Love all, Serve all: Emergency Lift Protocol

Getting stuck in a lift in India is not like getting stuck in an elevator in America. First of all, the emergency call button doesn't do squat. So, here is what to do if you ever get stuck in a lift in Ahmedabad, India in the summer (we will use dad as an example in the pictures):

1. First of all, no, the fan won't work. Press the button with the bell on it. Some weird-sounding siren will then proceed to sound. However, if as in my case, the people that equipped the lift with

the emergency siren decided to make it sound like a bird, chances are (surprise surprise) that people will think it is a very annoying bird. That's what happened to us. We pushed the button for a long time, but the people waiting for us at the bottom of the apartment building had a very lengthy conversation about what type of bird it could possibly be that was so persistent rather than realizing that we were stuck in the lift.

*side note--horns, AquaGuard music, and many other types of noisy things often play the weirdest tunes in India--for instance, the AquaGuad at my grandparents' home plays a "Dashing through the snow" tune every mornig as water is filtered. As you stay longer and longer in India, you realize that really, no two noise-emitting applicances ever sound the same. These horns and tunes blend with the monotonic voice of the guy walking down the street selling vegetables, the hum of scooters and rikshaws, peacock calls, various phone ringtones that are adapted versions of Bollywood movie songs, and the neighbors standing on their porches talking to each other. Though the mixture of all these sounds seems as if it would be chaotic, soon, it comes to be a comfortable soundtrack added to the storyline of my stay in India.

Now, back to lift safety protocol:

2. Though everyone that has ever lived in a dorm has learned NEVER to try to open the do

or when an elevator gets stuck, that is exactly the opposite of what you should do in the lift. Open and close the lift door several times so that the lift

music (in the case of this particular lift, it plays a very jarring, loud version of Fur Elise) plays and the slamming lift door brings attention to the fact that you are stuck. Also, yell loudly.

3. When someone finally hears you, tell them that you are stuck in the lift ("lift bandh thay gayi che!") and then ask them to call the watchman ("watchman ne bolavo!").

4. The watchman is often a very old, senile, slightly confused man that you can generally find sleeping in the shade of a tree somewhere in the apartment complex. So don't worry if it takes him a little while to come. Wait patiently.

5. When you hear him shuffling around the building, slam the lift door a few more times and repeat very loudly which floor (or between which floors) your lift is stuck on.

6. Wait as the watchman fumbles with the keys trying a bunch of different ones until finally he finds the one to the door to the floor that your lift is stuck on.

7. Climb out. And pray the lift doesn't start while you're climbing out. Climb out reaaaaalllly quickly.