After a long
tiring day at work I plunged into the cab with one of my colleagues who happen
to share the same cab drop that day. Exhausted by the long Mid year goals
discussion with my supervisor, I slammed the door of the ambassador and sighed.
It was late and the weather looked promising enough to give us a tough time
along the 1 hour journey especially the first 30minutes.
We started
our usual frustrated conversation cursing the person whose idea was to build a
office at this remote location, the government of neglecting the roads and
accidents in Basanti Highway, the client for not enough onsite opportunities,
even the cab driver for being late and making
us wait. Just then it started pouring and we cursed out luck too.
We saw the
cab driver rush from one of the small “Jhoops”, a small hut type tea stall, stuffing a Bapuji Cake in his mouth.
The mobile phone battery was running low and I thought it would not be a good
idea to turn on the Radio.
“Dada,
garite gaan ache?”, can you play some
songs, I Ask him. Just then I looked closely at him. A skinny boy, appeared not more than 18. He wore a red Tee
with black collars with – PAGLU written in neon at his back. I wondered if he
had a valid driving license.
“Naa”, he
replied back regretfully.
“Jai hok”, whatever, I sighed and start the conversation
with my colleague about the poor lighting condition on the roads. It had
started pouring heavily by then, making it very difficult to drive.
We were
progressing at a mere speed of 20km/hour along a road lined by tall trees and
dense bushes.
We were crossing
the local village market when he suddenly stopped the car and got down
hurriedly. Not a single human being was to be spotted around. Almost all the
shops had their shutter down. The heavy rains had made the visibility very poor
to spot the boy’s whereabouts. Both of us were equally tensed and I literally
freaked out ten minutes after the boy vanished. I was just about to call the
office transport desk for help when he appeared....Drenched…with a CD in his
hand!
“CD chilo na Sir”, he said while inserting the
CD. Our jaws drop, but we were really touched by the gesture.
The first
song starts. Some peppy romantic Bengali song which I have not heard before.
“Ki gaan
eta?”, which song is this, I ask my
colleague.
“AWARA,
recent movie ta”, he answered confidently. “Never heard before?”Suddenly the driver turned back and said, “Na na, eta PAGLUr gaan, Dev ache..”
“Ki??”
“Haa ami to onekbar dekhechi, hall e…PAGLU-2 o berochhe.. ”
We are quite amused by the response and continue the conversation with the self proclaimed Dev-fan..
What! Is he
married!! Anyways…
My colleague starts enquiring him about how
long he has been in this profession etc etc.
What seemed
to be a boring journey after the long boring day at work, turned out to be a
small adda drive, in the backdrop of the heavy rains and Dev hits.
Both of us
equally refreshed and re-charged as we reach our respective drop
points.
“Good night
Madam..”
"Good night…Pore
dekha hole bolo PAGLU-2 kemon laglo..”
He blushed,
as he sped by.
brought a smile to my face, although i have heard the story before. moments like this add real meaning to life.
ReplyDeletenice.. Tomake gan sonabar jonnyo chele ta ato kichu korlo.. you shuld "thank you" to him !
ReplyDeleteamazing story
ReplyDelete