The elevator that traps my family

Last Saturday – the 29^th of January – my mother had a rather severe bout of food poisoning. I took her to the nearby clinic for treatment and the Doctors advised that she be admitted for observation immediately. The primary reason was a fall in the BP level and also because of the severe dehydration, they wanted to administer fluids (and medicines) by IV means.

An hour or so after the IV administration started, the staff said that I should get her something bland to eat. I called up my father and asked him to prepare some curd rice. Since the clinic was barely 3 minutes from home, I gave some time for my father to get things ready and I then started from the room where my mother was admitted.

The room was in the third floor and the clinic was having some kind of renovation work going on. So, I opted to take the elevator/lift in lieu of walking through debris. It was an old elevator and had the collapsing diamond iron gate and not the closed door type. I got inside the elevator, closed both the gates
and pressed the “G” button to let the elevator take me to the ground floor.

The elevator barely traveled one foot, when it stopped with a mild jerk. I tried pressing the buttons from G to 3, but the elevator was as unresponsive as Manmohan Singh is vis-a-vis the various corruptions his Government is involved in. I even tried sliding the door/gate closer to me, but it was locked. I then saw a button that had the symbol of a bell and decided to press it.

And a bell rang just in front of the elevator. It was not a loud bell and that was probably because you don’t need blaring bells inside a clinic where there are patients admitted for various ailments. Some 5 minutes after my incessant bell ringing, clubbed with equally mild toned “Hello”, someone did show up.

He asked me to press the button G or 3, but the elevator continued to ignore these commands. He then said that he'd get help and told me not to worry. That's when I remembered that someone trapped in an elevator is expected to worry, but since I was just one foot below the floor level and since the elevator doors were of the open type, I just had no cause to worry.

A couple of more folks came over and asked me to press the same set of buttons. More people saying the same thing doesn’t really fix a problem, but somehow all of us human beings tend to do it. And so do Managers in the IT industry, but I digress.

The more experienced of the lot then brought a steel rod, inserted it somewhere in the wall near the elevator and after a few seconds, he was able to open the door/gate on the outside. He then proceeded to open the door closer to my side and asked me to step out with any fear.

Luckily it was just one step and I could literally step out of the elevator. And I did. Then the guy with the steel rod stepped into the elevator and closed the gates. And lo behold, the elevator was working again. So much so, that I rode it alone after they brought it back to floor level on the third floor.

While the guy was checking things in the elevator, I just clarified with a couple of the clinic's staff, who had assembled there, as to whether this elevator was indeed the old one they had. They confirmed that it was and that's when I told them that this elevator doesn’t like my family. They gave me a bewildered look wondering whether the 5 minutes I was trapped inside the elevator had caused any circuitry problems in my neural network. But I assuaged their doubts by briefly narrating the story that my mother was similarly trapped in that very same elevator, some 21 years back.

Yes, my mother had an almost identical experience and it was in that very same elevator. This was circa 1989 and a cousin of mine was admitted in that clinic for a quick surgical procedure to correct something in her toe nail. My mother went to visit her and while returning, the elevator stopped between two floors. And that stoppage that time, was much worse. The lift had only around a foot left to become invisible in one floor. I remember her telling us at home that the staff actually had to do some pulling of the lift to get it to the nearest floor and set it in its correct position before opening the gates and letting her out.

So clearly, this elevator has some issues with my family. So much so, that when my father came to visit my mother later in the day, he opted to climb up 3 floors than use that elevator alone!

P.S.: My mother is fine.