

Come, let’s celebrate!”

I took a long time to get into my teaching rhythm. But, such is life… I had to pretend before my students, that, everything was cozy, rosy... Lovey-dovey on this Valentine morning… That, it was all big hearts and cupids… nothing else!

After the lecture, my wife called me to ask as to how I had managed in that traffic. I narrated the entire story. I wanted to cool off. So, I vented out on my phone all that I had experienced… my blasting!

“Right thing you did… He deserved it!” My wife, very, very rarely agrees with what I do in life! Seriously… !

So, this morning, when she gave me this ‘clean chit’… I really felt it was a special day. A Valentine Day!

“Love you, Honey…”  I said.

“Chup! I know you very well!” she hung up.

What else do you want…  Except this fortune, this blessing… that, your loved one ‘knows you so very well’?

I love this man even though I was angry with him. I do not need his validation for my feeling!

I love my wife not because she validated my action today… I love her for making me a human and learn how to long for it whenever she doesn’t!

I long to remain an eternally loving and lovable soul!

 The traffic is completely cleared… My heart says so!

GERALD D'CUNHA

Pics.: Vivek D'Cunha