One of the things ill always remember of my five years in Delhi will be the 3, 912, 779, 815 auto rides I took to various obscure corners of that giant city. Of course a lot of these trips were rather uneventful, but an equal number did offer me interesting conversations and experiences worth remembering.
They are a strange bunch these auto-fellows, compulsive eve-teasers, users of the most abusive language, crooks of the highest order, eager weather experts and commentators; they lie waiting for a nice conversation - ready with an opinion on everything from onion prices and sealing drives to family planning and the economics behind shopping malls or the Delhi Metro...
Green
It must have been my second or third day in Delhi. It was hotter than I, a boy who had spent all his life in the hills could imagine or bear. My brother just told me a 'Mudrika' would take Rs 10 to take me around the 'Ring Road' and drop me off at the 'Mall Road' which was walking distance from DU. Before I could grasp all of those bizarre names he had already left for work.
Well the ruddy bus was crowded with almost half of Delhi's population - the more stinky, sweaty and scary half. It took me about two hours to get to the Mall Road, and the walk to St. Stephen's college from the bus-stop left me fully dehydrated. I was there to apply for admission into the institute of my father's dream. Well all I remember of that whole process is that the application form was pale green, and that it involved a lot of writing and like an earnest young boy I wrote and I wrote and I wrote - till I missed the afternoon deadline for submission. So then I got out of the college and began the epic journey back to the bus stop.
I could almost hear the sun scorch everything in its sight - a slight hiss hovering all around me. Half way to the bus stop I stopped to have this strange drink everyone seemed to be drinking - yes my first bunta! I saw a few more buses pass by me, limbs and even entire bodies sticking out of every small opening.
Large portions of my family had showered me with small amounts of money to make my new academic adventure more enjoyable. I realized there was no better use for that money than to invest it into keeping me away from the horrors of a bus ride.
New Friends Colony?
Kitne Savari?
Ek - Main... Meter se chaloge?
180!
Meter?
150!
Meter??
Theek hai - baitho...
:D Even though it was the dry hot loo that blew across my face I couldn't be happier!!! The auto made as much noise as a race car, of course much less elegantly, but all the strenuous effort only resulted in 40 KPH. It was a bit hilarious to see it struggle that way, but in the midst of traffic and at red lights the short swerves the auto made to its advantage were almost lyrical when I first saw them. The driver was a scrawny fellow with a mole the size of an almond adorning his dirty weather beaten face.
Aap kahan se hain?
Bihar!
Arre main bhi.. Gaon kahan hai?
Bhagalpur...
Kitne saalon se kaam kar rahe ho yahan?
Dus Saal..
Okay so the fellow didn't seem interested in a conversation. What the hell - I stuck my neck out of the auto and caught as much of Delhi as I could. Raj Ghat, flyovers, very very tall building, wide roads, pretty girls with long hair and short dresses... It went on for a while my sight seeing till I realized that the same buildings seemed to be reappearing after a while. After careful tracking for fifteen minutes I understood that I was being taken for the proverbial ride.
The rotten son of a bitch was taking a left from a road covering some distance then taking a U - turn to rejoin it after a bit.. The meter read almost 70 and I dont think I was even half way home...
Yeh kaun sa rasta hai?
Theek hai bhai - naye ho kya?
Uhm nahin - kyo? Ye galat rasta hai, lamba hai?
Kahan se le jaayen fir, tum batao??
Umm theek hai... tum chalo, ab aage sahi se chalo, main naya nahin hoon yahan...
Sahi se toh chal raha hoon
The remarks only fuelled his treachery, I swear the meter went from 75 to 90 and we were still circling the same buildings I think. Somehow, I felt as if my upbringing was being challenged. No two-penny worth auto guy could take a hardened boarding school criminal for a toss.
It must have been 3 in the afternoon. It couldn't have been hotter, the sun seemed to have silenced everything around me and on top of that we were at a red light. It couldn't have been a more stationary setting. But my muscles were all tense and my heart was beating fast as I was about to take my first step out of th innocence of school and into the outside world. I sat at the edge of the auto looking intently at the traffic signal. It was red for about three and a half decades before it blinked into yellow and then green. The first row of vehicles roared into action and then the next - the wave reached us and my man pulled at his lever. The next wave was one of motion, I waited... When the cars immediately ahead of my auto trudged forward, I jumped outside of my auto, waved violently in front of a bus adjacent to my auto and crossed it, then bypassed a few more columns of vehicles and made it to the pavement. My auto was caught in the slow moving traffic, the fellow unable to get out of it, I could see his frantic efforts to locate me -
I walked away and got into a bus. It wasn't immensely crowded and even if it was I don't think I'd have noticed...
Well I'd like to tell you what became of the application, and in the five coming years in Delhi, but then thats another story for another time..
They are a strange bunch these auto-fellows, compulsive eve-teasers, users of the most abusive language, crooks of the highest order, eager weather experts and commentators; they lie waiting for a nice conversation - ready with an opinion on everything from onion prices and sealing drives to family planning and the economics behind shopping malls or the Delhi Metro...
Green
It must have been my second or third day in Delhi. It was hotter than I, a boy who had spent all his life in the hills could imagine or bear. My brother just told me a 'Mudrika' would take Rs 10 to take me around the 'Ring Road' and drop me off at the 'Mall Road' which was walking distance from DU. Before I could grasp all of those bizarre names he had already left for work.
Well the ruddy bus was crowded with almost half of Delhi's population - the more stinky, sweaty and scary half. It took me about two hours to get to the Mall Road, and the walk to St. Stephen's college from the bus-stop left me fully dehydrated. I was there to apply for admission into the institute of my father's dream. Well all I remember of that whole process is that the application form was pale green, and that it involved a lot of writing and like an earnest young boy I wrote and I wrote and I wrote - till I missed the afternoon deadline for submission. So then I got out of the college and began the epic journey back to the bus stop.
I could almost hear the sun scorch everything in its sight - a slight hiss hovering all around me. Half way to the bus stop I stopped to have this strange drink everyone seemed to be drinking - yes my first bunta! I saw a few more buses pass by me, limbs and even entire bodies sticking out of every small opening.
Large portions of my family had showered me with small amounts of money to make my new academic adventure more enjoyable. I realized there was no better use for that money than to invest it into keeping me away from the horrors of a bus ride.
New Friends Colony?
Kitne Savari?
Ek - Main... Meter se chaloge?
180!
Meter?
150!
Meter??
Theek hai - baitho...
:D Even though it was the dry hot loo that blew across my face I couldn't be happier!!! The auto made as much noise as a race car, of course much less elegantly, but all the strenuous effort only resulted in 40 KPH. It was a bit hilarious to see it struggle that way, but in the midst of traffic and at red lights the short swerves the auto made to its advantage were almost lyrical when I first saw them. The driver was a scrawny fellow with a mole the size of an almond adorning his dirty weather beaten face.
Aap kahan se hain?
Bihar!
Arre main bhi.. Gaon kahan hai?
Bhagalpur...
Kitne saalon se kaam kar rahe ho yahan?
Dus Saal..
Okay so the fellow didn't seem interested in a conversation. What the hell - I stuck my neck out of the auto and caught as much of Delhi as I could. Raj Ghat, flyovers, very very tall building, wide roads, pretty girls with long hair and short dresses... It went on for a while my sight seeing till I realized that the same buildings seemed to be reappearing after a while. After careful tracking for fifteen minutes I understood that I was being taken for the proverbial ride.
The rotten son of a bitch was taking a left from a road covering some distance then taking a U - turn to rejoin it after a bit.. The meter read almost 70 and I dont think I was even half way home...
Yeh kaun sa rasta hai?
Theek hai bhai - naye ho kya?
Uhm nahin - kyo? Ye galat rasta hai, lamba hai?
Kahan se le jaayen fir, tum batao??
Umm theek hai... tum chalo, ab aage sahi se chalo, main naya nahin hoon yahan...
Sahi se toh chal raha hoon
The remarks only fuelled his treachery, I swear the meter went from 75 to 90 and we were still circling the same buildings I think. Somehow, I felt as if my upbringing was being challenged. No two-penny worth auto guy could take a hardened boarding school criminal for a toss.
It must have been 3 in the afternoon. It couldn't have been hotter, the sun seemed to have silenced everything around me and on top of that we were at a red light. It couldn't have been a more stationary setting. But my muscles were all tense and my heart was beating fast as I was about to take my first step out of th innocence of school and into the outside world. I sat at the edge of the auto looking intently at the traffic signal. It was red for about three and a half decades before it blinked into yellow and then green. The first row of vehicles roared into action and then the next - the wave reached us and my man pulled at his lever. The next wave was one of motion, I waited... When the cars immediately ahead of my auto trudged forward, I jumped outside of my auto, waved violently in front of a bus adjacent to my auto and crossed it, then bypassed a few more columns of vehicles and made it to the pavement. My auto was caught in the slow moving traffic, the fellow unable to get out of it, I could see his frantic efforts to locate me -
I walked away and got into a bus. It wasn't immensely crowded and even if it was I don't think I'd have noticed...
Well I'd like to tell you what became of the application, and in the five coming years in Delhi, but then thats another story for another time..
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment