Monday, May 12, 2008

Traffic Jam

This is the outcome of my boredom over the weekend , so gaali mat dena. :P

He was a rich businessman based in Mumbai. His motto throughout life had been – “Given sufficient money and the brains regarding where to use it, everything is possible.” And he considered himself lucky enough to have a sufficient supply of both. He attributed most of his success to this motto of his.

He had an only son whom he adored very much and he could go to any lengths for his happiness. However, his son didn’t agree to his motto. He believed that luck played a very important part too. Father and son had had many debates regarding this topic but none could bring the other to his point of view.

Now, it so happened that the son fell in love with a girl in his college. It seemed to him that she loved him too but he didn’t dare ask her for fear of rejection. His father knew about the girl and approved of his son’s choice.

After college, the girl was accepted in a renowned US university for higher studies while the son had planned of joining his father in business. The girl, on receiving the acceptance letter, called up the son and told him that she would be going to the US in two days. The son offered to drop her to the airport and she agreed. Later that night, the son told his father, “ If only I could have spent a few more hours with her, I would have professed my love to her and asked her if she loved me in return. But now it doesn’t seem possible. I don’t think that she’ll even remember me after spending 2 years in the US. I offered to take her to the airport just so that I might be able to see her for a few more minutes.”

The flight was at 10:00 a.m. At 08:28, the son asked his father for the car keys since it would take them about one hour to get to the airport. The father spent 2 minutes looking for the car keys before handing them over to his son. Then he went to his office where it was business as usual.

3 hours later, his son called him up. He was in a jubilant mood. He told his father, “She loves me too! We were on our way to the airport but got stuck in a traffic jam. There was some kind of accident just ahead of us and lorry behind us won’t budge an inch so that we might turn and take another route to the airport. Seeing that we were stuck there, I reasoned that God had provided me with this one last opportunity to get my love and I should not let this chance go in vain. So, I told her everything that was in my heart and she accepted that she loved me too! Her flight ticket had to be postponed for a week. That means I get 1 week to spend with my love! I am so happy! I always used to tell you that luck played an important part in our lives but you never agreed. Had we reached at that spot even one minute earlier, we would have been ahead of that crashed van and right now she would have been in a plane bound for California. Now I hope you will agree that I was right. “

The father smiled as he hung up.

A few minutes later, he received another call. The caller said, “Sir, your work was done without any hitches, correct to the minute. The van containing eggs overturned on the highway at exactly 9 o’clock and the lorry with faulty reverse gear was parked behind your car at exactly one minute past nine. You should have seen the mess we made. It was more than 2 hours before any vehicle could pass. I hope you are satisfied with our work. Please remember us the next time you need something of this sort done. Thank you.”

The father smiled again as he hung up.