Auto Drivers

So as usual, I woke up this morning, got ready for office and had to catch an auto to come to office. Now the peculiar thing (and it always ONLY happens to me) is that autos on the side of my house/colony NEVER to directly to the office but you need to cross over and catch one.

Now considering this morning I had exactly 14 rupees in my wallet, it's smarter to go the long route through the station and save some money. BUT being lazy and knowing I have great co workers I could borrow money from I took the easy way out of course. So I crossed over (Ain't no mountain High Enough on the iPoD) and tried the first one. Now after counting his last customers change for about 10 minutes; while other potential autos were passing by, he looked up curiously. When I told him the destination I got a promt No.

Of course India is the one country where the public transport is not actually in the hands of the public...

The next one, said Yes. Thankfully. Now have you ever been in an auto where you wonder why James Bond movies don't have the auto drivers of Mumbai? Well I did admire his tenacity though. He would assume, even though it goes against all logic and common sense that the bus that is clearly coming to the right would in fact wait for his little auto to pass by. Keep in mind in the narrow sapce between the bus and the road is a divider-sure death. But of course he tried to squeeze past, didn't succeed and when I had the audacity (I could almost hear his silent curses) to make a disapproving noise, he got really mad. (Hum Kis galli ja rahe hain on the iPoD)

This I suppose spurred him on to more valiant pursuits-he now tried to really be the Formula 1 WINNER of auto drivers, the Badshah of Badshah's, the one and only AUTO-DRIVER-TO-GO-EXTREMELY-FAST-ON-A-COMPLETELY-EMPTY-HIGHWAY. He succeded of course, and got me to office in record time and in the bargin, is going to be satisfied the entire day. To have conquered all the other mightly vehicles on the road (of which there were none at this time)

Some people - get all their joys in winning. Even when there is actually no one else on the road. Hey, he's still gotta battle the roads of Mumbai-a threat worse than the vehilcles on it. Imagine those who feel good winning something when its practically handed to them. Who's the real loser there? Or who win and then amke it seem like they've really worked hard for it. Sometimes you really have to dig deep to find the true achievement.