[Dear readers, here I am serving your platter with something new i.e. a short story. Hope you will enjoy it.]

He lifted his eyes towards the sky and saw dark heavy clouds hanging from it. He could hardly finish saying, “It is going to rain very shortly.”, it started thundering all around and slanting canes of rain started lashing him from head to foot.  He opened the gate very fast and rushed with great speed to the parking area. He was almost out of breath and decided to take the elevator to the third floor. He waited in the parking quarter of the apartment and wished to enjoy the rain. He knew not where the wind bore the smell of the wet earth from  because as far he could cast his eyes, he could view the land cemented tight without any scope left for the rain water to seep in.   He watched  rain drops creating bubbles on the ground but  he could not garner any joy at the sight of that he always enjoyed earlier, a fear seemed to eat him up. He gave himself a jerk to energize both his body and mind and lifted the heavy bag on his shoulder and plodded towards the elevator.  But the board in front of the elevator displayed in bold red, “Out of order”. He just heaved a sigh and said to himself, “Another ominous day for me in the calendar, the elevator’s board displays the portent. I do not know what is awaiting for me ahead.”

                The day before the last, he received a call from a customer in the evening that the latter’s water purifier, Aquaguard was not functioning that required servicing. The customer called him and pleaded, “Somehow, you spare your time to check my Aquaguard tomorrow, it is not working, there is not a single drop of water at home  to drink. You know it is the month of Ramadan and the first thing that you need to break your fast is a pure glass of water. The machine cannot pump in water and I am tired of buying mineral water both for cooking and drinking. You know that need a lot of water and it also becomes costly to  buy the water everyday. I hope, you can understand my problem and will come to check the machine tomorrow. But try to come a little bit early, say around 1 p.m. Do not make  late, please, be on time”. He agreed to the request  to go for the servicing at 1.p.m. on the next day. He was almost free on that day  except the other appointment that was in the morning and that he guessed would require two hours maximum.

                The day was very comfortable after the last night’s shower. The sky cleaned up and a cool breeze was blowing. It was not the usual heat of the last part of the month of May and the day felt to be very pleasant, neither hot nor cold.  After attending the first client, when he found a time slot of around one and half an hour was left in his hands before the second appointment, he  proceeded towards his house deciding to finish his bath and  his lunch first and then take up his next assignment.

                 A siesta tempted him with a languishing feeling after he gorged on non vegetarian meal. Without bothering to clean his plate right after eating, that a working bachelor is not expected to do as that piles up household work to be completed altogether at the end of the day, he just headed towards the bed. He suddenly woke up, felt an uncomfortable shiver ran through his body because he switched on the fan overhead  to keep him cool as he felt uncomfortably hot after overeating. When he opened his eyes and looked at the wall clock, he could not believe it, he sat straight on the bed instantly, gave a rub to his eyes and saw the same time again, it was 4.15 p.m. He got down from the bed hurriedly, rushed to the bathroom, washed his face and changed his dress. He locked the door hurriedly and took out a piece of paper from his pocket and  went through the address of the house that he noted down on it  from the customer who called him the previous day. He walked  about hundred metres forward along the road on his left  and selected the right turn when he came to a bifurcation, then walked about half a kilometer’s distance and reached the grey coloured building.

                As he walked along the road, the day overpowered him with its pleasentness. He noticed a  soft light encircling the world  around him keeping all the men and animals happy. The thought of the  time that he promised to reach the house at only disturbed him occasionally.  But he shooed  away that worry  with the conjecture , “ Here in our country, nobody reaches on  time, being late on any occasion or reaching  anywhere after the given time has  almost  become customary here. Hence, in being late I have not committed a crime, I am following the way of my world”.  He saved his mind from the prick of worry with the words. He then felt light and started humming a number from an old Hindi movie as he felt the day to be romantic.

                The bell rang, the man, the owner of the house opened the door and in a  heavy  voice said, “I think you are late. Anyway, check the machine and try to finish the work soon”. He replied to the man in a cheerful  voice, “ Sir, do not worry,  I will take fifteen minutes’ time to finish the task”. Slowly, he put the bag on the floor, opened it and took out some tools and waited for the man who went inside. When the man returned, he followed him  to the kitchen. He opened the machine, cleaned it and fit its parts appropriately and hung it on its usual place  on the kitchen wall. He then said with glee  to the house owner  seated on a stool by him in the kitchen, “Sir, I hope, you  are free of all the hassles of your Aquaguard now, no one, not even an evil spirit can  stop  the water from pumping in and flowing out of the machine now. You just see the magic of my hand.” saying that, with his fore finger bloated with confidence, he pressed the button of the machine. A beep sound came from the machine,  he waited a few seconds, then for a minute but there was no  sign of water pumping in and coming out of the machine. But he  managed  not to let him down. Keeping up  his confidence, wearing a smile on his face, he  looked at the owner and said, “Just give me a few minutes more, I will certainly solve the problem”. Saying that, he took down the machine laboriously from the wall again, opened it and leaving it spread out with its parts open on the floor, like a patient operated on the table and is awaiting to be stitched,  he went back to the front room and rummaged through his large bag. Fishing out a part, he said to himself, “This is the right part, if replaced with that of the machine, I think, the problem will be solved”.

                Talking to the house owner in between his work, he tried to relish his job but he missed to notice the sign of anxiety on the face of the spectacled man. He also failed  to see that the man was lost in an unfathomable thought. He replaced a part of the machine with the one that he brought out of his bag and fit it well with nut and bolt in the Aquaguard. He pulled up the machine from the floor and hung it on the wall again. His eyes sparkled with a feeling of success and he turned to the house owner and said, “Sir, your work is done”. Saying that his forefinger, like a proud soldier winning the battle,  pressed the button of the machine again. But alas! one more beep sound and after a wait of even a minute there was no sign of water pumping in or flowing out of the machine.  His confidence then gave way and there was a sign of nervousness on his face. He grappled to accelerate the pace of his work to keep in tune with the time that was running fast and sometimes did the same thing needlessly more than once. But time whizzed past him with a snicker. More than an hour was spent but nothing was achieved. Once again, the floor was left littered with the disjointed parts of the machine.

                The nervousness on the face of the house owner struck his vision. He saw the owner casting his glance frequently at the inner bedroom of the house. The owner could hear the trotting of heavy feet in the room and could perceive that a storm was gathering its force there and was ready to blow out very soon.  Suddenly,  a female figure in a double XXL frock and with cropped hair burst out of the room fuming  in anger. Over her thickly rimmed spectacle, the fair and fat lady looked at the wall clock, hung over the dining table and facing the kitchen. The  time in the clock poked the fire of her anger and she blazed red with a yell at the owner,  her husband, “I told you just to tell the man to leave  when he came late, but you did not listen to me and ushered him into the kitchen saying that it was fifteen minutes’ work. Now see, what a mess he has made of my kitchen. Only six minutes left for breaking the fast and there is not a morsel of food prepared to take for that”. The lady turned hysteric in anger and landed in the kitchen, her domain with a heavy thump of her foot and pointing finger at the man working on the machine said in an authoritative voice, “Leave immediately, have no sense of time. Come tomorrow on time,  at 1 p.m. otherwise I will complain to your office against you. You people take your own time to barge into people’s house. Leave immediately, I cannot stand you here for a second”. He assembled and joined the parts of the machine hurriedly and hanging his bag on his shoulder rushed out of the house without looking back but on his way out he told the house owner that he would come next day to set the machine right.

                He murmured to himself, “ The elevator has also taken the chance to be out of order today to trouble me”. He looked up despondently and said, “I do not know what is going to happen today. I cannot reach  soon.  I will take fifteen minutes to climb all the six flights of the stair case to reach the third floor with the heavy bag on my shoulder”. He remembered all the names of Gods and Goddesses that he knew and said his prayers. He wished the lady to fall ill suddenly  and  be confined  in her room or to leave for her parents’ home receiving an urgent message that something untoward happened there. He never prayed to God so piteously  as he prayed on  that day. He somehow wanted his prayer not to face the lady in the house to be granted by God. Being merged in his thoughts, he could not understand how he reached the third floor so soon.  The sight of the ash coloured door sent a shudder through his body, he felt a numbness in his finger to press the call bell.  He paused for a while and gathered all the force and closed his eyes and pressed the bell. With a clank,  the lady opened the door and her sight drained his face of all its blood. He was overtook  with such a fright as if he was hounded by hundred pariah dogs in a dark night. The lady looked at the wall clock and led him into the kitchen and waddled to her room.  

                He completed the task taking two hours  with the aid of some new tools that he brought along with him. He then switched on the Aquaguard. Water  pumped in the machine nicely and it also flowed out after a while. He gave a call to the lady and was about to leave but she asked him to wait a little. She emerged with a fifty rupees’ note in her hand from her room and handed it to him with a smile on her face. He reacted with a feeling unknown to him, he could not clear his perception of the lady who stood before him as a loving woman  but the same person who  appeared such a horrifying figure the day before.  He hesitated to accept the money and at that the lady said, “I know you have repaired the machine in AMC period and hence the work must be free of charge but I am giving you  the money for being on time today.   You were late yesterday and therefore you intruded into my time slot that I kept for cooking. After you had left, we placed an order for food from outside. It was already late when we placed the order and hence the food could not arrive on time and  we could not break our fast timely as a result of that. Everything was messed up and  you cannot imagine what a trouble we all faced yesterday. But you are on time and have finished your work within your timetable today, so it does not require you  to snatch away my time that I have reserved for my kitchen work and consequently I feel everything is in order today”. Saying that the lady went away to the kitchen.

                With heavy steps, he came down the apartment and looked at the board in front of the elevator that still sneered at him with the words,  “Out of order” in bold red.  But he was no more terrified by that, he learnt from the lady the lesson how to put life in order. With a reverence for her, his chest puffed up.  

…………….Dr. Fathema Begum