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!
posted by Himanshu at 10:13 PM
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