That's life

Oct-14-2010

Waiting at the petrol station for my turn, i was sitting in my car and listening to the radio. Suddenly a Beamer stopped along side me and i started day dreaming. How much i loathed sitting in a car that costs almost 1/10 of a beamer. Then, an old man arrived on his scooter. He had a perenial smile on his face, highlighting that he still brushes his teeth regularly {i wonder those were real or artificial}.

It was a long line and the staff at petrol station was working slowly, cars moved at an infinitesimally slow speed. My eyes kept on ping ponging from Beamer to scooter. Old man was pushing his scooter everytime a car in front of him moved out and the beamer was just gliding smoothly. I could see sweat dropping from old man's forehead while cool air from my car's AC kept the temp. under control. I turned to have another look at the beamer and saw the guy sitting inside. He was wearing a collar on his neck {i believe he had spondilytis}, had wrinkles on his face and the  lines on his forehead deepened as he shouted on the phone.

Automatically, my mind started comparing old man to this guy. The guy in beamer would have been around 35 yrs old but looked paler in comparison to the old man. Then at three parallel pumps, staff started filling fuel in my car, the beamer and old man's scooter. I paid the bill by card and watched the old man search his pockets for every possible sign of money. He fondled his pockets until he took out every note, he counted the money twice and grinned before paying his bill. Then he started kicking his scooter{no push start }, cars behind him started honking and he had to manually push his scooter few feets ahead.

The beamer sped off, the guy in car still shouting on his mobile phone. I moved forward and parked my car to observe the old man. He must have kicked his scooter 30 times but no luck, every now and then he would manually push his scooter few feets ahead {i wonder whether that was to give way to others or because he was embarassed}. I wanted to get out of my car and help him but could not get out of my car. I am a mechanical engineer but i don't know shit about scooters. I requested god to help him but i think god also failed in automobile engineering ;) {no pun intended..god i am sorry...i love u..}.

Then the old man started pushing his scooter towards a mechanic who was sitting in a small shop outside the petrol station. The smile from old man's face faded and mechanic's face started beaming....i got to know that smile is infectious....