Monday column: Someone from my old past

AS  I was patiently standing in the queue in a fast food restaurant, I saw a man furiously stabbing the numbers of a calculator. I also noticed that he was mumbling to himself, perhaps the calculations did not add up to his expectations. I kept my eyes on him because there was nothing else I could do but wait for my turn to be served. I recognised him when he lifted his head.

Since he was sitting alone, I joined him with my burger tray but there was no recognition on his face as I sat opposite him. I reminded him who I was and his face lit up. His thoughts travelled back in the mist of time. He stretched his hand. That was not all. He pulled me towards him and gave me a bear hug. It must have been a spectacular sight to other diners. The funny thing was that, two decades ago, the man would not even give me an appointment to see him in his office when I was desperate. He would walk past me and other colleagues as if we were litter cluttering his path.

Now, he greeted me as if I was a long, lost dear friend. For a man who never spoke much to anyone, he had a lot to talk that day. I sat there listening to what he had been doing after I left the airport. I noticed the deep lines on his forehead and the untidy grey beard. I also noticed there was no shine in his clothing.  The sophistication had completely deserted him. It suddenly occurred to me, it was all probably an act those days that went along with the title of a ‘Director General.’ But was he doing now? His answer was vague for a man who was entrusted with the heavy burden of developing an international airport.

He was running his own business, he said, but stopped short from giving me the specifics. I did not press him to give me the detail because I wanted to spare him the blushes.

I joked that to pay for a mere burger, did he need a calculator? He quickly stuffed it in his pocket and ignored my question. That was probably a cue to end up our unexpected meeting. He stretched his hand and said he had to go. Before he walked out from the crowded place, he said,” by the way, your English needs brushing up in your writings!”

I told him I would take care of that. I watched him shuffle out of the place wondering what had happened to his world. Many of us at the airport thought he was destined to become a member of the cabinet. Something must have happened that snatched away the title of “His Excellency” from him. Well, they say God acts in a mysterious way.

I saw him again when I left the restaurant but this time, he was arguing with a petrol station attendant. No wonder they did not give him the opportunity to sit in that powerful round table of the cabinet. He would have been a constant embarrassment to the government. He was still poking fingers in the air when I was driving away, the way he did to the calculator. As I reached a road junction, I wondered what would happen to me in the next decade. Someone else would probably say something similar about me.