Elevators / Lifts play an important role in today’s high rises, transporting people up & down all day long. Though the time we spend in it is not more than a minute to two, still it has got a lot in store which made me too pen down some.
Many consider this common utility as their sole right to use. I myself have seen many a times, people holding a lift & chatting with their neighbours/friends taking their sweet own time, thinking that only they don’t have time to wait while rest of the world has all the time at their own sweet disposal.
Some mischievous kids just press buttons belonging to all the floors and makes the lift stop in every floor & they derive a pleasure in doing so (little villain(S)?!!!) They have done this to me many times, when I go out in the evening for my evening walk / shop.
I have seen on many occasions, people shouting at maids using the lifts because they are made to wait just for few more seconds!! Poor maids, they work in their house and help others too in finishing the domestic chores, are left no mercy when it comes to using the lift.
Some youngsters show their artistic skills in the lifts making the others feel embarrassed with their modern arts. Some don’t switch off the fan.
If the children gets bored, they just rush into the lift, navigate all floors by pressing the buttons at random thus keeping themselves as well as the lift, engaged. (A nice way to pass time. I missed all this during my childhood days!!! Today’s kids are very smart!)
The mirror in the lift also plays its role by helping some to pass time looking at the mirror observing their own beauty or comparing their’s with the fellow commuters. It really makes me laugh when I observe such glares from the corner of my eyes.
It also helps the young boys to set their hair stylishly so that they could encounter the girls if they happened to accidentally come up on when the lift halts in a floor. To the school & college girls to get refreshed quickly with application of some lip gloss, or setting the hair to be prepared to encounter a beautiful fellow who they might face before they leave the lift.
There are some little heads, standing almost in toes to get a good glimpse of themselves in the mirror. Though every house there will be a mirror, “the mirror in the lift” has something enchanting in store for them. For the other commuters, it’s to have a look at their surroundings to pass time, when the lift is packed fully or to have a look at a beautiful lady where they cannot just stare at them directly!!!
Earlier there happened to be a lift operator who helps when one gets into the lift where lifts can only be seen in tall commercial buildings housing many offices. But now it’s a common thing and every user knows how to use it, if not, there are always some one inside to assist you asking “which floor?” Even the tiny tots are just amazing when we watch the beauty with which they remember the floor they belongs to and press the button correctly.
Talking about the lifts, gives me the nostalgia of the Amol Palekar’s old hindi film where he waits for the lift just to take a ride along with a girl he is in love with. He misses the ride because of long standing queue is another story. There are many funny comic scenes in movies that is happening or associated with lifts. One Hero made Pulao for the heroine when they accidentally caught inside a lift for a whole night. This has made a pulao fan, yes! Believe me. The beauty with which he cooks and curious things he unfolds from his small bag – a mini kitchen formed inside lift – sounds like Jamesbond movie!!
I remember the day for the first time I spent inside a dark lift alone during a power failure. I was searching for the alarm button & finally located it and after 10 minutes of waiting the savior in the form of a security guard came & opened the lift for me. All those dark minutes, I was waiting for the door to open. But when opened got the shock of climbing down from the ceiling!!! With the help of laughing neighbours I finally made my descent with some chairs below my foot, from the ceiling. Getting stuck inside a lift may be a comic / romantic scene in the movie but it’s a scary movie in real life, with no light and ventilation. Bathed completely in sweat.
Though we hear many accidents & incidents about the lifts, they don’t stop one from using it. The lift, was once a luxury in some bungalows but now become a common utility, a must, part & parcel of our daily life.
