And me, after a tiring walk from the bandra lake till the flyover was confused if I should eat, find an AC cab or pee. the motormen were in the hospital. hunger did that to them. or less wages perhaps.
Next on my mind was the state of my bladder. Control - I said to myself.
It wasn’t so bad after all. The traffic cop said ‘yahaan se taxi nahi milegi, ricksha le lo’. Like a savior came one face covered rickie. Wonder why his face was covered. One tends to over think when the Kasab trial, cloudy sky and motormen strike- all decide to happen on the same day, you see.
We got in and headed towards the mouth of the sea link; on the bandra side.
No cabs there. We rush to Lilavati and take a regular cab. Apologies from D follow. I grudgingly smile and say it’s ok. There we are sitting at two ends of the back seat; me wiping my face and she finding newer ways to apologize. ‘That’s fine…..really’ I say.
Her boyfriend sweats a lot too she told me as she saw streams of sweat flowing across my brow. With total disinterest and disgust i said “o really? guys generally do, you know” I was not going to be interested in how much her boyfriend perspired and where. His name was R.
She was an MBBS graduate interning at some place. And the counseling she had mentioned was to seek admission for her post graduation. Then began the tale. Tale of love; of career; of family; of how familiar she was with Mumbai.
R was in Ahmedabad working with some organization that kept him really busy. Miss D complained she didn’t get any time from him. Sorry expression with intermittent “ohh….so sad” followed from my end. Her parents were cool about it but she could not visit him since they were a little conservative. So the love birds could meet just once every 6-7 months. Another routine of “ohh..." from my end.
Then began a series of questions about her privileged travel companion. Where was I from? Where was I working? Why engineering and then advertising? How old was I? etc. etc. I answered all. You don’t look 33 you know." (smiles, surprise, happiness all flashed in mere 2 seconds)“you know I thought you must be 25-26."
I usually don’t know how to react to such compliments besides a smile and thank you. I did just that. Another sigh from her in amusement.
She pulled out a green bottle of cold water. I looked at it with the same yearning as that of little child looking at a candy jar. She offered. I sipped. Another apology. “its really fine you know” I said.
I wasn’t getting bored anymore. This whole experience was reminding me of Mr. & Mrs. Iyer a film I had seen a few years back. Its about how a married woman with a child gets stuck for a day with another bachelor. Its about the interaction they have in that one day.
I started contributing. Asking questions. Taking interest. She was a nice girl. Full of energy, aspiration and ambition. For her career and for her love. I was amused with the sheer zest for life she had. I secretly wished she rubbed off some to me while in that cab.
The cabbie took us to her destination first. She got off. I wished her luck with all my heart. I wanted her to get what she wanted. She offered to pay her part of the fare. I refused. My good deed for the day. “Bye. All the best. You will do well”. Smiles.
The sweat hadn’t stopped trickling down my face. But it didn’t bother me. There was a strange sense of contentment that I had helped someone. In a small way, I know. But I did.
The taxi zoomed to drive me to my destination. Office. What followed was just another regular day.
