As employees of a private firm on the outskirts of Kanpur we were living in rented houses close to a stretch of the busy M G Road. Thyagarajan aka Thyagu, one of our workmates, resided in a house in our residential area. Taking a day off from work he vacated his house and kept all his packed belongings on the verandah before the house. Leaving a word with his missus to take care of them, he left on his motorbike for the cycle rickshaw stand a kilometre away. Cycle rickshaws were the only convenient mode of transportation up for grabs during those days in Kanpur.
As one of the wheels of his bike got punctured on his way it took him over an hour to get it mended and return with a fleet of four rickshaws to his house. While the rickshaws were entering the main gate of the residential area alongside him, he noticed a few other cycle rickshaws carrying some household items similar to his own out of the area. Supposing that they might be of some others, also on the process of house-shifting, he took no serious note.
Meanwhile, cheesed off by the wait for her hubby’s return, the missus struck conversation with her neighbour, also alone at home like her. Weary of standing and nattering for long, the two moved into her house continuing their chat keeping the door closed. Thyagu, who returned with the four rickshaws, was shocked to find the verandah barren of the paraphernalia left there. He called out his missus, who came out of the neighbour’s house only to see nothing but her better half standing chagrined beside the rickshaws. It was then that it occurred to him that the items he had noticed passing through the gate were his own. Tout de suite he rode at full pelt towards the gate but failed to trace those rickshaws.
With good luck coming his way another workmate of Thyagu who bumped into him clued him in that he saw some cycle rickshaws on a byroad nearby, carrying household goods. Riding hell for leather the duo caught the culprits, showered billingsate on them and bid them carry the items towards the house Thyagu was going to occupy. Realising that the shifting of his belongings by the rickshaws not engaged by him might be an act of mischief by someone bearing a grudge against him, Thyagu treated the matter casually. He did not report the matter to the police but made the thieves shift his luggage free of cost.
H Narayanan
Email: nanan2105@gmail.com