What Happened?

The Roy Family worked like the clock. One could hear the rattling of porcelain cups and cutlery at five o’clock in the morning. It would be that Grand Father was up and was preparing a cup of coffee for himself. At five-thirty Sam would take out his cycle to go for a quick round to the Lakes, for he staunchly believed that fresh air and exercise were essential for good health. At six o’clock Prema could be heard serenading on the harmonium, her favorite Bengali songs. But at seven o’clock the whole family assembled in the Dining Hall to enjoy their breakfast. It was a daily ritual which they observed without failure. It was at this time that Grand Father would delegate duties to the different members. Sam would be asked to go to the Bank and Prema requested to make a list of all the essentials to be bought from the market. At this time they exchanged the little anecdotes that had transpired within the last twenty-four hours, and regaled the dear and near ones with fascinating stories about themselves. This is how the whole family was knit together, for as the saying goes, “those who shared salt together, stayed together.”Dipak Roy, that is the Father, usually came down with the newspaper in his hand, his glasses balancing precariously on his nose. Kavita Roy the youngsters’ mother, would invariably come in complaining that she could not sleep all night because of the monsters, meaning the mosquitoes, but from her eyes and face she looked to be well-rested and seeming to be in the epitome of well-being.

It was a Monday. One by one all the members of the Roy family appeared at the breakfast table. But what had happened to Grand Pa?! They waited for him for quarter of an hour, then half an hour. They searched for him in his bed room. In the wash room, in the garden, but he was not seen anywhere. This was a just reason to be alarmed, considering his age!. He had long crossed the eighth decade of his life. His mobile phone was lying on his bed, so it was not possible to contact him. The family started phoning up his friends; in case he had got held up somewhere. But all the calls ended up with no news of Grand Pa. They asked the servants whether he had left any message. They searched everywhere to see if he had left any note, because he was very particular about the family not leaving the premises without informing the others. Then Dipak had a brain wave. He scrolled through the mobile phone to see whether he had had any phone call in the morning. He discovered that at five minutes past six in the morning there had been a phone call from an unfamiliar number. He quickly rang up the customer service to find out who had made the call. The customer service personal was not very helpful. Dipak got very agitated, and in the bargain, he fired the man on the other end of the line. One hour elapsed, two hours, then three!. Even then Grand pa did not come home.

Now phone calls were made to the Police and all the members of the family went out to search for Grand Father. The police informed them after quite some time that the phone number was of a certain Rajneesh Tiwari who lived four apartments away. Kavita went to his house to enquire whether he knew anything about her father-in-law. She was told that he had called to make an appointment with her father-in-law about their chess tournament in the evening. So all their efforts drew a blank..Kavita’s imagination ran wild. She had nightmarish visions of kidnappers having tied down the Octogenarian with ropes or having locked him up in a cold cell. Perhaps the next move of the culprits would be to ask for a huge ransom. She could not figure out how Grand Father had disappeared. from the safe precincts of their house Though she did not want to break-down in tears; she could not help the recalcitrant sobs being heard at intervals.

Slowly the sun went down. The family stood looking vacantly at the expanse of the road in front of them, with not a sign of the old man. It was six o’clock in the evening. All of a sudden the phone came alive. There was a phone call from the Nightingale Hospital. The Roy family jumped up with alacrity. The call was from Grand Pa. All of them shouted out in unison “What has happened to you Grand Pa? Why are you at the hospital? Are you sick? Have you met with an accident?”

Then the Senior Citizen slowly unravelled the mystery. The explanation was that in the morning, he was standing on the balcony and looking out. He saw a gentleman was walking down the road. All of a sudden he gave a yell and clutching onto his chest, he fell down, and started frothing from the mouth. Seeing him collapse, the passers-by cautioned every one not to get involved with the man, as helping him would cause a lot of questioning, and enquiry at the hospital, and the police, leading to a lot of complications. Grandpa knew in such cases time should not be lost, as time lost could mean the loss of life. He rushed down, without even changing his shoes, or taking his mobile phone and wallet. He quickly hailed a cab and with the help of the taxi driver, lifted the gentleman, and took him to the hospital. Luckily there was some money in the man’s wallet, with which he paid the fare. But Grand pa was absolutely disgusted with all the useless formalities, and the details to be filled in the forms which entailed unnecessary delay. The police were called and before all the formalities were completed, the doctors would not attend to the man. It took him all day, as the relatives had to be called and the investigations took a lot of time. The patient himself was unconscious so. there had been no useful information from him.

Grand Father had gone without food or rest the whole day through, so it had taken a toll on his energy. He asked his family to pick him from the hospital, which they eagerly did as fast as they could, as they had now realized his worth and value. There the whole world had seemed to collapse without him!