My maternal grandfather was a man of few words. He died two days before I was born, but the stories he used to tell were carried on by my grandmother.

Like me, my grandfather was also fond of going for walks at odd hours and one such morning as he was coming back home after the walk, it was almost day break and in the far distance he could see a huge commotion on the bridge. This is during the war period and my grandfather was a bit weary. There is no other way to go back home, but to use the bridge. My grandfather noticed that more and more people were going to the bridge and curiosity got better of him and he too joined the crowd.
As he approached the bridge, he saw that a young man was standing atop and is threatening to jump off the bridge.
One half of the crowd pleaded with him and told him “please don’t jump, you are young, whatever it is that causing you the heartache will surely get  better as time goes and one day you will find happiness”
The other half told him” come on, jump. get it over with. you are nothing but a loser and this world isn’t meant for losers.”
My grandfather was a man of few words. So he stood there, not knowing what to do.
“I will jump now” every few minutes the young man threatened and the crowd reached forward and the man threatened to jump if anyone came anymore closer to him.

Eventually some in the crowd got tired and they left. But still a part of the crowd continued to plead with him not to jump, they arranged for someone to go and find his parents,the police etc. The other half still went on asking him to jump.

Eventually..the young man looked at all the people.. He smiled and told them
“April fool”
It was indeed April 1st.
And the young man had to run to save his life !

My grandparents were very close to each other. They were like water and oil, but that didn’t stop them from loving each other. At home, my grandmother is pacing up and down,worrying what happened to her husband. He should have come home long time ago. She was going to wait another 10 minutes and if there was no sign of her husband, she was going to wake up her oldest son and ask him to go and see what happened.
Then she saw him opening the gate. He was chuckling,
This is the man who didn’t smile on his wedding day or any other day.

My grandmother thought her husband had gone stark raving mad!

He walks in, still chuckling and it took a while for him to tell the story.

It wasn’t so much the April fool part that made a huge impact on me.
It was the people on the bridge..the two halves of people..
Which half are you?