"Yes sir,M on my way....will reach probably in the next 10-15 minutes...u know na sir Delhi's traffic..." I said in an rushing manner. There are some justifications which always work, no matter whatever be the situation ... Delhi's traffic was I guess one of them. Although I didn't realized that traffic was really dense ahead I should have bargained for some more time. Nevertheless, it was a usual day for me. A clumsy auto-rickshaw with a dead meter(IN DELHI , CONSIDER YOURSELF TO BE VERY LUCKY TO FIND A AUTO-RICKSHAW WITH ITS METER WORKING FINE...really I mean it)....plastic wallpapers of Kareena & Katrina in skimpy dresses on the left & right sides of the auto seat...people poking their eyes inside the auto..expecting a beautiful girl to be seated cross legged...but, ultimately giving different types of disappointing looks to me...
"How much more it will take" I asked the auto driver as he stopped at a red light. He instantly turned to me & replied in a much pissed off manner "Its not me , its the TERRAFIK....................Saheb", with the last word coming after a long pause, perhaps it took time for him to realize that your customers are not the right people to dump upon your frustrations. I noticed his face this time & as I was not really facing him when I was hiring the auto. This is what too much talking on your cell phone can do; you don't notice people & just try to fulfill your motive. I was getting a fair deal so I hadn't bothered to notice him at all. But , his face had some familiarities.
He would have been in his early 40's ... semi balded , a tiny mustache with a unshaven look , tired looking eyes, plenty of wrinkles on his face & more on his forehead. He was what a common lower middle class family man would look like. I could feel his willingness to work although I doubted that his body was willing. Even his clothes for screaming for a dip in the pool & I bet he himself would have not minded to have a dip either. But here he was holding on to the clutch feet on the paddles & eyes on traffic light.
Just as it turned green, our auto flew......like a unicorn flying with all its strength, touching seven skies in one go....."......Oh shit...." I screamed as I tried to not to fall out of the auto.
For the next 10 seconds I kept figuring out whether I had escaped unhurt & my newly bought cell was fine or not.... I would have not minded a scratch or too,,,but the cellphone was too precious... seriously if you are somebody like me who forgets to take out his cell from his pocket before entering into the GANGES....then you will value your cell more than yourself..
A shiny, black Merc was standing in front of the auto with somebody seated on the back seat. By the time I came out of the auto , both the auto driver & the Merc chauffeur(Becoz of Merc) were exchanging i-m-going-to-kick-ur-ass glares.The chauffeur would have beeen in his late 20s , I guess, strong built,cleanly shaven. neatly dressed in a white shirt 7 black trousers with a typical driver's cap. In brief of a second, there verbal battle began. If it would not have been for brain bursting horns of that the traffic behind us was making, the chauffeur would have pulled the auto driver into a fight. Somehow, after all both of them had used all the useless slang they ever knew, they decided to go on their ways.
The auto driver didn't spoke anything for the next 5 minutes. Visibly he was quite upset with what had just happened. It is not easy for a man to recover immediately if somebody hurts his ego. "These car owners think that , they bought the entire road & rules can be broken anytime anyplace" yelled the auto driver noticing that I was looking in the front mirror.He continued " These people don't have any values & any respect for anyone. They only value money, if I would have been in a car bigger than his , then would he had dare to spoke to me like this."His voice trembled , but he wanted to speak more, for some reason he didn't. The next ten minutes were silent..very silent. The silence was killing me , I wanted to say something to him , but feared that it might agitate him instead of calming him down.
I gave him 50 bucks & he left in a hurry, perhaps eying another customer. Up to a large extent he had a valid point, people do have become too much money minded these days. But what to do, it is there & people accept it without challenging this social mind set. Acceptance is a much easier option than Forcing a Change. i " cummon , U r so late ...."customer had saw me ...& i began my work remembering little about what I was thinking.
