Death of a Pilot

This is to inform every one of the sad and sudden demise of a very close someone who was not just a friend, but more of a family member. He was also a Pilot.

The incident happened last month. We were proceeding for our vacation, and he had just dropped us to the airport and was taking around a few of our friends on a late night ride when the car met with a fatal accident. He was like that, he used to love taking friends and family out for long rides and he loved touring. Well, ‘Touring’ was his middle name!

He was a real big guy of Japanese-American descent and yet, he was so selfless.

How many times did he drop me to work and back?

My boys really loved him, he would help them fill air in their bicycle tires and footballs, take them for their football and swimming classes, and what not?

And how many times did he help my wife with her weekly shopping and her visits to the beauty parlor (Especially when she wanted to keep those visits secret, just to find out if I noticed and see if I complimented her for the change when I came back from work)?

And yes, those beautiful songs that he would play for us when he took us out on those long late-in-the-night drives?

I cannot forget those days. His memories keep haunting, not just me, but the whole family.

He will be sorely missed, again, not just by my family, or me but also by some of my office colleagues, whom he used to take out on those weekly lunch out every Thursdays.

On that fateful night, a local lad in one of those big American pickups (Yes, that ugly one with big protruding bums) drove in recklessly from the incoming carriageway, jumped the median and crashed into them. The crash was cataclysmic, if I must say, but luckily my friends who were with him are safe. They were taken to the hospital, and after preliminary observations and medications, released the next day.

He was a fighter; he did not let his soul depart right away. He fought until the last moment. Unfortunately, every car comes with a value tag, and as time passes this value depreciates. Sadly, for him the estimate placed on table by his specialists were more than what the insurance guys thought his worth was, and so, with a stone on my heart, I had to let him go.

Last week, I finished all the police formalities and got his death certificate. Last Thursday, during lunchtime I went to the insurers’ office and collected a cheque, which had a figure that was way less than what he was worth actually.

Since that incident, my wife has been relegated to driving a rented sedan.

The boys find it crammed; they hate it when they cannot play their in-car war games jumping from the second to the third row and back shooting at each other by taking cover behind the seats. Sadly, there is no third row in a sedan! However, the lads, as I found out are quite accommodating. Now they just sit on the back seat and kick each other, and are busy creating a ruckus of sorts. According to them, the rear seat size is so small, that when they sit next to each other, each feels like the other is kicking.

I am back to driving my old faithful, my nine year old Nissan-Tiida. On the highway, when a big four wheeler follows me and flashes its lights, I humbly move out and give way. I drive slowly in the second lane, sometimes third. No more ego trips for me.

Yes, no more ego trips, but in fact, I am feeling much better now.  I live in an area where my little house is nestled amidst huge villas owned by big Sheikhs. These Sheikhs have four wheelers that are bigger than some of those chawls in Mumbai, and yes, all of them have drivers too. Of which, most, if not all the drivers are handsome, young lads from Malabar. One of the advantages of driving a small car in this locality is that Grocers, Tea Vendors, Take away joint waiters and even lonely Qatari women won’t mistake you for a driver from one of those houses. For them, at last, I could be a genuine malbari who does a decent job for a living, and now they even believe me, when I say that I am an engineer who works on one of those huge construction projects.

 Jai ho!

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