For once in my life, owls were not hooting through this late night stroll. Perhaps, they were busy keeping their nests and kids dry from the torturous downpour, or does Delhi have no owls at all???
The roads were clogged with water and people, scarce as I walked out of the PVR. 10:30 PM, I confirmed from my watch and had just opened my mouth for swearing when the torrent started slowing down, the drops slowly getting lost into oblivion. It was for the lovely company of friends I had and the debatable issue of a bad ending to HP 6 that I decided not to wait for an Autowallah and move on till we get one. Private transport was bustling still, obviously irritated by the jams and delays caused by the rains (Thank you MCD).
Saket itself was a long walk…at places we did get company from other people – beautiful girls accompanied by machos!!! (I just wish, all of them were their brothers) Though, we were not really tired, we decided to give yet another chance to public transport to fetch us to Munirka (the more accurate reason – we stopped ’coz the chicks stopped too). But hey, this stop had not the sparkling chicks only, an auto all covered in the glory of yellow, green and black was standing there too…
Unfortunately, we were not the first ones to get to the vehicle…A small crowd was already mobbing it. Apparently, the driver was sleeping after a hard day’s work; he woke up startled to find people all over him, poking fingers here and there. To the irritation of all of us (and perhaps more to himself) he denied every potential customer a ride in his royal auto including the ones who were offering two-fold money and more.
After a 10 minute wait, another of the autos passed us flashing its tongue at us mockingly. Had I not sensed the rising tempers in people surrounding us, I would have definitely laughed at our helplessness. Two more similar vehicles flashed through mercilessly ignoring the pleading cries of the crowd. One was actually empty but perhaps in search of a higher goal than a customer. Annoyed, we walked on (the chicks decided to stay and not follow us)!
Even the slightest screech from behind our backs made us crane our necks to right-back side in anticipation of a vacant auto. The back sides of the autos have a window sort of opening through which light steers its way through. Every time the radiance passed through, our hopes amplified; but as they came nearer we found someone sitting on the sides…damn!!! By the time, we crossed Saket I was all set to say yes to even a shared auto, although there were already three of us.
Fortunately, there was no mud (again, thanks to MCD) on the roads and it was a simple maze finding ones way through the water puddles and potholes. As the three of us followed another three guys in front of us we reached a CNG station near the NCERT office turn. There were 3 autos, none with a passenger but neither did they have their drivers. Out of the blue, one of the guys in front of us jolted forward and soon his friends and (we too) realized that there was an auto with its driver intact. They struck a deal but on the condition that they will have to push the auto for the water had clogged its exhaust pipe. As we walked, the guys started pushing the auto…1,2,3..it started and to everyone’s astonishment and to those guys astonishment the driver stepped on the gas and sped away leaving all 3 of the guys swearing and us, in fits!!!
Meanwhile, the autos continued passing us and without us. Yet another joker that we came across was so busy preparing and then chewing his khaini that he did not even bother to look at us. Finally a couple of steps before the gate no. 5 of IITD an autowallah took mercy on our wails and stopped.
Just like Amrish Puri used to make the most of the opportunity when the majboor maa/beti/patni/bahan came to him, the autowallah charged 35 Rs. for the journey that was worth less than 20. But finally we reached Munirka by 12:00 PM.
Next day’s newspaper had all the mud from delhi streets smeared on MCD only to the mayor countering that he was a hero and MCD had saved the day (night actually) and had it not been for his ‘able’ governance the situation could have been worse. Turn page 6, Mayawati had declared regions of UP ‘sukha-grast’.
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