Mumbai - An Addiction
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
The Not-so-romantic Autowallah
I had taken an auto to my gym and the autowallah turned out to be one of those chatty kinds. And his types are never short of an anecdote to entertain their passengers. So he told me, unasked, the story of the passengers before me.
There was a couple before me who was coming from Thakur Complex to Saibaba Nagar. And the autowallah told me that he got them to Saibaba Nagar from Dahisar Flyover, which unless you are from around the area means nothing to you. Suffice to say that the route was at least 5 times longer than the normal road that the autowallah should have taken.
I was about to censure the autowallah for his unethical behavior with a speech of how autos and the honesty and dedication of autowallahs is the pride of Mumbai. Well, at least compared to the slimy, rude, greedy, and basically ass-hole autowallahs from places like Bangalore and Chennai and the likes. Not to say that all autowallahs are bad in these places, but most of them are.
But before I could heap my curses on my autowallah, he told me that it was the couple who wanted to take the longer route. This is how the conversation progressed:
Me: Itne lambe raaste se kyun laye unko?
Autowallah: Unhone hi bola. Unka kissing chalu tha peeche.
Me: Oh. Tab theek hai.
Autowallah: mere ko kya problem hai. Mera to meter chal raha tha. Unko jo karna hai woh kare. Bas gaadi nahi hilaana mangta hai.
Me: Gadi bhi hilaate hai kya log?
Autowallah: Arrey kya bharosa couple ka. Koi apne ko paas kare to apun ki gaadi mein dekhna nahin chahiye. Warna kya sochenge log. Mere ko bhi disturb hota hai na.
Me: Sahi hai.
Well. What do I say? For a lot of people who live in sparrow nest sized houses in joint families, don’t have cars, and can’t get a public place to canoodle with their lovers, autos have become the private space for the purpse. It’s not that these couples are not aware that the autowallah would know what they are doing in the back seats. But in the crowded place that Mumbai is, knowing that only one person is aware of their tender moments is a better devil than every passer by witnessing their romantic actions. And the autowallahs don’t really make an issue of it. God bless their souls! And the couples don’t even mind the occasional over-taker on the road peeking and catching a glimpse of a quick kiss. Or a hearty smooch. How would those couples love autos with doors!
Monday, December 28, 2009
The Romantic Autowallah
In the cynical world we live in it’s all too commonplace to treat people who display affection publicly with anything from a snicker to contempt. While autowallahs are more dismissive and indifferent to couples who snuggle up, in the most platonic sense of the term, in the back seats during a trip through the by-lanes or highways of the city, they (autowallahs) run out of patience when one half of the couple has to be left somewhere and the couple takes forever to finish it’s good byes. And I can’t say that I blame them really. It’s one of those things you can’t help dishing out if you are a part of a couple.
But then there was this one time, quite, quite some time back, when I had to drop my girlfriend someplace and continue with the auto. And the autowallah behaved completely out-of-script. As I asked him to stop the auto at my girlfriend’s destination, (I had told the autowallah that one of us would leave there and I would continue the auto) and as soon as he pulled over his auto, he left and went about twenty feet away for no apparent reason. He was just standing there, gazing at stars and passing cars and trees and appreciating the beauty of the world, it seemed. It was clear he wanted to give me and my girlfriend some privacy for our farewell ritual. And when she left, he promptly came back and drove me away.
And that’s it. I never really thanked him. And he didn’t start of on a rant of how romantic a guy he was. He just silently drove and I paid the fare when I got off and that’s the last I ever saw of him. I can’t put in words what exactly I felt then. It wasn’t an overwhelming feeling of gratitude or anything of that sort. I guess it was just… hope… that there are some people who genuinely believe, and practice, the philosophy of “live and let live”. May his tribe increase! And world could be so much better a place to live in!
But then there was this one time, quite, quite some time back, when I had to drop my girlfriend someplace and continue with the auto. And the autowallah behaved completely out-of-script. As I asked him to stop the auto at my girlfriend’s destination, (I had told the autowallah that one of us would leave there and I would continue the auto) and as soon as he pulled over his auto, he left and went about twenty feet away for no apparent reason. He was just standing there, gazing at stars and passing cars and trees and appreciating the beauty of the world, it seemed. It was clear he wanted to give me and my girlfriend some privacy for our farewell ritual. And when she left, he promptly came back and drove me away.
And that’s it. I never really thanked him. And he didn’t start of on a rant of how romantic a guy he was. He just silently drove and I paid the fare when I got off and that’s the last I ever saw of him. I can’t put in words what exactly I felt then. It wasn’t an overwhelming feeling of gratitude or anything of that sort. I guess it was just… hope… that there are some people who genuinely believe, and practice, the philosophy of “live and let live”. May his tribe increase! And world could be so much better a place to live in!
