Electricians!!!!!

The Calendar read 23-Jan-06. The electricty bill was supposed to be paid a week ago......or was it supposed to be paid this month..will they disconnect it immediately...aye...they will atleast intimate us before doing that...after all Electricity Board people are caring souls ....these were the thoughts running through my mind in the morning....and I shared these aloud with anil as we left for work that day.
The day passed uneventful...but the nastiest of surprises....in a sea of light in our building...a lone spec of darkness...way up in the third floor......and the fact sunk home slowly...the electrician had pulled the plug..After cursing the EB, the electrician and the others responsible for this.....went out, had dinner and slept in someone else's place. As events set to unfold the next day would prove, this was just the beginning...
It was a pleasant morning the next day...and after running thru the morning's chores set out for the EB Office...rather i should say...EB tin shed...hidden away in a maze of wires, transformers and broken equipment. It was actually a miracle that the filing system and the people working there actually got some work done.
The tougher part..paying the bill and the fine..actually went of smoothly. A simpe query at the counter after that.."sir!!current disconnect pani irukkanga...Reconnect Panni kudunga"..
"OK Sir..aala anupparen..."...Panneer!!! dai Panneer..Panneer in Tamil stands for scented water...but names seldom bear resemblance to the person they represent. But for a change this guy was actually smelling of water...i mean "Thanni" in tamil. It was 10.00 in the morning and here was a man who was walking all over the place. Have to give it to him..if he had attempted a moon walk there, he would have done better than M.Jackson himself. The man was a total mess. He tells his supervisor that he was the one who pulled the plug the day before and comes and tells us that he doesnt remember the house...aiye?????...are we missing a point here...???
Anyways, we agreed to show him the way, asking him to follow us in his cycle...a beautifully rusted Raleigh cycle. he hauls his bag with a graceful swing of his whole body and places it in the carrier, holds a roll of wire in his left hand and after a lot of deliberation and shaking of hips puts his right hand through..all the way to the shoulder. The combat gear is on and we are all set to go.
The man kicks thrice on the stand..I guess he was aiming for the region where he thought the stand was.. the third kick hits home and the cycle lunges forward, taking the man with it..Hero holds on to it though...well things are not that bad after all..or is it a case of beginners luck????
He starts running with his cycle, hops on and after successfully avoiding a fall, manages to start pedalling....he still hasnt got the cycle going in a staight line though...he was all over the road..maybe was under the impression that he was aamir khan in Ghulam...But there was hope amidst all this despair...he had managed to get his direction right..and he was following the bike...
I was driving the bike with one eye on the road and another on the rear view mirror. It was a tough ask...one second he is on the right mirror the next he is on the left. Things had reached such a point that it was not annoying anymore...infact it was amusing to the core..we were laughin our assses out..2 minutes would have passed and we would have covered 100 meters ...and our hero starts waving from behind???
What is he trying to do....he cant balance the cycle with 2 hands..what is he upto...?? we decide to stop and investigate. and the cycle gently rolls in ...Technical problem the chain had snapped. and our hero was going to Fix it.....again LMAO....and to our surprise he does manage to fix it..seems like he is used to these sort of conditions. The journey resumes..
On a more sombre note, Anil reflects from Behind..." He has made drinking into an Art Form. The bugger would have been drinking all night and to avoid the hangover in the morning would have gone to the Bar and knocked himself out again...one long chain of postponing the hangover....." Could never have come up with a better explanation for a drunkard at 10.00 in the morning.
The road we are on is a major thoroughfare and he is holding up traffic. Our attitude was "As long as he doesnt die and reaches the place well and good". On second thoughts how was he going to set the fuse back if he is like this...again..let him reach the place first and then we will see..
The road splits into 2 and we turn to the right. Our guy misses it and turns left. The left is a nice little curve and he takes it in style, Banking all the way to the left like race bike drivers....but from the rear view mirror i kind of felt that he was taking banking to the extreme and i was right...He crashes to the ground with the cycle on top of him. Surprise. The bugger was actually trying to stop and get down as the chain had snapped again...Unbelievable
we turn around to help him on his feet..suddenly realise, we are right in front of a Cafe Coffee day, a Hero Honda Show room and a posh gym. PPl had stopped doing their work and were staring at us.. Sure would have been a sight, A drunkard who fell off his cycle and 2 wannabe executives(if we can call ourselves that) talking to him..we slowly and tactfully distance ourselves. The guy collects his wits and cycle togethor and once again sets off...Still AAmir Khan...."Bugger stop doing that u r gonna kill urself..there are Govt buses behind u and they r worse off than your cycle"..Guess that piece of advice was never taken ...
We were nearing our house and this guy was still floating around. Luckily a few of his colleagues who seem to have decided to face the hangover earlier were nearby. They guide the bugger to the flat and show him the meter.
The meters were in a wooden covering. Our guy takes out his tools and begins looking for the meters, nothing found..no meters...????.....of course not...the meter box is still locked. We open it for him and tell him..."Annay!!Meter 36 and 40"..and he says "Righto.." , takes out ihs tester and starts scratching the wall...the other elctrician was watching the fun and decided to take things into his hands, lest hte drunken bugger put his hand into some open fuse socket.
He reads the numbers and moves the switch in the meter from off to ON....What....????
i thought the fuse...removed..where how..u didnt remove it...??
nope i just switched the power off..i told ur neighbours too...u could have switched it back on and paid the bill in the morning.
F#$%..a night wasted...anyways thanks.... and we leave... me, Anil and the stable elec...
Our hero was totally forgotten..but he still wanted to be in the action..
"approm....!!!!"
"What Approm...?"
"SEriaachule...?"
"AAmam"
"appo 200 rupa kudu"
"What the !@#*$%^#$%$#%^#$&#$&#$&#%^&#%32#@@#%$%&^%$*^&)"