Humour
The Nihang and The Dumpster
New York's back-streets and alley-ways are legion.
They are everywhere. Tightly inter-weaving between century-old red-brick high-rises, they are also littered with huge dumpsters which serve as receptacles for garbage thrown down a network of shutes from the apartments and flats high above.
On one occasion, while throwing a heavy bag of garbage down the shute, a middle-aged housewife - still in her nightie and hair-curlers, since it was not far into the morning - accidently tipped over and herself fell into the shute.
Gravity took over and unceremoniously delivered her into the dumpster several floors below in the alleyway.
A Nihang Singh - a recent immigrant from Phagwara - happened to be walking by on the street a few feet away. From the corner of his eye, he saw the apparition shoot down like a comet and disappear into the huge box, followed by a series of blood-curdling screams, interspersed with desperate pleas for help.
Perennially on duty to help the helpless 24/7, the Nihang promptly dropped his boria-bistara (bag 'n baggage), and climbed into the dumpster only to find, to his utter surprise, a mem - incoherent but definitely in trouble!
He single-handedly hauled her out and lay her down on the pavement. Other passers-by summoned an ambulance, and the poor woman was, within minutes, dispatched to the nearest hospital.
As the ambulance drove away and the Nihang went about gathering his belongings from the alley, he was overheard muttering under his breath:
"A wasteful people, these Americans, all! She was good for another 20 years!"
August 9, 2011
Conversation about this article
1: Sangat Singh (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), August 09, 2011, 3:12 PM.
What a delight! You spread sunshine; an antidote for the troubled world. Every time you open the newspaper, you notice that your assets have gone down yet again ... and they say that they haven't found bottom yet. This humour is the placebo that helps. Thanks for the smile.