Wednesday 30 January 2008

Roof is falling

Imagine your phone rings on a regular weekday, around 6 in the evening. You look at the screen and thanks to something called CLIP (Caller Line Identity Presentation) I knew its my neighbour. Now, I’d called my neighbour, Aunty T earlier in the day to ask her to pass on a message to my help at home, and well assumed this call would be some clarification on our dinner (that was my message).

I put on my most cheerful voice, answer the phone and the conversation goes something like this:

Me: Hi Aunty T (from hereon referred to as AT)
AT: Snehaaaa ( her was quivering..I assumed it was age..she must be atleast 90) … there’s been a huge mishap...in your house
(Me Thinking: Oh no! Maybe Tripps (my help) had made peeli dal instead of kaali)
Me Speaking now: Yes Aunty, what happened? Has Tripps not turned up? Or is she asking for something..
AT: No Snehaaaa…your roof has collapsed!!

The rest of the conversation is all a haze, mainly because it happened about 1.25 years ago and I have now forgotten.

Going back to the roof. My immediate thoughts were not of horror or dismay or consternation (and just incase you’re wondering, no I did not use the thesaurus). My brain just pictured the damn thing. A gaping hole in our roof (given that we live on the top most floor). Allowing the starts & moonlight (and god knows what else) to flood our living room, where the roof had collapsed.

I zoomed the fastest our car could zoom (the Alto starts trembling once you hit the 60 kmph mark).

Well what troubled me more was that T & I were to leave for Chennai (where my parents live) the next day. Whatta pain! The thought that this trip might get cancelled troubled me all the way to Bandra.

And thanks to Cool & his cooler N76, I am saved the task of describing the condition of the roof & living room.






Our house that evening became a mini tourist attraction in Bandra(W) with more than half the building visiting to see the fiasco. Most of them appeared more shocked than T and me, some egging us on to sue the Society/Land lord etc. etc.

Anyway,..our trip happened, the roof got repaired (thanks to the landlords daughter partly moving to our house in our absence) and finally cracks have started reappearing.

They say "Alls well that ends well" – well, we are waiting & watching.

10 comments:

Cool said...

its n93.....

and how long will you take to write about current happenings....

Horn Please OK! said...

You need to remove all seating arrangements from under there. What if I was sitting on that orange (orange?!!?) gadda at the time ?!?!?

CandidConfessions said...

That must have been an experience! In such times, I rather people turn a blind eye and spare me all the sympathies!

Cool said...

Horn please OK!!!!!!!!
I was sitting exactly there couple of hours before it collapsed.....

Pri said...

whoaa thats scary!!
i mean imagine someone under it when it happened like wiping the dust off the ceiling fan or sumthin..brrr!!

Zee said...

kalra u cudn't have been there a couple of hrs before that coz u were all in office. ok so the night before the incident. but mrs r, how can u make me sleep on the gadda now that u know the roof can come tumbling down any min???? some best friend! hmph!

Still Searching said...

i remember hearing about this, and i think u sent us all pictures!! thank god it wasn't a gaping hole!

Cuckoo said...

Wow! what a painful experience. Aren't you planning on moving out gal??

Anshul said...

allo allo
if my gf sees these snaps; I dont think my dream of settling down in India will happen... so please REMOVE them; will pay you.

mmuaah
how you be Sneha Bee?

cm chap said...

That's scary for sure...