If your faith in the the lord is wavering - take an auto ride to the suburbs of Mumbai. You get to experience the raging testosterone of the autowallas expressed in their speed. And in that moment of maddening speed, overtaking cars, not killing jaywalkers, breaking signals and pulling and pushing you with his power accelerator - you can renew your faith.
I hope you were never stuck in any place
in the sweltering heat looking for an auto because either they will ignore you
or they will charge you double the fare you usually would have had to pay.
Nobody knows how to play mean better than Auto-wallahs in the Financial capital
city of India. I hope you were able to keep your cool when you came across
pseudo intellectuals inspired by Albert Einstein and 50 cent who lectured you
shouting at the top of their voices about anything and everything they don’t
know the first thing about. And I genuinely hope you didn’t come
across people who though don’t pretend to know anything about the world but
think they own the world and thus start every sentence that comes out of their
mouths from a cuss word. It’s getting unrealistic now, almost Utopian,
isn’t it?
Catching an auto itself is a
routine. First you need to get his attention, which is like praying for an
audience with him. Tentatively you extend your hand hoping to get his attention
and that he mercifully slows down to hear your plea.
He might slow down Or cross
your path - without eye contact (depending on the sins that you have
committed). It is amazing as to how they could just pretend to not see a grown
adult in an empty street, with arms stretched out - yelling places - andheri, ghatkopar, borivalli….and
continue moving in an empty auto on a empty street to godknowswhere.
Smart auto catchers quickly
adjust to the situation by looking past the autofellow pretending to catch the
next one - which as mr. murphy would predict the auto would definitely be full.
I have memories of my school
days of the rickshaw bhaiya (no stereo-typing slur intended) who used to be an
ignorer - but now that he is also a racer is new to me.
That
which doesn’t kill you makes you reach faster!
Swerving and speeding, hitting
potholes with a vengeance, he literally lives on the edge. The passenger
is someone whom he tolerates - they are the necessary evil as they pay
for the trip. Left alone, he’d prefer to fly on his own.
“Something similar to this”
Maybe it’s just Mumbai or maybe
it’s just because it is a financial city where people make their dreams come true.
For me living in Mumbai isn’t difficult or offensive, it’s just plain
annoying sometimes. Finally I really do hope you find a reason to love
Mumbai ,
mine being quite a simple one “its home”. I’m here because it’s the only place
I know in the whole world,
Mumbai is where I was born and specially got my best buddies of life 'Aasach Grp'. Mumbai is
where I went to college with friendsand learnt dynamics of Life and I hope Mumbai is where I’ll always
be
Lot of people prefer to relax
and meditate in quiet harmonious surroundings.
But that’s not for me. I
gingerly sit in the corner of the auto, close my eyes, focus on my breathing, try to block the
surroundings (read honking and swerving) and not get alarmed when he brakes suddenly
and I almost fall on his lap.
That’s “Nirvana in an
Autorickshaw” for you
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