‘You don’t understand how sick with worry I was!’
‘By the way I’m thinking of doing some work in aviation safety. That was the promise I made to myself during the emergency.’
‘Great idea,’ Lavanya said, calming down. ‘You finish your lecture. After that we should talk more.’
‘In the meantime, can you do some research on how safe air travel is?’
‘Sure.’
Lavanya was good at research. Pinto was back in Pune the next day and Lavanya already had some information to share. ‘You’ll be pleasantly surprised to know that planes are the safest mode of travel—even if the survival rate after an air accident is low. The good news is, the number of accidents has been decreasing every year even though the number of flights is increasing. One could safely assume aviation was getting safer.’
Pinto asked, ‘What else?’
‘The odds of being killed in a plane accident are 1 in 20 million, if you take a flight on one of the commercial airlines. In fact it’s more likely that a person will die of heart failure or respiratory infection.’
‘Looks like air travel is pretty safe. Why should I spend time on this? Maybe I should work instead on a new type of exercise-machine which can ward off the chances of people dying of heart failure.’
‘There are several people who do not travel by air as they think they are entering a death machine. Do something for them. It’s the perception you have to change.’
‘As you wish.’ Pinto unwillingly accepted.
Mechanical failures were something which could not be avoided but the damage could be reduced. Pinto thought, ‘Why not create redundancies in functions? For example, landing gear should have several ways to open up the wheels. So if the power failed, pilots could use some alternative mechanical device to unlock them. If that also doesn’t work, there should be another way to release the wheels using mere gravity. Though most modern planes can land on their belly in an emergency situation, the whole process is very risky and also needs a lot of expertise and a high degree of precision.’
One day, Pinto was watching a popular TV programme where they showed how courageous people saved the lives of other people by risking their own. In one incident, one of the three landing wheels of a small two-seater single-engine plane had got stuck. The pilot tried to land but when he realized he couldn’t, he pulled the plane up in the air again. His close friend, who himself happened to be an experienced pilot, made a very brave decision from the ground.
He took an open Jeep, drove it at a steady speed down the air strip, put it on cruise control, stood up, and waved the plane to descend to the height of his head so he could release the wheel using his hand. It was a very dangerous manoeuvre. If the plane lowered too far, he would been beheaded. But as a good friend, an experienced pilot, and a brave man, he endangered his life to save his friend’s. It’d have been much easier if he had had a driver driving the jeep while he was standing to open the wheel, but nobody was ready to accompany him for such a dangerous move so he did it all by himself. In a couple of attempts, the wheel was released and the plane landed safely.
Pinto analyzed the incident with Lavanya, ‘I feel that there should be a way to support and fix a plane in midair.’
‘How on earth?’
‘Have you seen how they refuel military planes in flight?’
‘No?’
‘Receiver and tanker planes come close and are stabilized, a pipe is extended from the tanker to the receiving airplane for the refuelling to take place. A special kind of chute can be used to also rescue people from a distressed airplane in much the same way. A rescue plane would fly alongside a distressed plane and when the two planes were in equilibrium, the chute would be connected and passengers would be evacuated to another airplane. Finally, the two pilots of the distressed plane would be supplied two parachutes. They would take the plane near an open area and allow it to crash after ejecting from it.’
‘That’s almost a miracle of a rescue! Could the same rescue chute be used to send a team of mechanics to fix the airplane if needed?’
‘Great minds think alike. And I thought of something else. If the problem is with the landing-gear only, a big trolley-type structure should be developed with three wheels similar to a plane. When the plane starts to descend with closed or partially-opened wheels, the trolley could be on the air strip with a lot of cushioning buffer on the top of it. Once the plane “hits” the trolley, the initial jerk would be absorbed by the cushioning on the trolley. The trolley would move in unison with the plane, as if the plane had its own extra wheels.’
‘And in highly unusual circumstances, when nothing else worked, maybe there should be a way for a plane to be converted into a helicopter, not for flying but for landing. A helicopter is able to land safely without any power because of the rotor,’ said Lavanya, the engineer.
‘Can you think of any other scenario? Pinto asked.
‘If there was a better way to deal with the fire that accompanies a crash, it’d be really a big relief to the public. Especially at the time of landing, fire has taken a lot of lives.’
‘At this point, I can only think of fire extinguisher sprays which could be installed on the airstrip, and would be remotely controlled. It’ll be much faster to extinguish the fire that way rather than waiting for a fire-truck.’
‘So what will you do now?’
‘My heart and soul is not really with this project,’ confessed Pinto. ‘Air travel is already quite safe. Any change in this industry is extremely slow to bring about. All I’d do is publish a paper with these findings and move on.’
TWENTY
H
arsha came home from her boarding school to spend the winter break. Pinto would spend this time playing with her as well as sharing news about their family and relatives. One day she asked, her brows together, ‘Papa, why do I have two grandmas on Mummy’s side? Do I have two grandmothers on your side as well?’
She was referring to Lavanya’s mother, Shalini, as well as her former mother-in-law Manisha. Pinto had no idea how to respond, but went ahead. ‘Beta, those who have two grandmothers are lucky.’
‘Do you have two as well?’
‘No, I don’t.’
‘So you are unlucky.’
‘Well, not really, I’ve lovely grandparents, but I feel unlucky today, as I’ve just got some bad news.’
‘I’ll ask you tomorrow,’ said Harsha, not really understanding what he meant. ‘My friend’s come over so I’ll go and play now.’
Whenever Pinto was in trouble, Imran was the first guy he’d approach. Imran entered the room, saying, ‘I could not get any ticket from Pune to Delhi today. The only availability was from Mumbai so I’ve bought that. Let me drop you to Mumbai airport.’
‘Imran, you are such a help.’
‘Come on!’ Imran looked embarrassed. ‘This is nothing. I hope everything turns out to be all right in Delhi.’
‘Imran, I never got a chance to visit my paternal grandparents very often so my bond with them had not been very strong in the beginning. When I took admission in IIT, Kanpur, I started visiting them more frequently as they lived in Kanpur with my uncle’s family. Believe it or not, my relationship with my paternal grandparents started when I was seventeen, and became stronger over time.’
‘That’s nice.’
‘My paternal grandfather, Arun,’ Pinto continued, ‘is a handsome, jovial man who knows a little bit of English. When he talks, he creates a very good impression on others. Even at the age of around eighty-eight, he walks easily without any support and goes out to buy vegetables, milk, and groceries for the family alone.’
‘Health, as you only realize when you’re old, is wealth,’ Imran could sometimes get platitudinal.
‘Nevertheless, it became slowly apparent to the family around him that he was developing Alzheimer’s.’
‘Really?’ asked Imran. ‘But what are the signs?’
‘Patients start forgetting things.
Other than that the patient appears very normal, until he is one day totally incapable of looking after himself.’
Pinto thought for a bit, ruefully, before going on. ‘When I was a student, I took Lavanya to my uncle’s home a couple of times. We were not in a real romantic relationship then, but the family thought so. My cousins liked her a lot because of her gentle nature, but the elders in the family, like my uncle and grandmother, were not as happy to meet her because they didn’t believe in love marriages. However, my aunt Tanvi and grandfather Arun had a mixed reaction, they were happy but asked me not to be in a hurry.’
Imran was pretty sarcastic, ‘Looks like you followed the suggestion well.’
‘When I told the family Lavanya was a divorcee, they completely abandoned the idea of our marriage. All of Lavanya’s good qualities were overshadowed by her divorcee status. Only my grandfather was supportive of this relationship—which didn’t even exist at that time.’
‘Sounds like a real man,’ said Imran approvingly.
‘Yes indeed. My uncle’s family has recently shifted to Noida, a city near Delhi, as my cousin Saurabh has got a job there. My cousin bought a nice three-bedroom flat there in a newly developed apartment complex. My aunt, Tanvi, was very careful with my grandfather, as this place was new and because of his memory issues she never wanted to take a chance of leaving him alone. He had lived in Kanpur for twenty-five years, so even on his worst days, he’d remember his house in Kanpur very well. Even if he wandered out of the house and got lost, someone from the neighbourhood would drop him home as almost everybody respected him and knew about his condition.’
‘I’ve never experienced what moving away feels like. I was born in this city and will die here,’ Imran swore.
‘Lucky you. In Noida, things were different. It was a big, unfamiliar city. My aunt Tanvi would keep the house locked from the inside so my grandfather could not leave it. He’d come out of the house only under the close supervision of the family.’
‘Must have been really difficult for everyone.’
‘It was. He didn’t like losing his freedom. He’d always talk about going to Kanpur where he lived most of his old age. If somebody came home, he’d always tell them he was leaving for Kanpur the next day even though there was no such plan and even though he probably realized the reality in the back of his mind.’
‘I’m really sorry to hear about him. Lavanya told me a little,’ Imran said, ‘but tell me the rest’.
‘I don’t know much myself,’ Pinto confessed. ‘My cousin Saurabh just called me and said that he has gone missing.’
They had reached Bombay by then. ‘Here you are, straight at the airport,’ said Imran briskly. ‘I’m pretty sure he’ll come back. I wish you luck.’
‘That’s extremely important for me. Bye, ol’ pal.’
Imran was not sure whether he should say ‘Happy journey’ or not. He thought it better to keep quiet.
By the time Pinto reached Noida, it was late at night. Saurabh and Tanvi looked woebegone. ‘We used to keep this door locked all the time,’ Tanvi said helplessly. ‘I don’t know how he found the keys today.’
‘Did you file a complaint with the police?’
‘We tried but they don’t want to listen to us. It interferes with their crime record. I was waiting for you so that you’d use your influence,’ said Saurabh a little more hopefully.
‘That’ll be done tomorrow morning. It would be best if I or someone known to Dadu found him and brought him to a thana, for reasons of identification,’ said Pinto. ‘What else did you try?’
‘Not a lot, in all that commotion. The security guard I questioned told me that our Dadu was asking about which public transport he could take to the railway station. There are various options. He could have taken a three-wheeler shared auto rickshaw, a bus or an individual auto rickshaw. I started following the process of elimination. Buses are generally crowded so he’d not have taken one. A private auto rickshaw is pretty expensive so he would have probably taken the shared three-wheeler.’
‘Good, that you could think so rationally even in these circumstances,’ said Pinto gratefully.
‘I took his photograph and showed it to three-wheeler drivers,’ said Saurabh. ‘Interestingly, the traffic policeman came up to say that Dadu had asked him, too, about how to get to the railway station. He helped him find a three-wheeler.’
‘That means he went to the station,’ deduced Pinto.
‘I also saw a ray of hope there but I was disappointed when the policeman said, ‘‘While waiting for the three-wheeler I told him he could either go all the way to the railway station by three-wheeler or he could get down after three signals. From there, he could get a bus to Kanpur.’’’
‘My God, so nobody knows whether he took a bus or a train, or if he’s still wandering around?’ asked Pinto in trepidation.
‘Time was running out, so I focused my search on the railway station as most of the time he travelled by train. Somebody suggested I paste posters giving his details behind the public transport vehicles such as three-wheelers and buses, but it was not easy to get them printed fast. I decided to remain focused on the physical search first.’
‘You did the right thing. Any clue from the railway station?’
‘No.’
Everyone’s main worry was the Dadu was old and it was cold outside in December. He also had very little money on him, maybe around five hundred bucks. He never asked for money, not even from his sons, how would he ask for money from a stranger? And yet, he couldn’t survive on such little money for very long.
Pinto met with several police and senior officers through his contacts. His strategy was to keep the administration informed in all the towns en route from Noida to Kanpur. The whole ordeal showed the real face of how government functioned. Some of the officers were very nice and sympathetic, others were curt and dismissive.
But one of the district magistrates took a lot of interest. He made sure the message was delivered through wireless to all thanas, so if anybody found his grandfather and reported to a single police station, he would be traceable by the rest.
Another educative experience was when an Indian Police Service officer treated him warmly and talked about the reality of the situation. ‘You need to carry out your own search,’ he advised Pinto. ‘The police cannot not do anything other than report to you if he is brought into a thana. I genuinely want to help you myself, but we all have so many other higher priorities, your request would not be processed soon. Also, we are not equipped to search for missing people.’
He further added, ‘But, let me tell you, my friend, based on my experience, patients of Alzheimer’s would generally go to the place where they have lived the longest, places of which they have lasting memories. They forget everything, including their immediate families, but somehow they retain a vivid picture of their earlier surroundings.’
Based on this, Pinto and Saurabh decided to narrow down their search to Kanpur and en route.
‘Let’s get 5,000 posters printed,’ Pinto suggested. ‘Announce a reward of 20,000 rupees to the person who finds him. We should rent a car, post these posters on our way wherever we can, and cover the car itself with them to act as a moving advertisement.’
One person, seeing them pasting the notices on a wall, yelled to them, ‘You have kidnapped him for his property. Why are you doing all this drama now?’
Saurabh told him, ‘Pinto is a world-famous scientist. You should be respectful.’
That was when Pinto wondered for the first time whether he’d chosen the wrong profession. ‘If I was even a smalltime politician, I’d have gotten much more support from people. It’s an irony nobody knows a world-level scientist but everybody recognizes a state-level politician no matter where his constituency is. Perhaps it’s the crowds that follow him around that mark him out as a neta,’ he thought philosophically.
At the same time, to Pinto’s surprise, the response to the posters was quick—although they were
hoax callers, talking nonsense. Saurabh was tired of answering them. ‘I think I should stop taking calls,’ he said defeatedly.
Pinto had more patience. ‘You wouldn’t want to miss a single call. Who knows who may have a helpful clue?’
One caller said, ‘I am not able to find the old man.’ Saurabh asked, ‘Why are you calling, then?’ The caller said callously, ‘The poster doesn’t say that I should call you only when the old man was found. I could call you just to say that I haven’t found him. It doesn’t mean that I am not searching for him.’ Saurabh was even more upset.
The pranks reminded Pinto of the time he was in IIT JEE coaching: Lavanya and he, with one of their mischievous friends, Jasvinder, were standing at the main gate of their coaching class, which was facing the main road, and were enjoying their tea from a roadside shop.
Jasvinder suddenly shouted to a bike-rider agitatedly, ‘Your front wheel!’
The guy braked with a screeching sound. He asked Jasvinder, ‘What about it?’
Jasvinder told him calmly, ‘Your front wheel was spinning.’
The biker said, ‘So was my rear wheel. What’s wrong with that?’
Jasvinder told him in the same toneless voice, ‘I didn’t say your rear wheel was not spinning. I also didn’t say anything was wrong with your bike. I also didn’t ask you to stop. I just told you a fact.’
The biker rider yelled loud abuse at Jasvinder and left. They all laughed heartily. Pinto now thought of Jasvinder’s prank with shame, ‘That guy might have had an accident because of our stupid joke. Now it’s happening to me.’
The next caller asked, ‘Did you find him? If you already did, we’ll stop our search.’
Another ring: ‘Prove to me you have 20k in your bank account.’
Yet another: ‘Twenty thousand is a very small amount. If I found him I’d keep him with me, feed him well but would ask for more money.’
‘The world is a very bad place,’ said Saurabh in despair.
Pinto calmed him down, ‘Not really. When I was in the US, a housing contractor used to work on my house. On one occasion, he was supposed to work for almost for a month. He started working without a contract, which was quite unusual in the US. After a week’s work, he brought a contract. I signed it. Mike, the contractor, said, “Look, Pinto, there are very few bad guys in the world, but because of them, we largely honest chaps have to do so much paperwork.” These callers are the few bad guys in this beautiful world.’
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