Hello All,

It’s a small incident, which happened with me in a recent past.

Couple of years back, I was driving back from office. As soon as I exited out of office complex and hit the main road, my car met with a small accident. A company bus driver was driving his bus little recklessly and he happened to take a sudden sharp turn and hit the left front side of my car. I wouldn’t get to the details of what happened after that, as that is not the incident I want to narrate here. Let me jump straight to the part where I met a new car mechanic, whose name happens to be ‘Papa Mechanic’! :-)

I was suggested to a car mechanic garage, which is close to my office. After the accident, the car was not in a position to be driven home, so I decided to get it repaired from this garage and anyway, I didn’t have much of a choice then. I generally avoid getting my car work done at any road side garages because they are not adequately equipped to handle these new age cars. But then, I didn’t have much choice. So, after gulping down all my apprehensions, I went to this garage. There I was introduced to their ‘Lead’ mechanic, who happens to carry a rather unique name, ‘Papa Mechanic’! Upon hearing his name I got a little acid reflux of apprehensions and I wanted to just turn around and drag my car away from the garage. Also, since it was evening time, I realized that even the garage was about to close and all were on the verge of leaving for the day. But seeing my distraught situation, Papa Mechanic offered to inspect the car. He didn’t waste time in any pleasantries and straight away got down to examining the damages. After examining, he gave me a rough estimate of how much work was required. He said it will take him 3 days to finish the job and that I will have to leave my car at the garage. Upon hearing this, I almost decided that I am turning back, because I just couldn’t fathom the fact that my car will be at an unknown garage and with some unknown people.

To hell with it I thought, I was not leaving my car overnight on a road side. I expressed my unwillingness and asked him that how I can trust my car to be safe if it is parked on the road side the entire night. Papa Mechanic seemed to understand my concern then, but then the car was also not in a condition of driving back home. So, after some debate, Papa offered to help me by doing a temporary fix for that evening just so that I could take it back home. I was surprised a bit by his gesture. He went back to the garage and changed in his working clothes and got to work. By then, all his staff had already left. It took him a good 30-45 mins to temporarily fix the car. I was quite relieved by then. After fixing, he suggested me to drop the car while on my way to office the next day, so that he could work upon it the entire day and then let me take it back home in the evening. I was quite happy with this arrangement because then I was not required to leave the car at the garage the entire night. Papa Mechanic didn’t bother to ask for any money from me that evening. He was just in hurry to go home. So, since it was late in the evening (almost night), the least that occurred to me was to offer him a lift till somewhere. So I offered it to him. He accepted and I drove him till some distance as his place happened to be on my way to home. While driving back, he didn’t speak much.

The next day, I met him at the garage. Without a second thought, he said he will drop me till office, which he did. As a person, he appeared to be a trust worthy person. At the office gate, he told me what all work will be done during that day. I agreed and went off. By mid day, I just thought of checking how he was coming through. So I called him up to check the progress. On the phone, he sounded little disturbed. He said work is going on, but he is not in the garage. I got little worried, but I was assured by Papa Mechanic that that day’s work will be completed. In the evening at around 6.30pm, when I reached the garage to pick up the car, I saw that only about 10% of work had been done. I got little frustrated and shouted at Papa Mechanic for he was not sticking to his schedule. He was calm and only tried to assure me that the work would be completed within time. I could see that the work is definitely going to get delayed. With some level of dejection, I hopped into the car and drove back home. While driving I realized that I had forgotten some Rs.150-200/- in the car when I gave it in the morning. I quickly glanced around to check if everything is in place or not. To my surprise, it was all in place. Not a single thing was removed or touched.

So, the work went on in the same fashion, for the next few days. My frustration level was building up as one of those days; he didn’t turn up for work at all. Every day I shouted at him for the delay he was causing. Somehow, instead of 3 days, Papa Mechanic completed his work in 7 days! He had done a good job. On the day of completion of work, he handed the car over to me and I was supposed to pay him. I held this grudge of delay in work, within me, so I said I will pay him half and will pay the other half once I am thoroughly satisfied with the work. On hearing this, he got little disappointed. Very curtly, I made him go away with half the cash he was supposed to receive. After 2 days, I went over to the garage to give him the balance amount. I understood that Papa Mechanic had not come to the garage for last 2 days. Upon inquiring I got to know that for the last 10 days or so, Papa Mechanic’s 5 years old son had been admitted to the hospital as he was suffering from severe dengue fever. His son’s condition was rather critical as he was unconscious for couple of days.

At that moment the entire previous 7 days played back in my mind and then I could join the all dots and realized that all the while, Papa Mechanic was juggling with his son’s battle with dengue fever on one end and finishing my work on the other. I felt miserable then that I had not given him the entire cash two days back, when he would have needed it the most. I realized that Papa Mechanic is a guy of self respect and didn’t ever use his personal situation as an excuse to delay my work or not do a quality job. I immediately called him up and asked him to meet me that evening to take the balance amount. When he came, he gave him balance amount, which I had stashed in an envelope. He didn’t bother to count the money in the envelope. On parting away, I just told him that not to hesitate to call me if he required any help. At that moment, I didn’t want to hurt his self respect, so I kept mum about my knowledge of his son’s illness. Later that evening I got an SMS from Papa Mechanic saying “Sir thanks you”. I felt happy that my additional help of Rs.2000/- has reached him and he has accepted it.

Since that day, Papa Mechanic has been my point man for all car repair work. Not just that, quite a number of my friends now go to Papa Mechanic for any repair work they have. Everyone tells me that he is quite good at his work and that price wise, he is very reasonable as well. No one would ever know story behind it! I have known Papa Mechanic for last 2 ½ years now. He has been quite helpful all throughout. On Diwali’s he sms’s me ‘Sir, Happy divali’ and on Ramzan eid’s, I sms him ‘Happy Eid’! J Whenever I happen to meet him, I do make it a point to ask about the wellbeing of his son.

I would have narrated few more stories of this unique character on why does he carry such a unique name! But would post then at a later time. J

Here, I just wanted to share with you all, how some good relationships can unexpectedly develop, with people who are outside your family or friend circle.

Regards,

Jayant.