The Elephant and the Benz

After my unfortunate and extremely short attempt to work in hospitality after IHM , I worked at many jobs, from teaching, to I.T marketing,Home loans, to timeshare sales. Among my many Avatars I was Sales Manager for a Hotel at Cochin. While my parents generally were not too bothered about where I worked as long as the job had an impressive title, this job was a source of concern. I used to get frequent warnings from my mom not to do anything to rub them wrong. The owners were linked with a frontpaged murder story
After the resolution of the murder case, with the help of some advisors they renovated their Tourist home turning it into a luxury 4 star property with 2 multiple speciality restaurants, health club and a 24 hour coffee shop. Since this was supposed to be a fresh start to their life again, the renovated hotel was called Renaissance meaning renewal or new beginning. While the hotel did OK, it never had full occupancy. So a Sales Manager was needed and I being between jobs was recommended to them. When I landed there, I was impressed about the clientele frequenting the place. The who is who of cochin would turn up for weddings and parties. The family itself had divided responsibility of the family businesses between the eldest and younger sons. The elder one who wasn't well educated was in charge of the bar hotel business, while the youngest who was the most polished of the lot was in charge of the Renaissance and their chain of Toddy shops. The middle son who was not interested in the family business from what I heard, was sent to London to be a Doctor. He came back and joined at a prominent hospital in cochin. The eldest son had a fascination for powerful cars and would use the hotel's foreign exchange earnings to fund the import of his favorite car.

A car for every occasion and a baby elephant also. The baby elephant was bought in Bihar and brought to Kerala. Did you know Elephants also have a sort of Horoscope? It was predicted that this elephant would kill 2 people, and still they bought it because it had all the best features sought for in an elephant. Anyway the cute baby elephant used to be brought to the hotel for special occasions when Guests demanded it or some VIP turned up. After the elephantine welcome and garlanding of the guests, the Elephant baby would be kept in the car park for some time before being taken home. The car park was next to the health club-Gym. A lot of people would come to the Health club regularly and seeing the cute baby elephant standing there, pet him and feed him bananas. One day one of the regular guests came in his Mercedes and parked it near the elephant. The hotel drivers suggested he move the car away, to which he replied that "Enikku evaney pandu muthaley ariyam. Evan kurumbu onnum kannikilla."and.. he went off to the health club. If you've noticed elephants when they are tied up and standing in one place for long, they swing their trunk and their rear legs occasionally, perhaps the elephant equivalent of a human stretching. The baby elephant did exactly the same.He folded his rear leg & swung it accidentally hitting the door of the Mercedes. While he was a baby, he was still very much an elephant. When elephant met Benz, the winner was elephant. The door of the Benz folded in half like card board. The security came running and moved the elephant. But the damage was done. The owner of the car didn't complain.Probably claimed insurance for the damage. I can imagine the insurance company's surprise at reading the cause of accident as Elephant kicked in the door