A Tale of Two drivers I am back from a three week trip to a remote outpost in South Africa and miles of mall walking at Dubai. Hopelessly insomniac and hungry, I have decided to distract myself from the 2.20 am snack to write this blog instead. 52 hours of travel and six straight novels later, I am now playing the surrogate mom to a 15 day kitten presently named Nobody. He was rescued by the son from a pack of 4 dogs as he stood shivering. Unlike the other animals we have foster cared, this one has the blessing of the master to stay back because this is the first “thing” Tejas brought home. That he cannot multiply is brilliant news. My heroes on this trip were Vijay from my office who clicks the world’s best selfies, Ateen, the spirit of the party, Vigna for the amazing coffee making skills and Shreekar whose last few alphabets should have been and not ar! A delayed flight caused us to do an overnight at Doha. Vijay and I checked in our luggage and decided to go shopping to a Doha mall. Our return journey was peppered by Abdul, a very interesting cabbie from Bangladesh. He described his two children and only one wife (sic). The pained polygamous statement triggered some questions by Vijay and what followed was an hour of Doha riding peppered with some really sprightly humour. The car stalled in front on a monolithic building that Abdul casually remarked as the “C” tower owing to its unique oblong shape and I quickly had to shift to a less embarrassing conversation with Abdul. It was Abdul’s turn and he asked me how many wives my husband had. I like Sudarshan very much and I could not think of him wanting to impose on himself a few more mistakes like me. I replied that most people in India except the politicians had to make do with one unless they had none and my spouse too, keeping in line with the religious tradition had just one wife. He almost braked the car and asked what men in India would do if the wife was unwell. The do was loaded with a wink of the eye as well. Vijay, sensing the discomfort, suggested politely that he’d rather ask the Indian men. We laughed until our sides hurt. This attempt to articulate is a pale effort compared to what exactly transpired on this hour long drive. He mentioned that Islam permitted four wives and he rationalised this with a diversity / specialisation angle where one could get a good cook, an artist, a beauty and an intelligent companion. He did not delve on the second part of a dozen or so children that happen in the process! I have figured that a cab drive is the best place to satiate the tourist thirst especially in the Gulf. There were tall towers and taller towers. I repeated my driving experiment with Abdul 2 in Dubai and he was from Pakistan. He was incredibly well informed and bright. When I told him so, he calmly replied that he was not married yet!. On learning that I was from Tamil Nadu, he asked me if I was a Tamil Tiger. I was furious but given the circumstances, I grinned sheepishly and bore the comment with a reply in a longish negative drawl. A2 went on to describe the Indian Partition, life in Pakistan, and India as the difficult neighbour. Needless to say, he reflected the average Pakistani’s aversion and feelings. I politely reminded him of Mohammed Ali Jinnah who he din’t seem to recollect and Mahatma Gandhi who he knew very well. We spoke of the Pakistani protests initiated by Imran Khan, of corruption, of Nawaz Shariff. It was time to get off and the bill was 10 Dirhams. I offered him 15 and asked him if he was a Jihadi. His eyes shot up to me and he was in a state of shock and an absolute denial followed. He emphatically claimed that all Pakistani’s were not Jihadi. It was my turn and I told that neither are all Tamils’ Tigers. I walked off only to have him dismount the car and wave out for me. He handed me the 15 Dirhams back and refused to accept the fare. I gave him the Swiss Chocolates I bought instead Coming back to this blog which is concluded after 21 days of commencement, am happy to inform you that the kitten previously called Nobody is now called Hussain Bolt. We crave for his affection and he constantly picks on Marvel, our other cat, who weighs twently times his size. And when Marvel turns to retaliate Hussain sprints, in true Bolt style ! Aditya Agaram Mangad, Ateen Pal, Rajee Rajesh, Anuradha Mahesh, Jayshree Narayanaswamy, Charanya Jayaram, Shekhar VishwanathanVijayaSreekhar PrabakarVignarajan RamaswamyPratibha JainReecha Jain MittalPennathur Subramaniam PrabhakarRg Rajan,
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 13:18:33 +0000