JOIN USLittle did I realise my parental prowess until my daughter started going to school. Her admission to school added altogether a new dimension to my otherwise obscure persona. No more I was called Mr Das or Rup or was ‘that short statured gentleman who lives in the first floor flat over there.’
To the children living in the colony I came to be known as Mamuni’s papa and their parent’s also referred to me the same way. My social circle enlarged as parents of Mamuni’s friends came to drop them and pick them up on her birthday or when I dropped her at her friend’s place on similar occasions. We met regularly at parent teacher’s meeting, annual day functions or at the bank while paying the school fee. Casual acquaintances and exchange of pleasantries soon blossomed into friendship. I soon began to be identified as Mamuni’s Papa just as I was known as Pranakrishna Babu’s son in my hometown.
I could never imagine the ramification of the subterfuge, until the other day when I received an inflated electricity bill and hurried to the erstwhile Delhi Electricity Supply Undertaking’s (DESU) office to settle it at the earliest lest they disconnect the line.
Harassed and running from pillar to post, I saw somebody coming towards me with a broad smile. Not too sure of placing me, the gentlemen very cautiously asked me, ‘If I am not mistaken, we have met somewhere’. I could only vaguely remember the face. Nodding my face, I said, ‘Yes’. Then he said, “You are, I suppose Mamuni’s papa’. Exuding a filial pride I nodded my head.
He then introduced himself as Mr Sharma, father of Mamuni’s friend Puja, who worked in DESU’s office. He volunteered if he could do something for me. Within no time my worries were over. He took me to his office, offered me tea and called his assistant and explained my problem.
By the time we had hardly finished tea, his junior came in and handed over the corrected bill to me. Mr Sharma then called his messenger and asked him to make the payment on my behalf. I profusely thanked Mr Sharma and offered to make the payment myself at the counter instead of sending the messenger.