Isn't it very strange that people whom we do not know very well, people whom we meet everyday but barely acknowledge, people whom we describe as "a little more than a stranger" sometimes become the lifeline when we are stuck on a sticky wicket? I had one such experience recently.

A very strange and incomprehensible association it is. We have "known" each other for a while now. We meet at the lobby of the building that houses our respective offices, sometimes in the queue for the lift, and sometimes just in passing. From ignoring each other, we graduated to a formal smile of acknowledgement ("hi!" & "How are you" were still very far off). If I may be allowed to change the lyrics of ABBA a bit, I would say of him:-

Every day in the morning on my way to the office

I can see him as he waits for the lift

Just a face among a million faces

Just another man with no name .

About a week ago, when I was alone at home one evening, our neighbor's 11yrs.old daughter came to my house in a state of panic. Her parents were not at home and her grandmother was suddenly having serious breathing problems and was sweating a lot! I tried the help lines provided in the news papers for ambulance, but couldn't get through. . The girl, meanwhile, had contacted her parents and they requested me to take the elderly lady to the hospital immediately. Although as nervous as the child, I decided not to waste any more time and somehow managed to get the lady into the car and drove to a nearby hospital.

The doctor on duty at the emergency declared that she needed to be moved to the ICCU, under the care of a specialist .and certain formalities needed to be completed. This seemed okay to me, until I stood face to face with "Mr. Formalities" whew! In a moment I was transported into the world of "Munnabhai, MBBS".

Completely confused and clueless about the details the form wanted (like medical history of both patient and her family, age, blood group etc), and accompanied by a  nearly-in-tears 11 year old child, I was silently praying to God to help my neighbors reach the hospital as soon as possible. Suddenly, someone asked me if he could help me in some way the unfamiliar voice, but familiar face belonged to the same person whom I meet on my way to office everyday. He had come to visit a friend who had been admitted to the hospital and was on his way out when he saw us.

On hearing our plight, he quickly got into the act and helped us through the formalities. He called up his cousin, who is a senior consultant physician in the same hospital and also a visiting faculty member of the medical college attached to it. Thanks to the gentleman's intervention, the otherwise tedious process was completed in a matter of minutes, and the hospital also agreed to wait for the form submission  till the family members arrive (earlier the authorities  had said that without the form they could not  move the patient to the ICCU ) .

Formalities over, I sank into the chair thanking him for all the help that he gave to us. He even managed to calm down the child and waited with us till her parents arrived.  As I was saying good-bye, he said with a smile, "Hi! My name is —–. I still don't know yours!"

Yesterday a family friend and I were to go out together. When I reached her place she had just gone in for a bath. As I waited for her to get ready, the door bell rang. Her 10 years old niece opened the door. I saw a slightly hunched, very fair and thin, a frail looking small woman of about 70+ years at the door. She was asking for Neeru (my friend). She was very disappointed to know that Neeru was taking her bath.  From what I gathered, she needed to change the gas cylinder (she did not know how to do it). I offered to do it for her. As I went into her kitchen to change the cylinder, she kept talking to me. This is her story.

She was widowed young when her son was 7 years old. Her husband had left enough money that was well invested. Her job as a kindergarten teacher filled up whatever gap remained. Her son was brilliant in academics and after finishing his education, he was employed by a top notch company. Her bahu too was working in a public sector bank. She had two grandsons, one in high school, and one in college.

Her son & daughter-in-law had gone to their club for Gandhi Jayanti celebrations in the morning. As per habit, she went to have her breakfast only after her puja was over. Then she saw that the gas cylinder was empty. She needed to fit the new cylinder, so that she could make tea for herself & heat up the breakfast.

 As I looked towards the latest model of microwave oven sitting snugly in one corner, she said, as if reading my mind, that being old, she may do something wrong, and if the microwave conks off, her D-I-L will have a tough time managing home and office By this time, Neeru's niece popped in to say that Neeru's mom has called both of us over for tea as she was making some.

As we re-entered Neeru's flat, the old lady asked us to leave the door open. Her younger grandson would return from school any moment. He had some programme to attend in school. Very proudly, she told us that he was going to give a presentation on Gandhian Values. She said, "bechara, bhookha pyasaa aayega school se . mujhe nahin dekha to woh thanda khana hi kha lega…"

Looking at her and her graciousness I would be ashamed  if I ever hear anyone describing old age as the end of the road. On the other hand, it(old age) is a beautiful boulevard, lined with various trees of experiences and colored by the mellow yet majestic hues of the sun on its westward journey.

Saturday evening was a rather ambiguous one . The fine line between joy and sadness was completely blurred. A complete intermingling of emotions .It was a farewell dinner for a colleague .he is going abroad to better prospects On the one hand was "wow, what luck, yaar", on the other was, "we will miss you"   So, Saturday, his last working day was kept aside for a farewell party .

Isn't it so poignant? Everyone's going to miss his presence, yet everyone was laughing and pulling his legs he was literally the cheer leader of the office never ran out of jokes (even if he had to stay back past midnight to complete the paperwork at the end of the month) and most of all never showed any signs of getting tired. He would manage to get the work out of the grumpiest people in the office, thanks to his easy going behavior. Last year while inviting people to his place for a social gathering, he told the girls, very dramatically, that they absolutely must come. The reason . He wanted to show his friends how popular he was with the girls at work!!!  And what did he tell the guys well they were needed there to keep an eye on his friends believe it or not, everyone turned up such is his charm. Anyone else would have been dismissed as "acting too smart" "showing off"etc

At the party last evening when congratulating him and telling him how lucky he was to get the chance of a lifetime, how happy they were for him, everyone seemed to end with how they will miss him, how office will not be the same from 1^st of September.

His amazing quality of spreading smiles was what set him apart from others (yet he was a strict task master and he himself often stayed back till very late, even coming to office on Sundays whenever required). Yes, what all of us will remember about him is the way he lightened our load by making us see the lighter and brighter side of things, and by putting a smile on our faces, by reminding us "all is not lost, as long as there is life".

 That's what marked him out from others, that is the quality that marks a popular person from an unpopular one

  I was waiting  with my mother for our  turn at a doctor's chamber. She too was waiting for her turn. I had seen her earlier too, at the same place. We only smiled at each other on the other occasions. She was accompanied by her son who was perpetually talking on his cell-phone. Bored, she struck up a conversation with us.  Her husband was admitted in the hospital and she had come to talk to the doctor about her husband's progress to health. They were married almost 46 years ago. She did not meet her husband till everything was fixed by the families. There was no going back then. She told me that she always visualized a husband who looked like Dev Anand but her husband…( all she did was smile sheepishly). But, good girls did not defy their families, so she got married to the guy with loads of regrets about what may have been. Initially, though she never showed it, she was full self pity. But as time flew she realized how stupid she was in her judgment.   With an impish smile on her face, she told me, how the husbands of some of her friends were mean or did not treat their wives with the respect they deserved. On the other hand her husband made sure that she was always treated with respect by everyone in the family, even by their own kids. Even when their second kid was born (they were on a foreign posting) hoe he took care of the home & the older kid leaving her to concentrate on the new-born & herself. Today, she feels her husband was God's greatest gift to her. She is especially thankful that she did not voice her displeasure when marriage negotiations were on, otherwise who knows what kind of man she would have been married to. She acknowledges that in the success of their long & happy marriage her husband's contribution was more than hers. And, she added tongue in cheek, the men of her husband's age all look more or less the same today, no matter how good-looking they were in their youth.

This encounter reminded me of what Sister Adele ,Principal of our school used to tell us —– instead of fretting at the sight of the cloud look for the sun behind it & you shall see the rainbow appear.