The Burn

Okay. I promise I will make this quick and short.

A few days back, while getting on to my train, I hugged someone rather in a strange situation. I got the hug which I needed but I couldn’t really hug back how I wanted it to be keeping in mind the slowly starting train and also a dozen eyes ever pricking on our embrace. Also, there was this whisper in my ear, “When will you reach?”

6 in the morning, I quickly replied.

And got back on the train. There was so much that happened on the train which I least expected but will save it for another day. This is just about one part of a long tedious trip.

Mid-way through the journey, somewhere past the midnight I opened my cell phone to check if I had the network. Luckily there was. I quickly browsed my way back to the train info page to check where my train exactly was. Hey! the night is dark and full of terrors… I had no idea where I had reached! And to my surprise, my train was moving faster than its schedule (some 13 minutes) and I was supposed to reach my destination at 3:50 AM (official timing, I had mistaken it for 6 AM). Earlier I had set alarm at 5:20 AM which now I changed and moved to 3:20. And I pulled my warm sheet and slept back on my seat. The alarm did ring after a while which I duly switched off thinking ‘Okay, I’m awake and I will be when the train reaches my station.’ I actually didn’t. But thank god! The train stopped at my station for more than 20 minutes and I woke after 10 minutes of it pulling down the brakes. Good old lord to rescue!

I walked out. Took me a while to trace the exit from the sea of people moving aimlessly (oh wait, was it me or them moving clueless?) but once I did, I moved straight out to a corner before any auto or cab guy catch holds of me. Opened my phone and started looking for Uber/Ola Cabs. There were no pool rides available. Rest was all 400 to 500 bucks. I thought, okay, I will go out in open and try my luck with autos and see if I can bargain my way. I had not even turned and there came one auto driver in full winter gear.

Auto.. Auto.. Where do you want to go?

 I mumbled my destination.

It would be 450 bucks. come sit here…

 No No, that’s too much.

How much would you pay?

 250..

(He did a round of laughing… I started moving ahead..) Give 300!

 No, 250 it is.

Okay. But I will take another passenger.

 (What the hell!) Okay.

(Pointing at his auto…) Go sit inside. There’s my auto.

 No, it’s alright. You find someone. I will stand here till then.

As he went behind to look for another passenger. I was trying to look for public transport that only costs 25 bucks (yes, 10 times less than auto fare and 16 times less than Uber/Ola) but found nothing. Google maps told me I had my bus at 5:40 AM. It was 4:30 by then. Quite a lot of time to wait in 12 degrees of freaking cold. After a long and arduous waiting, I saw driver walking towards me with a passenger. At the exact same time, someone walked up to me asking where I was going to which I duly answered and he said, he too was going somewhere around my place. As driver approached I said,

Bro, look I found a passenger for you while you were away..

He was probably in no mood to reply or he heard me not. He just came close, put other guy’s bag in, then mine and asked us to sit. We did. He then asked the new guy same old questions. Guy initially said 200 but auto driver somehow managed to pull him in for 250 like two of us. So we were 3 in an auto now (excluding driver). He started his engine. It was almost 5:10 by then. As we just came out of railway station and crossed the circle before it, I saw a bus coming our way. Not just any other bus but the one that goes straight to my place. For just 25 bucks. With empty seats except for two passengers in it. Damn. What to do — what to do. It passed the auto. Auto moved ahead as the bus went towards the station. A train of thoughts started racing through my head. 

What do I do? Should I ask the autodriver to stop? But I was the one who made him take other passengers. I was the one who bargained the price. What to do? I’m simply wasting money traveling triplets in a auto. Should I stop him? What if he shouts on me? 

There was no way of getting down now. A bit scared but determined I mumbled,

There was a bus that went towards station when we came out of it… It would cost me just 25 on it…

You want to get down? — Asked the driver.

I wanted to answer ‘yes’ but then looking at the distance that we’ve already covered (around five to ten minutes walk from the station) and the time I will take to reach there; also the fact that the bus would have already left the station by now. Auto driver had chosen an alternate road for some reason so there wasn’t any hope of me getting down and walking up to next bus station. So with all my heart burning like a bonfire in winter chill I just pulled myself to say, ‘No!’

And sitting quietly sulking all inside while the auto guy made his way via the twists and turns of the city making a long distance still longer.The burn of seeing a bus costing 10 times less reaching station just two minutes late of me entering an auto is all real and raging still. Arrrrghhh!