GIGO

"Are you from around here?" is a stupid question to ask a taxi driver. Let's agree that I am not very intelligent then. The world was from around here. The stars weren't too far off if we only tried hard enough and believe me we didn't. 

"No, I am not from here." 

"Where are you from?" 

"Banaras. Some village near Banaras." 

"Ah, Banaras!" 

My eyes sparkled, not with the shimmer of Twilight fans but with the glow of a wand post spell making. Here was the famed North-Indian cabwallah. I wont lie, I feel a bit closer to them being a quarter UPite myself. 

"Where exactly in Banaras ?" I asked. 

Let me assure you I have been to Banaras once, for 2 days, and that too years back and don't remember a wee bit of that trip. 

"If you take a left from the main bridge near Banaras you'll get to our village." 

"Oh, and since when have you been here?" I queried. 

"It has been ten years. My wife kid stay with me here." 

"And how has the place been treating you?" I had spent a bit more than a year in Mumbai. 

"Its nice. A bit costly though. We spend 4.5k for rent." 

"Where do you live ?" I asked. 

"In a shanty near Lower Parel" 

"A posh place." I remarked. He grinned and said "I cannot stay at Navi Mumbai, its too far off." 

Yes, bloody hell it is. No pubs too. It is one big retirement society. 

"How big is the business then? Earning the legendary dough that salaried middle class thinks everyone (even beggars supposedly) else earns." 

"Oh its fine" he said "We pay Rs. 100 in the morning to the taxi owner. Get this taxi with its tank full and return the same every night. But I am planning on going to Banaras now. Parents want to live with me and I can't afford that in Mumbai. We live in a nice home in our village, stuff millionaires dream of here. I will buy a cab and ply on the roads there."

"But isn't Mumbai less corrupt, I mean if you have your papers correct, there is no hassle. In UP you will have to pay to every guy who demands and further travel on those broken roads. I said defending the city where Half of India earns and three fourths spend."
"Yes that there is. But the tourist thing is picking up there. If I speak English tourists pay well and there is no meter system there so I earn more from them."

At least he knew what he wanted to do. He had plans. I have notions, threads of idea running lose and an absent ambition which could never weave a dream from them.

The night was cold. At least it was not raining. It had been an ugly week. The foreseeable future was bleak. The bridge was approaching. I would soon cross into the cage of this new city now. To keep the Q & A running I asked "Why don't you work for Meru? They pay better." "Nah," he said "the system was same there. You paid 150 there every morning, whether you drove the car or not. So you ended up paying even when sick."

It's a strange thing, this life. Some Fridays you are running around to the nearest pub and others you are staring alone at your laptop with all your friends busy. Yet the world goes on, everything remains the same in both the cases, it only one's personal condition which is different. Our lives are like linear stories which interact with the lives of others sometimes leading to a consequence. To live in the present and starve in the winter or to plan for the future and lose the present. As always moderation is the answer. But what is life if not living in the extremes? The safety of average is the life of most. A life lived more ordinary. Has there ever been a sunset which has not been observed by anyone? The irrational thoughts of a drunk man.