Having congratulated himself on being just fifteen minutes late, Dilip set about looking for an auto rickshaw to catch. This was an important moment in the journey, and one that was not in his hands.
The five or so minutes that he had made up by not shaving before he left would be either added or subtracted to, depending on the current general mindset of the rickshaw-walas of the world. And that was always a puzzle for the ages.
Would they be willing to take him two kilometres to the cafe in question? Would they be willing to do what was technically, their own job? Are we alone in the universe? We can never know.
He checked his watch and did some calculating. If he was to to leave at exactly this very moment, then he would reach almost on time. Damn. He had really cut into that deficit he was facing half an hour ago. He spent a few moments feeling good about himself, and decided that he would like to have a zesty drink to perk himself up before his date. It would be uncouth to show up looking like a zombie.
He walked over to a tapri nearby and asked for a small bottle of Coke. He was disheartened to learn that Pepsi was the choice of beverage that the shopkeeper believed in. An unfortunate but ultimately necessary compromise, he decided. Having bought the little bottle of Pepsi, he walked back to the edge of the road and look on into the distance, trying to see if any of the oncoming autos were empty in the back.
It was a sad business. Almost like the law of diminishing returns was in effect. The more time he spent trying to find an empty auto, the more of them he saw filled with other dumb stupid people going to whatever dumb stupid place they were going to. Or was that like one of those fallacy things? He didn't know, because he'd managed to confuse himself. And frankly he didn't much care. He was getting late now. He checked his watch: he'd be 5 minutes late at this rate.
"Hmm", he thought.
He continued looking into the distance. Autos continued to pass him by, unbothered by the availability of his money due to the presence of more dumb stupid passengers. Dilip wondered where they were all going. As far as he knew, it was was a Tuesday that day. Surely people should be at work.
Maybe this was why the economy was tanking the way it was. People were moving around on the roads instead of doing their jobs. He theorized that if the government made all the middle aged people do work presentations and stuff in their offices, instead of allowing them to hamper the dating lives of teenagers by denying them public transport, the country would probably be in a much better place. And like, it wasn't even a bad compromise. They'd be in nice air conditioned rooms with free coffee and fast WiFi. As far as Dilip knew, that was the 21st century dream life.
His inner monologue was broken by the rare sighting of a free auto. He immediately tensed up. The lone vehicle approached closer and closer. Dilip felt his breathing slow down. He was totally concentrated on his mission; he steadied his stance, and waited in silence. Time stood still, and he felt the perfect moment arrive. The auto came by, and right when it was about to cross, Dilip launched his plan of attack.
"AUTO!!", he shouted, at the auto, and waved his hand about.
Success! The auto rickshaw slowed down, and the rickshaw-wala poked his head out at him and raised his eyebrows. The universal sign of course, for "Where do you want to go?"
"Mith Chowki."
The rickshaw-wala reached around and flicked the meter down and beckoned Dilip over. He trotted down to the auto and hopped in. Dilip was happy. An auto in the first try was rare. Like a comet, or pretty girls studying engineering. He took a sip of his drink and did a small burp. He looked at his watch: He'd lost out 5 minutes. Sad. But at least he was on his way.
He texted his date: "U there yet?"
Dilip watched the cars go by. The music in his ears felt good. He was listening to The Neighbourhood. He always felt good when listening to them. He sighed. These were the moments, he realized, when he was at utmost peace. Just going to a place, with nothing else to do, music playing. He was disconnected from the world. And that was a feeling he was starting to enjoy more and more. Away from everything else, like the meaningless education he was receiving, which he would use to go on and work at a meaningless job and bear the mundane social niceties of regular life. Nothing mattered at these moments. Not where he'd come from, or where he was going.
He was just a passenger. In transit.
In the now.
Dilip chuckled. 'Now' meant boat in Hindi. But he wasn't in a boat. This was an auto.
"Man I'm hilarious." he thought, and took another sip of his drink.
Σχόλια