My brush with Leadership

I live in a building which has a paranoia for security.  To exit the basement car-park, one has to pass through a tunnel (similar to the one which Mandrake the Magician had in his Xanadu).  And as in Xanadu, there are 2 automatic metal gates at either end of the tunnel. 

Entrance to tunnel with gate open

Today morning for some reason the gate at the far end of the tunnel got stuck and there were 5-6 cars queued up in the tunnel, wanting to get out.  Seeing that the tunnel was almost full, I stopped my car just before the first gate in the basement.

A Land-Cruiser came up behind me, and honked impatiently.  I did not want an argument early in the morning so I advanced my car past the first gate, and into the tunnel.  Now there was no place in the tunnel for another car to enter – so the Land Cruiser behind had to wait just before the 1st metal grill in the basement.

One more honk.  Of course I could not do anything now, so I stayed put.

In my rear view mirror, I could see the door of the Land Cruiser opening and a guy stepping out.  Since I don’t know his name, let me call him “Leadership Material” or “LM” for short.

He walked into the tunnel and surveyed the scene.  There were a group of drivers and some building technicians trying to force the rebellious gate at the far end of the tunnel to open – but the gate was refusing to co-operate with them.

LM came and tapped at my car window, and said : “Mai jaldi mein hoon.  Kuch tho karna chahiye”  - he said it in a tone that indicated his displeasure that there are lazy guys like me sitting around and doing nothing to solve the problem.

While I was thinking of a suitable response in my hesitant Hindi, he marched up to the gate at the far end, past the 5-6 cars parked in the tunnel.  He then barked some orders at the technicians, who chose to ignore him.

Meanwhile, the 1st gate behind me (at the beginning of the tunnel) started automatically closing behind me.  LM saw it closing, and started running back trying to reach his car before the metal grill closed, but in vain. 

So now we had this situation where LM was in the tunnel – with a metal grill firmly separating him from his car. 

LM came up and again tapped on my window “Lo – gate tho bandh ho gaya.  Abh mai kya karoon?” he asked me in an accusative tone.  I sympathised with him : there was no way he could reach his car now except by walking up the tunnel, walking past the 2nd metal gate (when it does open up), getting onto the road, walking around the building to the main entrance, and then taking the elevator down to the basement car park to reach his car.

Meanwhile the technicians had disabled the exit gate at the far end and lifted it up – so the cars now started to move out of the tunnel.  I too drove out.

My last vision of LM in the rear view mirror was of him panting his way up the tunnel.