Traveled home this weekend. Return was on Sunday evening and as usual, I reached Mohali around 10:30 PM. If you are lucky, you may get a few autos on the bus-stop but on some not so lucky days (lets be optimistic and avoid the word unlucky :-) ), you can be greeted by an empty stretch heading towards where your home is with couple of street dwellers to garnish the scene.
Worse still, and what I hate the most, you may be welcomed by an enthusiastic but opportunistic auto rickshaw driver seeking the chance you just provided him. He is the only conveyance available and you are in no way constituent enough to walk some 8 KM to your home with that backpack on you. So, the kill is you and if he is able to make your situation seem miserable enough he may shell out four to ten times the normal fare!
The wise reader knows why I am building this pretext. So that is how it happened this time as well. A sudden surge of blood into my skull made me refuse to the only option offered to me to take me to my place that was made in a plain, indifferent and highly professional sounding tone.
What follows next is what made my day most interesting.
There was no point in staying at the same place that auto stood in order to become an object of misery and occasional verbal pokes to avail the offer being the only available option. Like a vulture waiting for the prey to succumb to hunger and thirst to feast upon, they keep an eye on you till you surrender.
I found it more dignified to move on from that point onwards. On foot! Generally I have experienced that you encounter some other auto one on the way to pick you up after walking a couple of kilometers. There are honest people working for bread out there as well you see.
So, walking I am, with traffic moving on but none for hire. Looking back for an oncoming auto, then walking for a few meters and then again looking back so that I don't miss one.
In this commotion going on inside as well as outside, I suddenly noticed a goods transporter auto rickshaw stop about 30 meters ahead of me. A man unmounted and stood there for a while. Then started walking towards me and dangled a bit to this and that side of himself as if drunk. At this time of the night you cannot be sure what is about to come. However my experiences with uncivilized part of the society have been rare.
That dangling figure was now only 10-15 steps away. A confrontation was inevitable. So what? I turned my antennas up to high level of alertness and walked on. As soon as he was in proximity of one hand's length to my personal space, he inquired, "Sardar jee kithay jaa rahe ho?" (Hi there, where are you headed to?)
That sounded normal and the words where put in a pretty friendly tone. It was in invitation for a free ride as the guy was headed in the same direction as mine. I again rethought about the offer, tried to smell any booze on him. There was none and I realized that that dangling gesture was his way of waiting for me. Funny isn't it?
Looked at his face, seemed like a God's humble creature so I trusted my instincts and hoped in the driver's cabin.
On the way, he started this conversation about why he stopped here for me. I was able to learn that when he was newly married, someone had provided similar services to him and his wife on the way to home while it was raining. And that he returns the favor to the society by helping out travelers whenever possible.
That was indeed dramatic. I don't know whether I would have been able to obtain a for-hire ride home or not. But I certainly brought something home that day.
A black pearl and a debt to return to the society!
