A tale of two engineers

Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with one of two engineers whose stay at the Mumbai Trident-Oberoi overlapped with my own.  I'm not saying they work for my company... but you could be forgiven for making that assumption.  Whatever... it's not cogent to the story.

Anyway, when the grenades started exploding and the sound of gunfire and breaking glass started echoing around the Trident Oberoi Hotel, both of these engineers found themselves by luck, chance or divine providence, up in their rooms... blissfully ignorant of the events unfolding somewhere below their feet.

In fact, even though at least one of them had felt a small tremor in the building and a 'booming' sound in the distance, the first they knew of the emergent nature of their situation came when their cell phones rang a few minutes apart (they were in separate rooms on different floors of the hotel).  The calls were from their company's security officer checking to see where they were and if they were okay.

Once it was ascertained that they were both in their rooms and - at least for the moment - safe, they were immediately given the following hurried instructions:

1. Stay there.  Don't move from your rooms. Don't make a sound.
2. Double lock the door and, as quietly as possible, push any movable piece of heavy furniture in front of the door.
3. Stay away from the door... don't even look through the peep-hole.
4. Don't open the door for any reason, and don't respond to knocks at the door or voices from the hallway... even if they are saying that everything is okay and that the emergency is over.
5. Do not use the hotel phone for any reason since it might draw attention to the fact that the room is occupied.  The switchboard must be assumed to be in enemy hands.  Use cell phones only.
6. Stay silently in the rooms until a security officer from the Israeli Consulate personally comes and identifies himself in Hebrew and tells you to open the door.

This plan worked like a charm, and after several days a security officer from the consulate did indeed show up to free them from their luxury prisons high above Mumbai.  They are now both safely back in Israel. 

However during, and after their period of captivity, something interesting occurred. 

One of the men is religiously observant, so he had a suitcase full of manot hamot (cup-o-soups), tuna, kabanos (sort of a kosher peperoni stix) and other such nonperishable kosher food. 

But the other engineer is a secular Jew and had not brought any food with him, having intended to eat the readily available (and by all reports, delicious) food at the restaurant of the 5-star hotel.  So his only course of action during his long wait to be rescued was to raid the hotel Mini-Bar in his room.

Once safely back in Israel, as is often the case, each of the engineers manifested the stresses of his brush with death in vastly different ways. 

The religiously observant engineer went to synagogue and 'Bentched Gomel' (recited the blessing for one who survives a dangerous situation).   He won't hear about quick acting consular security officers or Indian Commandos.  He has unwaveringly assigned full credit for his deliverance to G-d above and no one else... and nobody can tell him otherwise. 

The other engineer is equally grateful to be alive, and wants to get the names and addresses of the Consulate Security officers so he can thank them for acting so quickly and efficiently to ascertain and ensure his safety.  But as of yesterday, he is also reportedly sick with worry that he is going to be charged for the small fortune in candy bars, exotic nuts, soft drinks and wine from the Mini-Bar in his hotel room, that sustained him throughout the ordeal.

We all grasp at whatever is within reach when life tosses us unexpectedly into the icy water.  For the religious, G-d is often the nearest thing at hand... and for the secular, exerting attention towards tangible, more manageable things may be the way to mitigate the fear.

But if the events of last week show us anything, it is that none of us will ever know for sure (in this world, anyway) if our lives are really saved by G-d, man or a humble (but overpriced) bag of Macadamia nuts. 

I believe one thing and many of my friends believe quite another.  It doesn't really matter who is right... or if anyone is right.  All we can do is be grateful for the timely rescue, and try to be worthy of our continued enjoyment of this mortal coil.

[note:  This post makes no judgment on how either of the engineers reacted to their ordeal.  Take what you like from the story and feel free to comment, but keep in mind that until we are tested, none of us knows for sure how we'll act - and react - during, and after a crisis.]