One of the indefinite things in modern day living and staying in a high rise building is the uncertainty of the lift/s functioning at all times. Also if, God forbid, the lift gets stuck, will a sudden malfunction be reset quickly before those stuck inside start gasping for air..! That said, lifts are possibly the most sought after basic amenities which decide whether a flat (with otherwise many good features) in a multi-storeyed complex be worth living in. Almost every decent Society today has lifts – but the proper upkeep & maintenance of the same is an altogether different matter. The plethora of users & the owners themselves, both can take equal credit for the recurring breakdowns of the lifts !
The story of my ‘lift’ fiasco didn’t take place in my own Society but in a prestigious Multi Speciality Hospital of Mumbai where from morn till night the four lifts ferry hundreds of people, up & down. At times we saw that out of four only two are in operation while the other two are advised some kind of bed-rest. At about 6 pm yesterday evening, four people (including a hospital staff) were going to ground floor & in the last minute three more Sikh gents, one fairly elderly and two younger ones, entered the lift. Suddenly, on the 5th floor the lift stopped and refused to budge further.
One of younger Sardarji’s with great presence of mind inserted his shoes to prevent the door of lift from getting shut. We later got to know that he was prone to panic attacks in closed spaces. He along with his brother tried to forcefully open the door but of course to no avail. The young hospital staff kept pushing the alarm to call for help while our flustered Sardar was panting, sweating and yelling out to the others moving outside.
Soon some people gathered outside 5th Floor to study the problem and the Lift Engineer was located and duly told that some seven people were trapped inside. While an air draft was coming through the crack (the shoes kept in place) a bit of panic started setting in among all the inmates ! What if no help came…? Finally, the solution lay in shutting off the lift’s power and allowing it’s door, which was jammed, to be forced open by the staff outside but not before 20 minutes of uncertain dread for us !
My story had a happy ending – but remarkably the only person who didn’t appear too perturbed was the impassive 83 year old Sardarji, a patient of the hospital ! As we ‘survivors’ left after this ordeal, the happy, young Sardarji said ‘My Daddy didn’t panic because he knows that I panic’ – truly Daddy still knows best in all situations !
Working on Living 