Grand ol' man of the terrace

It was one of those usual 16:30 tea breaks at office. We had made our way to the terrace, the open world, free from the clutches of the so-called ‘Ergonomic computer chair’. It was pleasant as it has been for a quite a while during evenings, which of course has been very contrary to the mornings. That was when we noticed an old man on the opposite building, in shorts, white shirt and stick in hand walking on the terrace. He should have been about 75 to 80 years old.

The house was amusing, to notice. It had a small terrace and beside it was a series of inclined tiles reaching to the overhead tank which was about 10 feet from the terrace. To our surprise the old man stepped over the small parapet and started ascending the tiles. Very nonchalantly he walked up the tiles to a small ledge at the top. He removed his slippers there and climbed on top of the tank, with ease. He opened the 3 lids covering the tank and started measuring the water levels with the stick he was carrying. Once done, he closed them and got down to the ledge where he put on his slippers back. It was amusing to watch him do it with an aplomb of his own and were wondering how he would come down the tiles as it was fairly steep. We knew he wouldn’t walk down, probably he would sit and slowly make his way down but again to our astonishment, he picked up a rope which was tied at one end to the tank and merrily made his way down, over the parapet and back to the terrace. Mission Accomplished…He had measured the water levels in the tank!

It was truly amusing to watch the old man do it so casually and began to wonder if we could even do something like that at this present age… too preoccupied with electronic gadgets that we would just switch on the motor and wait for the tank to overflow. Well… it was time to go or else people would act as if the world had come to an end… and we carry on, inspired from such charming people!