Kalippus, Friendly Neighbors and The Fire Brigade!!!!

Kalippu: Problem/Disaster/Catastrophe/Issue

You would not believe it guys, but I had another great experience here in SF this weekend thanks to the legendary Mr. HPU.

I very strongly now believe in the 80 -20 rule. 20 percent of the people have 80 percent of the bad luck and Mr. HPU, would probably top that “20 percent” group with his long list of escapades. Well, this Saturday, he got to add another remarkable story to that long list he has.

As is customary, I reached Mr. HPU’s and Mr. AT’s house at around 4, this Saturday evening and it was the perfect settings for an uneventful Saturday evening. We had no plans for the day, absolutely nothing and with almost zero chance of “kalippu” and that made me careless.

It gave me a sense of security but I should have been more careful to watch out for the signs, especially since Mr. HPU was around but I failed to do so.

After some time, Mr. HPU was hungry (as usual) and wanted to go to KFC to buy his usual 8 piece chicken bucket and so, all three of us were just absent from the house for about 5 minutes. When we were leaving, Mr. HPU had placed his (half finished) cigarette in the ash tray in the balcony.

When we got back in 5 minutes, the first thing that we noticed was that a lot of people were standing outside, near our apartment and when we got closer, we also noticed that they were all looking at our balcony and pointing to something.

We parked the car, and got out when, one guy came running up to us.

Friendly neighbor (FN): “Is that your house?” he said excitedly pointing to our flat.

We said yes, and that was when he said, “You guy have a fire in your house. Go fast fast fast!!!!!!!!!!”

On hearing this, all three of us ran as fast as we could into the house. We could smell the fire but we could not spot the source. On closer inspection, we found out that the (small) fire was in the balcony thanks to Mr. HPU’s cigarette.

The chocolate box that Mr. HPU had kept on the balcony near the ashtray was charred beyond recognition and it just took us a bottle of water to kill the flames. All the people cheered on as we killed the flames.

As Mr. HPU and Mr. AT were busy cleaning the balcony, I strolled down to the parking lot to lock the car and that was when the fun started.

One guy came up to me and said, “Thank God you guys are back. That flame was like a feet tall”.

Another middle aged, Indian lady came up to me and said, “All of us could smell the smoke and that is why we all are here. That flame was like 3 feet tall”.

The more neighbors I met, the higher the flames got and finally I also managed to meet FN, the friendly neighbor.

“You guys should have been more careful” was what he said.

I said, “Yeah, it was due to a cigarette but we put it out, so no issues. Things are under control”.

That was when I noticed a subtle glint in his eyes. He said, “You know what. Since the flames were about 8 feet tall and you guys were not around, I had to call 911 you know. The fire brigade will be here any second”.

Just when he said that, I could hear the faint drone of the sirens.

FN very quickly added, “Yeah, they will be here in like 3 minutes. If you have any drugs or illegal guns in the house, please clear it up”.

Suppressing a laugh, I assured him that we had no such thing slashed up and I ran back into the house after locking the car to tell the others about how, we were going to be graced by the eminent presence of the illustrious Freemont Fire Brigade.

And they were there in about 2 minutes and they had come in full force; a big fire engine, an ambulance and the police squad.

They came into the house, and we told them that we had things under control.

“Where is the fire” asked the fire fighter.

We showed him the way to the balcony.

“Where is the fire???” he repeated indignantly.

We actually had to point to the small corner where the fire was.

“But but…..err, we got a call that the whole balcony was on fire” he said half disappointedly. Maybe he was just having another boring day at work. We assured him that no such thing had happened.

The police officers asked us if we are all right and when we assured them that we were doing great, all of them finally left. They were all very decent and polite.

Mr. HPU and Mr. AT became instant celebrities in their housing complex and Mr. HPU lives on; a legend in the truest form.