A room with a view!

Room with a view!

This is about a fastidious colleague of mine. I had traveled quite a lot with him on official duty and each time, he made me feel like a pig that had managed to escape from its sty and steal a ride with him! The most horrid part of my experience with him would be the train journey. First he would secure his suitcase with a thick chain and a lock that would easily pass the test at Fort Knox. There was nothing wrong per se about being cautious but what would be most embarrassing were his loud remarks about the level of honesty and integrity in our country. After locking up his belongings, he would give everyone around a triumphant look as if to convey that he had them cornered there and that they must look elsewhere for their booty! The unkindest cut of all would be his joke that ‘Many a man is saved from being a thief by finding everything locked up’!

When the attendant of the coach delivered the bedding paraphernalia, he would pick up the blanket with his left hand as if it was the carcass of a rat that died a fortnight back while the right would be employed in closing his massive nostrils and hand it back to the attendant. He would go on to say how one of his friends contracted some incurable skin disease like psoriasis and what have you after using a railway blanket just once. He would further say that he would approach the consumer forum for making it mandatory for the Railways to print a warning, similar to the ones that appeared on cigarette packs and liquor bottles, on all the railway blankets with also the information about when they were last washed. He would then subject the bed sheets to a thorough scrutiny to see if they have been washed, starched and ironed for use. If there was any indication that they came as an untouched legacy from the previous user, he would become a Chinese Dragon breathing fire and brimstone.

When we checked into a hotel, he would ask for a ‘room with a view’. At my first tryst with him, I asked him if he had read that novel by E.M.Forster when he asked for a room with a view and he gave me a blank look. That was my first and last attempt to strike a literary conversation with him! He hated rooms that had windows facing the hotel corridor. He preferred rooms that had a commanding view of the city or the sea or mountains depending upon where they were located. He always said that nothing could be more exhilarating than an uninterrupted view of at least a hundred kilometers of Mother Earth. Once inside the room, he would make a beeline to the toilet to assess how clean it was. He would be satisfied on seeing a strip of paper stuck on the toilet seat saying that the closet has been sanitized for our protection. He would then lift the receiver to check if the phone was in working order. He would then turn his attention to all the electrical fittings to see if they were in proper working condition. The last item on his agenda would be the TV. He would flip through all the channels to make sure that nothing was amiss.

After a few outings with him, it dawned on me why my other colleagues always avoided a trip with him. It was probably the fact that my tolerance level was the highest on this side of the equator that weighed with my management to team me with him every time. He practised untouchability of such severity as existed during the British colonial days when he shared a room with me. He always ensured that I had access to the bathroom only after he finished with all his morning chores. I still recall with horror his reaction on one occasion on finding that I had used the bathroom ahead of him. He rushed out of the bathroom immediately and asked me if any of the hotel buffalos had calved there! After that stinging remark, I always preferred to clutch my tummy and crouch in a corner until he was through with the bathroom!

I was soon transferred out of the city as was our custom in the Bank. This colleague of mine bade me farewell and suggested that if I ever happened to come to that place again, I should be his guest. After a few days, it so happened that I had to make a trip to that place to resolve some pending issues. I had told my friend that I would be staying in his house for a night. When I reached his flat near the railway track, it was late in the night. He was very hospitable indeed and after ensuring that I had a decent meal with him, he ushered me into my allotted room. His bed looked like a miniature battlefield which he blamed on his children. One look at the blanket and I decided to brave the wintry night without it. The window in my room had a view of the rail track.

When it was dawn, I had a good look at the room allotted to me. Cobweb covered the entire ceiling with a link to most of the fittings in the room as if it was some kind of a mini wired city. I opened the window to look outside and could see hundreds of slum dwellers living in the nearby slum converting the expansive railway yard into the world’s largest toilet. I noticed that most of them had covered their faces like the bandits of Chambal Valley to escape any risk of being identified by the passengers in the speeding trains! I closed the window instantly and moved to the toilet. The moment I stepped in, I was in a supine position thanks to the slippery floor. For no reason, I recollected Neil Armstrong’s famous words, ‘A short step for man but a giant leap for mankind’!

I then realised why my friend was so fastidious whenever he traveled and why he always demanded a ‘Room with a view’!

 

My dear Vidya
When we open the window and see graffiti ridden high walls and yet our minds can reach beyond them and lead us into a lovely garden like what Abdul Kalaam nurtured so lovingly to be enjoyed by his successor, what more can one ask for? The secret of happiness, I guess, lies not in the external environment but in our state of mind with regard to our environment. If our heart is filled to the brim with negative emotions, even the Flower Valley of the Himalayas will fail to soothe our bruised souls. And when we are brimming with joyful thoughts, every thing will look beautiful indeed. All sounds will be music to our ears.

Unfortunately, today the all-important thing is not the state of the Mind but the ambience or the state of the environment. People tend to connect happiness with bigger and better gadgets and a higher standard of living. The philosophy of life is not any more based on the classic principles of devotion or an aristocratic upbringing. The unscrupulous copy writers of corporate advertisements push us further into an abyss and make us as discontented with what we have as would make their products eminently desirable. The manner in which the multinationals target the Indian middle class is sure to leave everyone wanting something or other and consequently in eternal debts.

Your thought provoking FB has made me ramble further on a subject that I view with a lot of concern namely the increasing indebtedness of middle class families. It is true that I felt initially a bit down with the sharp decrease in my readership but after reading your fabulous FB, I feel highly rewarded indeed. If my threads can elicit such FBs, is that not reason enough for me to continue writing? In fact, I love my interactions in my forum and it has created in me a strong feeling of togetherness.

I remain in the evening of my life watching the greying sky with awe. I know that eventually the dark sky will bring out stars like you to gladden my heart and make me contented.
Sri

 

Dear Chithra
Your calling my thread a 'piece de resistence' is like being called Brahmarishi by Vasishta!
Thank you very much for your generosity!
Why can't you disagree more with my statement about my tolerance? Do you think I am very intolerant? You want me to say 'I can't tolerate such statements being made about me' so that you can say 'Gotcha!"?
Your blog on 'Home sweet home' was all about me!
I totally agree with you that it was a great FB from Vidya.
Sri

 

Dear Usha
When you say 'Maybe he never washed his own linens' reminds me of a colleague of mine who is no more. He was such an adorably flamboyant guy that it was difficult not to get drawn to him. Once he undertook a foreign travel for a couple of months. His idea was to hitchhike as much as possible so that he could cover as many places as possible within his shoe-string budget. I went to see him off at the airport where I observed him with just a shoulder bag. When I asked him if he had already checked his baggage in, he replied that he had no other baggage! This stunned me because that bag was just large enough to accommodate enough clothing for a couple of days. When I told him that he would stink wearing unwashed clothes, he promptly answered that it was not his problem. His reasoning was that no one would ever be aware of his own stink!

I am raking my brain about why I have been branded intolerant by one of the most tolerant ILites! Hope I find an answer!

Why this hesitation to write a FB, Usha? We are not vying for a Booker Prize here. We are all just friends sharing our thoughts and experiences with each other. Period.
Sri

 

Dear Shanthi
You would hardly believe that The Room on the Roof was the first novel of Ruskin Bond. The view that the young lad of the novel has of the town of Dehra is what I meant by the state of mind playing a large role in our assessment of our surroundings. Thank you for reminding me of this novel.

People who brag a lot about themselves are attention-starved. This creates a fear in them that whatever they do may go unnoticed if they do not talk about it. They hardly realise that it is their constant bragging that comes in the way of their getting due attention. A vicious circle one would say!

If our happiness comes out of external things, that happiness must be a lasting one but it is not so! One good example is the habit of changing mobile phones almost on a monthly basis!
Sri