A Bollywood Musical And Bad Auto Rickshaw Karma

Well today morning I sat like a princess, surrounded by two tigers on my either sides and Shahrukh Khan staring at me and smiling away. I looked around and found Sania Mirza, Vidya Balan and Rani Mukherjee too. Two photos of Godess Durga flapped around as the wind caught them. And in a gold framed mirror, I saw my reflection. The side windows, framed with painted yellow and red flowers, the black vinyl upholstering with gold speckles completed the look. After a few minutes a Bollywood song started to play. And I felt like I was starring in my very own Bollywood musical. The only element missing were my latkas and jhatkas - the dance moves :)

This brings me to a conclusion that travelling in the kitschy-est ever auto rickshaw will let your fertile imagination go wild and it will all seem so surreal, even for a veteran auto rickshaw commuter like me that a grin would be plastered on my face through out the ride!

Hopefully this would also be a sign for uplifting of my bad-auto-rickshaw-karma (BARK) which has been following me continuously.

A few days ago an auto (auto rickshaw is too long to type and henceforth will be called auto) decided to strand me at the Safdarjung Flyover, the driver saying he had run out of gas. As soon as I got down and paid the fare, he *&%$#@#* sped away. Just because he wanted to avoid the traffic jam ahead! About fifteen autos I flagged down after that refused to go that way. And since that incident, travelling in buses is the last option.

Yesterday morning Mr. Murphy decided to pay me a visit as I was sitting in an auto, getting late to work. Then suddenly, auto’s second gear broke and since I had already reached Lutyens’ Delhi (where chances of finding an empty auto are very slim), I had no option but to get to office in that auto while the driver drove in the first gear, testing both my patience and safety standards .

The story does not end here. While coming back in the evening, I had to first haggle with the auto wallah for the fare and half way through, his auto sputtered and died. I had to walk almost a kilometer to find another one.

This morning, it looks like my bollywood auto broke the jinx. Here’s optimistically wondering this is the end of BARK.

More auto tales here.

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Meanwhile, do check out a social movement called Anti-Tags and leave your feedback there.

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Update (Feb 28): This racism incident in South Africa is my WTF moment of the day. Check out the video here.

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Update 2 (Mar 1): Blank Noise has a meeting today in New Delhi. Check out the details here. Be there!

One conversation. Many connotations.

“Aap itney dino sey kahan thi? Aap dikhi nahi.”*

“Aap bhi toh nahi hotey they wahan. Waisey aajkal thora late ho jaati hoon. Shayad isliye….”

Senario 1
Maybe it’s a dialogue between two forbidden lovers who have been denied the pleasure of seeing each other everyday. They have now devised a way to see each other and talk to each other somehow. This is a snatch of that conversation.

Senario 2
Maybe he sees her at the bus stop everyday. She acknowledges his gaze. But both never had the courage to speak to each other. She hasn’t been coming for the past few days. One fine day he sees her again. And decides to speak to her.

Senario 3
I spot my regular auto rickshaw wallah as I am getting late to work and frantically trying to flag down a rickshaw. With a beaming smile I jump into the auto and proceed to have this conversation.

People, take your pick!

* Translation for non-Hindi speaking readers

“Where were you? I haven’t seen you in so many days.”

“Even you weren’t there. But these days I come a little late. Maybe that’s why…”