You are lucky my darling

This pretty girl whom I had met recently is a new acquaintance of mine. She is a lovely lady with the bounty of nature and naturally her boyfriend had tough time driving without groping her. He focused on her teeth and pretended to find some dirt on it. I felt awkward at his behaviour.

She coaxed him to drop me at Honda Chowk which was a bit far from his destination. I said I would like to be dropped at a place where it is convenient to stop his car. But he like any other driver told me unpleasant stories about Gurgaon and that I would have to go through the daily embarrassment of requesting a cab-drivers to take me to my destination.

I said, "I am from Kolkata. In our city we travel sitting next to an auto driver and travelling in a local transport is a common affair." My pretty friend in a nagging tone said "Do you know dear she has set a cooler in her room instead of an AC, she does not know how hot Delhi is?"

Her boyfriend gently held her smooth round spotless chin in his hand and cooed to her "darling you are lucky, you have not seen the world".

She yelped out in pleasure "please buy some chilled water dear".

The car entered Udyog Vihar Phase V, and I said if I could be dropped there. He said he would drop me at the right place and asked me where I was going for an interview and that what did I do and what has been my last drawn salary etc. I gave him a very measured smile and said, "Confidential" and that I would be embarrassed to talk about my salary details.

His hairless head and a stubbed nose was no match for the pretty babe next to him but ofcourse he has the money to buy the hot babe. He dropped me at Shankar Chowk and was reluctant to tell me that those eight seaters were my mode of conveyance in this land of uncouth people.

I got into one 8-seater and there was one pretty babe and her mom, and they identified me to be a Bong. After a brief chat they got down and I got down at IFFCO Chowk.

The dumb auto driver thought he was intelligent enough but not correct in considering me to be a Keralite (Malayali). I got down paying him the fare. He was generous enough to take 4 rupees when I said I don't have 5 rupees. However, after digging into my bag I found a five rupee coin and handed it over to him.

Then, I started looking for an auto or a cab and I started bargaining with autowallahs to drop me at Honda Chowk. One autowallah asked 100, I said 60, then he said 70 but I stuck to my point.

Then a young chap comes up and says "Madam give 100 rupees", I said "no". He said, "you will not have to worry at all, I will drop you just right in front of the company you want to go". I agreed because that was a totally unknown place for me and he sounded genuine. I would call this attitude of his a perfect business acumen.

He drove me through the hot blasts of wind. I felt as if I was seated in a big baking oven. The auto driver was a very decent guy - he talked less but when he spoke, he spoke politely. He asked me for the address once again when he reached some place and looking around once again, he stopped to dropped me at the right place. The drive being a hassle-free one I gave him his money without any grudge.

Krishna's Friend

On weekends, I take my afternoon nap and this has become my usual weekend routine in Bangalore, which I feel is a sleepy city.

The city was gripped with the fear of swine flu. I caught fever and fell into half-sleep-half-awake state but I would not call it a trance and I glided back into my past.

I am a typically brown woman with North Indian traits. I fell in love with Jeeves, amidst the crowd of students in the campus. I wore glasses and so did Jeeves. We cursed our glasses after dancing with the wrong partners on the DJ nite. We were highly sociable creatures and could spot each other only when the population around have either left for the library, hostel, bushes or the lake.

Our shortsightedness (glasses) kept our morality high, chemistry low, because we could see nothing in darkness and sat under the street lamps. Vidyasagar used to read under street lamps but under the lamp-post we whiled our time courting each other.

Jeeves liked mallu (Malayali) dames, so I remained on the sidelines. Listening to his likening for coffee-coloured/dusky girls my heart bled with pain more than my nose bled due to summer heat.

A chill woke me up and I started sneezing. I counted my sneezes and rushed to the nearby clinic and waited for the doc to inspect me. There was a corporate-looking guy sitting with his mom in the clinic. I sat in the clinic like a dejected poodle.

The corporate guy with his acquiline nose looked at me, read my face and gave a gentle smile. I felt good and like a grateful cute little poodle I ran towards to him. Through his lenses, he espied my fear and said in an assuring tone, “U seemed to be a bit scared…What happened? I see you have come...You should not come to clinics alone”.

I kept mum, while the corporate guy talked and talked. The guy felt an urge to make me feel happy and made efforts to elicit atleast the monosyllables, “yes/no” out of me. Away from home I was feeling like a lost dog with no one to care for me. I felt cosy in his kind words. I asked him, "who are you?" He said, "I am Krishna's friend". I kept staring at him for two minutes and then I turned my face and laid my head on the table in front of me.

When my turn came to consult the physician, I checked in, the doctor assured me that my case was normal and that there was no reason to panic. After I came out, paid the cash at the counter and looked around to thank the good Samaritan, I found he and his mom were not there.