15 minutes of pure hell
Does that sound like the title of a quick-paced suspense and action flick? The kind where a group of people who have set out on an absolutely pleasant and harmless journey with the slightest desire for adventure find themselves in an entanglement that they cant get out of? If yes, then the title sets the right mood for the story that I'm going to narrate to you.
So here's what happened. It was on the ill-fated night of the 23rd of March that I got stuck in the lift with my family and some friends. Doesn't seem like the perfect mind-numbing nail-biting suspense story yet? Wait till you hear the rest.
After a total of 3 months of rest after my knee surgery, it was suggested by a friend of my mom that it would do my mind some good if we met at her place for dinner that night. Until that point I had been totally reluctant to the idea of stepping out of the house except making those unavoidable trips to my physiotherapist every morning. But, since I was already getting tired of sitting at home and reading and was feeling more and more like a baked potato every minute, after some deliberation I agreed to go. The day having coincided with Holi (the festival of colours) was auspicious and I felt happy to get out of my wrap-around skirts and loose tracks that I had been sporting since the surgery took place. Also my knee now having attained a flexion of almost 90 degrees, I could comfortably position myself in the front seat of the car which felt much better than having to glide into the back seat of the car taking care to keep my right leg outstretched all the while, a technique I had mastered over the past few weeks. Thus, looking the best I had in ages, we set out for Aunty A's appartment. My dad's cousin who is a Professor of Humanities at a local college also accompanied us. The cool breeze coming in through the window caused my hair to fall over my face and irritate my skin every time the car braked and I felt almost normal again. Everything was just perfect.
We haulted for a few minutes to pick up something from a mithai shop for Aunty A and after competing with 2 other cars for a tiny patch of land in the parking space, we walked straight to her beautiful appartment. We used this extremely shoddy lift to propel ourselves to the 7th floor where Aunty A's daughter B welcomed us into their beautiful home. Everything still perfect. (Aha! You thought I would give you the lift bit so soon ... tough luck! :P)
A deep male voice singing Rabindra Sangeet in the background set the mood for the evening. A distinct aroma of fried fish filled the room. I was a little disappointed when I learnt without being told so that we would have to wait a while before we would be allowed to pounce on the food. I, for a fact hate pre-lunch or pre-dinner conversations. If you're thinking am greedy when it comes to food, you're absolutely right. When somebody invites me to dinner, I expect the food to be there on the table when I enter. And on this particular occasion, since I had seen and smelt the food immediately on my arrival, it made the wait all the more difficult. As I was lusting about food, there was a lot of scholarly talk going on in the background. I consciously didn't hear most of it but couldn't help hearing something about the degradation of content and language in the present age newspapers. (And please donot make the mistake of assuming that I was making people around me uncomfortable with my silent indifference. I was very polite to nod at periodic intervals and drop in a 'ahan' and 'that was funny' whenever I could while I secretly drifted away in my dreams :))I tried to occupy myself with the camera for sometime exploring its various features by repeatedly clicking on a certain patch of the sofa illuminated by a dim orange light changing the setting each time I clicked. And just when I was beginning to get bored of that too, dinner was announced. Finally!
Dinner was absolutely worth the wait! With 3 different fish preparations and 1 spicy chicken curry, it was an absolute carnivore's delight. As usual I was the last to finish. Post dinner we had another round of conversation. This time, my stomach full and happy I argued full on on various subjects from why Gujjus are traditionally vegetarian people and how Jainism takes a person's eccentricities to the extreme. It was fun and finally at 12:30 we decided to make a move. Aunty A and her daughter B insisted that they see us off till our car and we readily agreed. It was going to be the perfect end to a more than perfect evening. As we made room for each person who stepped into the lift, I could hear dad silently counting the number of people in his mind. I impulsively glanced back to see 5 persons written on a half torn sticker on the wall of the lift. We were 6 people inside that 1 lift. Nothing to worry about. Afterall, How much harm can 1 extra person in a lift do?
I guess the extra carbon dioxide was suffocating for the space was a little too less for 6 full grown adults. But there was no reason to worry. Afterall, we weren't going to spend more than 2 minutes in there. 7 floors was all the distance we needed to cover.
All of a sudden, I felt the speed of the lift increase a little and before we could realise the lift fell to the basement with a thud. It was amazing. None of us had ever experienced such a thing before. It was like freely falling from the top of a building in a closed box. Uptil this point, we were still calm. We noticed that though we had touched the elevator floor, the inertia had propelled us a little above to a level from where it was not possible to come out of the lift without hurting oneself. So we pressed 1 first hoping the lift would start moving. It didn't budge. We tried the next button to see if we could go to the 2nd floor. It seems it didn't want to go there too. By this time, I had begun to panic because my knee had rendered me disabled to walk normally and jumping off the lift was a little beyond my imagination at that point. So, with bated breath, we tried 3 all of us praying for a miracle. And Voila! The lift was finally moving up. We would soon get down on the 3rd floor and take the staircase for our remaning journey downwards. But no sooner had the lift crossed the first floor than the lift again fell to the basement, with a huge bang this time. My heart beat stopped for that 1 moment and we looked at each other in shock. But the lift started moving up again gradually and we were hoping it would reach the 3rd floor this time when it again came down with a bang. This time some broken crumbs of hardened cement descended on our heads from God knows where. This is when we realised what was actually happening. The lift had for some reason got set in this cyclic motion where it would go up gradually upto the 1st floor and come back again with 10 times the speed and this was not going to stop until we did something about it. For the first few times that it happened we were too shocked to find a solution.
The lift had clearly gone bonkers. More and more debris were falling on us and it was clear now that if it continued for long, the lift would come crashing down on us and each one of us would lose a limb or too in the process ... even if we managed to dodge death. In a state of absolute panic, we tried pushing all the buttons in the lift including the stop button and the warning bell, but as Murphy's Law goes, nothing works when you actually need it the most to work. And so we panicked even more. B tried desperately to call up the society watchman, but her hands were trembling and she struggled to keep the phone from falling. "I can't reach him on the phone" she finally said her voice breaking. "Try again. Keep Trying.", we chorussed. There was nothing else I could do. Aunty A was shaking all over by this time, while my Professor Uncle continued pushing the buttons in the lift. My heart beat was increasing by the second as the lift continued to yo-yo in rage. All of a sudden, I saw mom screaming for help in despair and before we knew it the rest of us had joined in. We were trapped. That was the only thing that was left for us to do.
While I screamed my guts out, I was aggresively praying for a miracle to happen and thats when all of a sudden, B shouted out "Try opening the door". Those were the words that saved our lives. Prof A promptly pulled open the grill door and at that moment the lift came to a halt. We were still hanging in mid air and the risk of the lift crashing down had not totally disappeared, but we now had time to think. It took a few minutes for our heart beats to subside and we could finally talk to the watchman who hurried towards the building. After a minute of silence that seemed like an eternity, we could finally hear some noises outside the lift. The people who were going to save us had arrived. They opened the front door and placed a chair so as to make it easier for each of us to jump off the lift. I had another challenge at hand now. I have been having difficulty seating myself in a chair and how in such a condition I was to unboard the suspended lift was beyond my understanding. Everybody chipped in with suggestions none of which seemed feasible. Finally, I gathered all the courage I had and told myself that I had to do it. So in one quick motion I slid on the floor of the lift being careful not to bend my right knee and then gradually moved out of the lift and onto the chair while dad supported my right leg. Thus, what seemed impossible at first had been ahcieved. We had succesfully saved ourselves from the wrath of the murderous lift. The whole episode seemed like a bad dream when we woke up the next morning. But the blackish cement still there on our heads reminded us that it was true and we had indeed survived a near-death experience.
So here's what happened. It was on the ill-fated night of the 23rd of March that I got stuck in the lift with my family and some friends. Doesn't seem like the perfect mind-numbing nail-biting suspense story yet? Wait till you hear the rest.
After a total of 3 months of rest after my knee surgery, it was suggested by a friend of my mom that it would do my mind some good if we met at her place for dinner that night. Until that point I had been totally reluctant to the idea of stepping out of the house except making those unavoidable trips to my physiotherapist every morning. But, since I was already getting tired of sitting at home and reading and was feeling more and more like a baked potato every minute, after some deliberation I agreed to go. The day having coincided with Holi (the festival of colours) was auspicious and I felt happy to get out of my wrap-around skirts and loose tracks that I had been sporting since the surgery took place. Also my knee now having attained a flexion of almost 90 degrees, I could comfortably position myself in the front seat of the car which felt much better than having to glide into the back seat of the car taking care to keep my right leg outstretched all the while, a technique I had mastered over the past few weeks. Thus, looking the best I had in ages, we set out for Aunty A's appartment. My dad's cousin who is a Professor of Humanities at a local college also accompanied us. The cool breeze coming in through the window caused my hair to fall over my face and irritate my skin every time the car braked and I felt almost normal again. Everything was just perfect.
We haulted for a few minutes to pick up something from a mithai shop for Aunty A and after competing with 2 other cars for a tiny patch of land in the parking space, we walked straight to her beautiful appartment. We used this extremely shoddy lift to propel ourselves to the 7th floor where Aunty A's daughter B welcomed us into their beautiful home. Everything still perfect. (Aha! You thought I would give you the lift bit so soon ... tough luck! :P)
A deep male voice singing Rabindra Sangeet in the background set the mood for the evening. A distinct aroma of fried fish filled the room. I was a little disappointed when I learnt without being told so that we would have to wait a while before we would be allowed to pounce on the food. I, for a fact hate pre-lunch or pre-dinner conversations. If you're thinking am greedy when it comes to food, you're absolutely right. When somebody invites me to dinner, I expect the food to be there on the table when I enter. And on this particular occasion, since I had seen and smelt the food immediately on my arrival, it made the wait all the more difficult. As I was lusting about food, there was a lot of scholarly talk going on in the background. I consciously didn't hear most of it but couldn't help hearing something about the degradation of content and language in the present age newspapers. (And please donot make the mistake of assuming that I was making people around me uncomfortable with my silent indifference. I was very polite to nod at periodic intervals and drop in a 'ahan' and 'that was funny' whenever I could while I secretly drifted away in my dreams :))I tried to occupy myself with the camera for sometime exploring its various features by repeatedly clicking on a certain patch of the sofa illuminated by a dim orange light changing the setting each time I clicked. And just when I was beginning to get bored of that too, dinner was announced. Finally!
Dinner was absolutely worth the wait! With 3 different fish preparations and 1 spicy chicken curry, it was an absolute carnivore's delight. As usual I was the last to finish. Post dinner we had another round of conversation. This time, my stomach full and happy I argued full on on various subjects from why Gujjus are traditionally vegetarian people and how Jainism takes a person's eccentricities to the extreme. It was fun and finally at 12:30 we decided to make a move. Aunty A and her daughter B insisted that they see us off till our car and we readily agreed. It was going to be the perfect end to a more than perfect evening. As we made room for each person who stepped into the lift, I could hear dad silently counting the number of people in his mind. I impulsively glanced back to see 5 persons written on a half torn sticker on the wall of the lift. We were 6 people inside that 1 lift. Nothing to worry about. Afterall, How much harm can 1 extra person in a lift do?
I guess the extra carbon dioxide was suffocating for the space was a little too less for 6 full grown adults. But there was no reason to worry. Afterall, we weren't going to spend more than 2 minutes in there. 7 floors was all the distance we needed to cover.
All of a sudden, I felt the speed of the lift increase a little and before we could realise the lift fell to the basement with a thud. It was amazing. None of us had ever experienced such a thing before. It was like freely falling from the top of a building in a closed box. Uptil this point, we were still calm. We noticed that though we had touched the elevator floor, the inertia had propelled us a little above to a level from where it was not possible to come out of the lift without hurting oneself. So we pressed 1 first hoping the lift would start moving. It didn't budge. We tried the next button to see if we could go to the 2nd floor. It seems it didn't want to go there too. By this time, I had begun to panic because my knee had rendered me disabled to walk normally and jumping off the lift was a little beyond my imagination at that point. So, with bated breath, we tried 3 all of us praying for a miracle. And Voila! The lift was finally moving up. We would soon get down on the 3rd floor and take the staircase for our remaning journey downwards. But no sooner had the lift crossed the first floor than the lift again fell to the basement, with a huge bang this time. My heart beat stopped for that 1 moment and we looked at each other in shock. But the lift started moving up again gradually and we were hoping it would reach the 3rd floor this time when it again came down with a bang. This time some broken crumbs of hardened cement descended on our heads from God knows where. This is when we realised what was actually happening. The lift had for some reason got set in this cyclic motion where it would go up gradually upto the 1st floor and come back again with 10 times the speed and this was not going to stop until we did something about it. For the first few times that it happened we were too shocked to find a solution.
The lift had clearly gone bonkers. More and more debris were falling on us and it was clear now that if it continued for long, the lift would come crashing down on us and each one of us would lose a limb or too in the process ... even if we managed to dodge death. In a state of absolute panic, we tried pushing all the buttons in the lift including the stop button and the warning bell, but as Murphy's Law goes, nothing works when you actually need it the most to work. And so we panicked even more. B tried desperately to call up the society watchman, but her hands were trembling and she struggled to keep the phone from falling. "I can't reach him on the phone" she finally said her voice breaking. "Try again. Keep Trying.", we chorussed. There was nothing else I could do. Aunty A was shaking all over by this time, while my Professor Uncle continued pushing the buttons in the lift. My heart beat was increasing by the second as the lift continued to yo-yo in rage. All of a sudden, I saw mom screaming for help in despair and before we knew it the rest of us had joined in. We were trapped. That was the only thing that was left for us to do.
While I screamed my guts out, I was aggresively praying for a miracle to happen and thats when all of a sudden, B shouted out "Try opening the door". Those were the words that saved our lives. Prof A promptly pulled open the grill door and at that moment the lift came to a halt. We were still hanging in mid air and the risk of the lift crashing down had not totally disappeared, but we now had time to think. It took a few minutes for our heart beats to subside and we could finally talk to the watchman who hurried towards the building. After a minute of silence that seemed like an eternity, we could finally hear some noises outside the lift. The people who were going to save us had arrived. They opened the front door and placed a chair so as to make it easier for each of us to jump off the lift. I had another challenge at hand now. I have been having difficulty seating myself in a chair and how in such a condition I was to unboard the suspended lift was beyond my understanding. Everybody chipped in with suggestions none of which seemed feasible. Finally, I gathered all the courage I had and told myself that I had to do it. So in one quick motion I slid on the floor of the lift being careful not to bend my right knee and then gradually moved out of the lift and onto the chair while dad supported my right leg. Thus, what seemed impossible at first had been ahcieved. We had succesfully saved ourselves from the wrath of the murderous lift. The whole episode seemed like a bad dream when we woke up the next morning. But the blackish cement still there on our heads reminded us that it was true and we had indeed survived a near-death experience.
posted by moody_mermaid | 2:38 PM
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