The Sounds of Annoyance

I had just gone back to work after my maternity leave.

With a baby at home and tiring days at work, I grabbed every little opportunity that I could, to catch a few winks.

On one such evening, I had come home with my ‘Things to do’ list still over-flowing. After spending time with my little one, and putting her to sleep, I got down to my chores. And that’s when it started. A mechanical whirring and grinding that grated on my nerves.

The noise was so loud that I couldn’t hear myself think. The source of the noise, I found, was from a five star hotel, with whom our building shared a compound wall. When I went out to check, it looked like some kind of maintenance work was going on. And the noise continued to deafen. I was worried that my daughter would wake up.

My husband came home, and needless to say, was equally aggravated. Thankfully our little angel slept on.

I was in a foul mood and decided to write to the local community newspaper the next day, I thought up dire threats that I would issue to the hotel’s managing staff. Maybe a complaint to the police would also shake them up, I thought. Outrage, and anger simmered. My neighbours came by, and we raved and ranted.

The droning went on till the wee hours of the morning. We barely slept that night, and I woke up with a pounding headache. I was on the warpath, ready to take the hotel guys to court. I was on a mission.

I kick-started my day with many mugs of strong coffee.

At 7.00 a.m, the door bell chimed loudly. A beautiful woman in a saree, and a man in a formal suit stood at the door. They had a huge bouquet in their hands.

They gave it to me and said, “Ma’am, we are from the hotel behind your building. We are here to apologize for all the disturbance that we caused last night. One of the main water pipes burst and had to be fixed immediately.”

“Oh, ok”, I said, not really knowing what else to say.

“And Ma’am, please accept this cake from our bakery, though it cannot compensate for the inconvenience caused to you”, said the elegant lady.

I thanked them for having come by, in person, to apologize. I said bye and walked in.

When I opened the cake box, there was a message written in white icing on the cake which read –

“We are sorry. Let’s make up with a cake.”

I smiled. I smiled as I remembered how angry I was the night before. I smiled as I realized that simple and thoughtful acts like these go a long way in helping us forget and forgive.