I was at an after party in Bandra last night and it was pretty late. It was 2 am, I was really sleepy and ideally wanted to sleep in the ride back home. Naturally, I wanted to book an Uber but no one was accepting my ride requests or they’d accept and not move for 4-5 mins, very reluctantly I had to book an auto. It was going to be a long journey because I had to travel to Pune and make a pit stop in Navi Mumbai. An hour and a half long journey in an Auto was not something I was looking forward to given that I was completely exhausted.

I stepped out of my friend’s house, The smell of dried bombil had filled the air by now it was literally piercing through my senses, I’m never really bothered by this peculiar smell of Bombay and Carter Road always has it but given my exhaustion, it made me feel further disoriented. My Auto ride showed up, he noticed my sluggish appearance and looked a bit concerned, with a feeble smile he confirmed my name, it seemed to me that he was worried I’d be one of those drunk obnoxious Bandra boys, who when irritated can really make your life hard. The Service industry is not very rewarding.

I’ve never gotten into an Auto Rickshaw with so much gusto, I dumped all my bags into the back and just closed my eyes, resting my head against the cushioning on the side of the auto and at that moment I wanted to be delivered. Felt like I was a soldier from one of those war movies being rescued towards the end, I could swear by it because my nerves were really shot. I could feel the vibrations of the 232 cc 0-60 in 5 minutes engine through the cushioning, it may not be a beast but its certainly an honest day’s work and its powerful enough to give you a head massage when you’re leaning against the side of the auto.

This tiny auto may not be your consultant at BCG or McKinsey, it maybe one of those many forgettable faces in the morning rush but it does it’s job and it may not achieve remarkable things but it definitely adds value to the best of its ability. The vibrations of the engine started to get sharper, it started to cancel out my senses. It cancelled out any noise and the smell of the fish was now replaced by the metallic taste of exposed alloys from heated up engine parts. It calmed my nerves like I received a micro-dose of morphine. I was slipping into this steam-punk trance when the same feeble voice brought me back to reality, “Sir, OTP?”.

I opened my eyes to see a nervous face smiling at me. I couldn’t help but smile back. I unlocked my phone as the screen light almost blinded my eyesight, I observed the flashing digits “2442” what goes around comes around I thought to myself. “Bhaiyya, 2442”. This is fine, I thought to myself I will sleep till he runs over the next pothole, this small cabin space where my knees were piercing through the chassis, my butt now in a one sided relationship with the seat which was doing the bare minimum to convince my butt to stay, my back already having given up 20 mins ago and my exposed neck, this tiny space started to feel like a lavish 1BHK behind D-Mart. Anything can be lavish if you want it bad enough.

I accepted my fate and closed my eyes, submitting my security into the hands of this feeble looking person, it feels nice to let your guard down. I opened my eyes to get a final glimpse of him. All I could ascertain was the shape of his body swaying sideways because of uneven roads and the occasional orange street lights illuminating his back revealing his brown uniform. It made him seem like a mystic figure, Mr. India who can only be seen in Orange.

I closed my eyes and waited to forget the world till my small chariot of hope collapsed into a pothole or stumbled into a bad patch of road. And I waited….. and I waited…………and I waited. I open my eyes to find out I have reached my destination, I was shocked and pleased, the nervous smile on my charioteer had visibly transformed into a congratulatory grin, “Acha neend pura kar liya apne” said the feeble voice. “Bhaiyya, itna jaldi kaise”, I said. He smiled at me and said,”aap thake huye the, humne thoda sambhal kar chalaya toh aap chain se so sako. Koi dikkat toh nahi hui na sahab?”.

I gathered up all my bags, with all the energy I had I gave him a smile and replied,”kaisi dikkat? Itni achi neend toh ghar pe bhi nahi aati, ek round trip ho jaye? Thoda aur so leta hoon” we shared a laugh, I paid him a few extra bucks and made sure to leave a 5 star rating. I said goodbye to him and my chariot, went home with another adventure.