When the Chips are Down…
By Vengrai Parthasarathy
Even in the bustle and buzz of the airport scene, life has a funny way of imparting new lessons. I learned mine, the other day.
The idea that one has to ‘let go’ and not grump about life’s little pin-pricks had got into my system after listening to a learned lecture on ‘Harmony of Mind’. When the familiar voice on the airport mike announced a fifteen minute day, I braced myself for a forty-five minute wait. A sort of resignation comes over you because one cannot do anything about it. Flying in rage at these provocations just does not do any one any good. At any rate I didn’t wish to make my systolic and diastolic to go ballistic. I therefore decided to buy a packet of potato chips and a film magazine to while away my time. That was what the lecturer had said and that was what I did. “Do something to take your mind of trivialities”.
From left to right on the lounge sofa were the three of us: a bent but spry Grand Old Man (GOM) a packet of chips and myself. The drama had begun. Out of the corner of my eye (alternating between the cholesterol-friendly chips and the luscious girl in swimming suit in the magazine) , I noticed that the GOM was dipping happily into my packet of chips. He dipped again and again, without even a ‘by your leave. And when once our fingers reached for the chips simultaneously, I let it go. Let him have it all, I thought. He gave me a smile. Was it a patronizing gesture? Or, Thanks?
The audacity of it ! I was fuming inside but soon I regained my equanimity.. After all he was an old man, someone’s darling father.. Perhaps he could not resist the temptation of the chips. I have heard it said said that anger is a sort of temporary madness. What was the chips worth? A couple of bucks. Why should that upset me. ‘Let it go’, I said to myself when he smiled at me again, a benign smile of one who had seen the world.
When the airline announced the departure of his flight, the GOM gathered his belongings and in a final gesture pressed the chips packet into my hands . I could not help it but I said ‘thank you’ with some acerbity. And, he was gone. In life we see many characters and this one was one too.
Soon my flight was also announced and I settled down in the window seat and opened my ‘carry-on’ to retrieve my specs. Guess what? There it
was, MY packet of potato chips, unopened! I felt like kicking myself for my unkind thoughts about the GOM. What a folly it was dipping into his packet of chips and, on top of that, mentally accusing him of filching the chips. What a cad I was to have shown rudeness when he offered the left over packet. The GOM had let it go and gracefully at that..
When the pretty stewardess brought a hot dinner, I declined it. That was my penitent way of saying sorry to the GOM. Whoever he was, the GOM was a cool guy who ‘let it go’.
(vengrai@hotmail.com)