Face trouble

A friend, a Raj Kapoor fan, was fond of repeating this line all too often. That was in 1983 and the place was Gwalior, where I was then working. I had rented a one-room apartment on the terrace of a house, where the landlord lived. It had a separate entry to the common yard, and from there through the stairs to my room. The landlord’s family comprised husband, wife and two small daughters. The locality was in the outskirts and hence an easy target for burglars — a constant worry for my landlord and his wife.

One evening, my friend and I were to meet at my place. As I had extra work at my desk that day, I gave him the keys and asked him to proceed to my place and wait for me. He left. Having been there once, he knew the way around.

Finally around 9 pm, when I reached the house, I found the landlady waiting for me anxiously. She told that her daughter had seen a suspicious-looking person entering my room. She got scared. More so,

because her husband was out of station. Yet, mustering courage she sneaked up the stairs, and bolted the door of my room from outside to prevent the intruder from escaping. Phones were rare those days. So she waited for me to arrive and deal with the stranger.

Laughingly I assured her that the suspect was only a friend. “But he looked like a thief, uncle!” said the daughter even as her mother apologised. Leaving them, I went up and asked my friend how he liked the reception. He was perplexed. “Someone locked me in,” he complained. “Kya karen janab aapki soorat hi aisi hai,” I said and narrated what had happened.

You should have seen the look on his face before it melted in a laugh.