It was 6 30 in the morning when I got the call. I know it sounds like the precursor for some tragic emergency - it is not
The call was from the guy who was coming to collect my sofa chairs for re upholstering. He was standing at the wrong apartment and asking for directions. Usually I would have gotten impatient, considering I had given the address in writing AS WELL AS the google pin.
But for some reason, maybe because his voice sounded so energetic and confident, I found myself smiling and explaining how to get to my place.
He asked - no -TOLD me to stay outside and keep a look out for him. Ah the voice of a man used to being in charge. A whimsical thought caught hold of me - Maybe this was a natural born leader.
As I stood in the balcony, I saw him roll in. I was expecting a mini van. Instead what I saw was a trolley rickshaw !! - the kind that has a flat open base at the back. See image below
My eyes narrowed in speculation . How in the world was he going to take my large sofa chairs on that ?? When i voiced my doubts he said "Let me come up and see the chairs." The tone which was a blend of cockiness and caution, brought a smile to my face.
I opened the door to my apartment grinning and the lady in the opposite apartment who opened the door at exactly the same time, smiled back at me. I felt compelled to explain.
" I am getting two of my sofa chairs re upholstered and the guy has come in a trolley rickshaw. Don't know how he is going to take them" She stepped across and peeped into my living room (which of course looks like it has been hit by a cyclone). To her credit she reacted only to the chairs and not the cyclone after effects. She joined me in chuckling about the foolishness of these delivery people.
To interrupt this shared moment of mirth, came in Krishnamurthy, the rickshaw guy. He was a lean wiry man with a ready smile.
"Where are the chairs?" he asked in that confident voice that I was beginning to like. I invited him in to see them. His face took on a serious look and he said "hmmm.. you have two of these ?" I said 'yes"
"OK, who will help lift them and take them down?"
I thought he was missing the point. Being the clever person that I am, I said " But will it fit on that rickshaw?"
Krishnamurthy brushed my doubts aside and went back to his question.
I said "I will help you carry them" That's when his face got doubtful. It was obvious that he was tallying my gender, social standing, age and who knows what else with my ability to do some physical labour.
It was my turn to brush HIS doubts aside. "It's ok. I am used to carrying and lifting stuff. Let's do this."
I am not sure if i was seeing things but i saw a flash of approval as I hefted the large chair smoothly from one end. (Obviously my cue to thank Mari, Sathish, Gopi and all my trainers who have helped me get to this place) We stepped out of the apartment and Krishnamurthy turned towards the lift,
Clever me piped up again. "This is a large chair , it won't fit in the lift"
Krishnamurthy said "Put down the chair with me" and then strode across to the lift , opened the door and looked inside. He then went inside and did a cute comical air calculation - well to my eyes that's what it looked like. :)
He held his arms apart - matching the width of the lift opening and squinted at the chair, then whirled around and tilted his hands like he was turning around a large object. He let out a satisfied huff.
He strode back to the chair and said "Do exactly as I say. It will work"
And he proceeded to guide me to lift, to turn, to swivel to push. And voila , the chair fit exactly inside the lift.
At my look of delighted surprise, he smiled back at me and said "If you plan things correctly, everything is possible"
It really was like magic. My mind had not been able to visualise this until he showed me.
I said happily "Thank you , I have learnt something new today. this is so cool"
Although I spoke in Tamil, I said the last line in English and I thought it was ironic that Mr. Cool, most likely didn't understand what I meant when i said "This is so cool"
We maneuvered the second chair as well into the lift - my skepticism by now laid to permanent rest.
We unloaded them from the lift and carried them to his rickshaw . By this time my confidence in Krishnamurthy's judgement was complete. If he could fit two large sofa chairs inside that tiny lift, he could fit them in his flat rickshaw.
And I was right.
He said " Lift the chair with me and place it at the other end "
I did
He then said "Now we turn this chair upside down "
We did.
"Now we lift and place it on top of that chair"
We did
And I looked at how neatly the chairs fit. Like a jigsaw puzzle that had found the right person to come along and solve it.
"there it is done" Krishnamurthy's cheerful voice made me smile again.
This man was indeed a born leader.
You think I am mistaken ? well, look at this -
He was lost at 6 30 am but cheerfully asked for directions in a way that COULD not be met with irritation.
He listened to my doubts, did not lose confidence in his ability and judgement and yet held back from jumping to conclusions until he assessed the situation.
Although his own doubts that were a product of stereotypes reared their head when it came to having a woman help him carry a large sofa chair, the moment he saw ability, not only did he simply cast stereotypical doubts aside, he also refrained from giving me any patronising compliments .
He gave clear instructions all the while carrying his share of the load.
And he taught me something new and gained my trust and confidence.
If those aren't the qualities of a natural born leader, then I don't know what is.
