Rani ensured that Smriti got settled at the hostel in Delhi, and took a flight back to Bangalore. After the flight, it was the bus. She was to reach till the drop point on the highway, after which I was supposed to pick her up and drive down to our home. It would have taken only about five minutes, so I took the car out at 0015, only to find that a tyre was punctured. I tried to park the car back, but it refused to climb the portico. I had already wasted about two minutes.
There was no further time to lose. I called up Rani and informed her that I was walking down to receive her. I soon realised that if I continued to walk, she would have to wait on the highway with a large suitcase in the dead of the night.
I ran about a quarter of a kilometre in my Bata chappals. Some dogs appreciated my athletic pursuit, some objected to it, and some decided in favour of a closer examination.
After receiving Rani, I played a symphony by dragging her suitcase over the pebbles, the potholes, the speed breakers, etc., throughout the half-a-kilometre walk. The suitcase did not like it and conveyed its displeasure by picking favourite spots on both sides of my ankles for repeated assaults. Not to be cowed down, I cursed the suitcase and its family tree every time my dignity was challenged.
Ever enthusiastic to make things better, I replaced the wheel with the stepney the next morning, only to find that it was in total sympathy with its just ousted sister. I wonder how the stepney became unusable in three years flat when I had got it inflated last.
Just after nine in the morning I was once again on the road holding a deflated wheel. Rani suggested that we should roll it on the road, but I did not succumb to the temptation. The shop was closed, and remained so for about an hour. We sat on the steps of another shop, then talked to the next door butcher, "Bhaiyya, yeh tayar walla kab ayega?", praised the professional approach of the Delhi tayar wallas, shared sweet memories of puncture repair in our yesteryears, drank three glasses of some excellent coffee, spoke to the tayar walla on his cell phone, and waited. Finally the tayar walla arrived, but he decided to attend to an auto walla first who wanted to buy a new tube. So we waited for our turn, and mission accomplished, walked back with the wheel under my arm.
By this time my arms, clothes, legs, etc, were full of the filth that a tyre loves to bite into. Rani decided to serve breakfast, spoonfeeding it, while I divided my time between hushing the dog away and tightening the bolts.
I took half day leave, and was back at the office in the afternoon.
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