Looking Back Detail Page

01 Apr

- Biren Ghose
Class of ‘72

A Man of many moods is a liftman!
His name so far known to us is Narain. I wonder why he does not even want to give his surname? IN the morning he is merry smiling and happy. Alert and quick he seems to help everybody to be about their business. He is caught with children gentle with and elderly and a guide to the ones who are lost. As the day grows older Narain becomes more and more different. He gets quieter slower and definitely unlikable. He only responds to the shouts of flat-owners. Some times he responds to nothing. This is not his lunch hour when he thinks only about this food. By the evening the liftman is not a liftman but a ‘devil’ He is angry irritable unhelpful and I wonder how he keeps his job going. Whenever there is a buzz of the lift bell he rebels and often retorts loudly. When he realizes that parents and elders are around he tames down temporarily. The trouble is – Narain has been in the building for such a long time that most of the elders hav begun to accept him – as he is. This man is a storehouse of information. He knows who stays where. He also knows who eats what. It you are curious enough to know and he happens to be in the right mood he may even rattle off the life story of anybody and everybody in the building. The only thing to remember is that you have to take him with a pinch of salt. Narain realizes he is doing a useful job in his own way. His great disappointment is that nobody ever appreciates it. One evening back from school I told Narian “Thank you for reaching me safely” He was pleased as punch and worked an extra hour before he left for home.