Old man and the lift

Engayo padicha nyabgam..Indiavoda "city of skyscrappers" na athu Mumbai thaanamay. After coming here only realised. Emmaaaaddiiii....ella buildingum embuttu perusaa keethu. Pattikaataan mutaai kadaiya paatha mathiri first konja naal niminthu paathutay suthitrunthen (Quickly realised that better looking structures are at ground level and mobile :D ipolaam kannum kannum nokia thaan :D :D) Even normal residential buildings are a dozen plus storey high ( Approved constructionsa ilayanulam therila..but going by the numbers..i dont think there is any restriction here on the number of floors you can have in a building!!) The one where i stay is a 20 storeyed building (appadi..oru vazhia pointuku oru arai kilometer kita vanten..)

Though i stay in the second floor..its actually the 4th floor considering the 2 levels of parking. Current cut aagara anikelam drillu thaan..naalu maadi erarathukulla sethu pona thaatha paatilaam kannuku terivaanga. The lift operator in my apartment is a very old man. But full of energy. He will always smile at people who enter the lift and say pleasantries to them. Kids especially love him. He also takes immense pride in remembering where each person has to get down. Even before we could tell which floor we want to get down he would correctly press the button and look at us with glowing face. The nod or smile which he gets in return is the biggest compliment for him. Even if we dont respond he wouldnt mind. For some reason he has taken into his mind that i am from 3rd floor. Everytime when he see me, he would quickly press 3 and would smile at me. I corrected him the first time. Somehow i think it registered in his mind that i belong to third floor :) I stopped correcting him afterwards and everytime get down in 3rd floor, will wave at him and once the lift door closes will walk back down to 2nd floor. I dont mind the walk rather than bursting his happy bubble :)

I am always amazed at the way in which he finds ways to make his job interesting. Imagine..going up and down in a lift..half the time there wouldnt even be anyone using it. If there is a countdown for top 10 dull jobs i guess this would definitely be right on top in the list. Not that i am belittling the nature of work. When someone gets stuck or if the power goes off while we are in lift..that time the presence of the operator is a calming effect. Well..at times i get so irritated with the kind of work i do..i feel like running away from all these things. It feels so meaningless and mundane. I think about the old man nowadays whenever such thoughts come. He has taught me a great lesson without even uttering a single word.