Paranoia, a personal episode

Have you noticed how we get paranoid over small things? Believe me, we do. In my case, it happened last night.

Upon returning home from work around 9:30 pm, I found the windows of my bedroom open and the curtains drawn out. Since that wasn’t how I had left them in the morning when I had gone to work, I was alarmed. More so, because, the way my flat is constructed, anyone can reach in from the window and open the latch to the door connecting my bedroom to the verandah. Then, it’s ‘open sesame’. It’s a perfect entry/getaway for thieves.

I checked to see if anything of value was missing. Nothing was. So, I closed the windows and drew the curtains. As a precaution, in order to avoid future mishaps, I called on my neighbour across the landing to inform him of the situation. He’s also the president of the building society – and overseeing the painting of the building which is currently in process – and the only person with whom I’ve interacted so far in the one-and-a-half months that I’ve been here.

Where I expected a sympathetic ear, I got an earful. When I narrated my story of the open window, and my alarm, he asked me to show him what had happened. I explained that I couldn’t since I had already closed the window and drawn the curtains. He got irritated, saying, “You can’t even show me what had happened. How do you expect me to respond?”

I took another tack. I said I suspected the painters who were painting the building may have done it. That they shouldn’t go around opening windows of people’s homes without seeking the homeowner’s permission first.

This got the gentleman’s goat. He started shouting that “the painters probably opened the windows to get a foothold while painting. Since nothing was missing from your flat, there’s nothing wrong in that.” I insisted, suggesting that informing me and taking my permission was imperative. Since I did not give permission, the painters had no right to open the windows to my flat.

This made him angry. He started shouting,
1. “Ok, we’ll stop the painting of the building because of you.”
2. “Let the painters fall down and die.”
3. “You’ve just been here for a few months. We’ve waited 10 years for this building to be painted and now you’re stopping it.”

By this time, all the neighbours were listening in. It was getting late and embarrassing. I told him that he was needlessly jumping to extreme conclusions. I only wanted him to caution the painters since he was supervising their work. That I was not to be held responsible for the building not being painted for 10 years. To which he responded, “So, it’s my fault. You’re accusing me of not supervising the painters properly.”

Before I could answer, he walked off in a huff, only to return with another gentleman, who turned out to be the secretary of the building society. The second gentleman came with his wife and called up my landlord. My landlord, who happens to be my client as well, thankfully, laughed it off. He told me to cool off and get a good night’s rest. That, tomorrow it’ll be a forgotten matter. That, this was too small an issue to get paranoid about. I guess he was right.