The odd auto drive

The lazy Pune afternoon in a quite lane under the shadowing huge tree stood three autos waiting for their passengers, a rare moment as one has to otherwise look for or rather hunt for an auto at this hour of the day. I was armed with my objective of reaching to a place crossing half of the city to the bustling old town. Was talking to a friend and the phone abruptly cut. Was thinking of work planning for those critical next strategies and …

And the struggling life knocked the doors of my mind. The Auto which in my mind only was my means to reach somewhere suddenly had a mind and heart of its own. He asked me 'what was the time' and I answered 'may be abound 4'. 'Four is it', till then it sounded like a perfectly expected conversation till I realised that there was more in store.

He then went on 'It was two when I reached form where you piked Me up', it was he the service provider ( i was now dealing with) the auto kind of did not exist and more it was part of extended identity of the driver. He went ahead he said 'I was think and thinking and thinking and never realised when all this time went away.'

Then he asks me ( I was wearing a pair of jeans and a T) 'are you a college girl' I said no I work. He did not seem to have heard me or may be did not ask a question for an answer. He said 'I have a daughter her mind does not work too well she cannot identify different dominations of currency, she does not identify colour.' May be she also had a hart problem, 'she can not any more drink water form our village. We leave in Phursungi. I am carrying this drum I will carry the water from city (treated) for her to drink, I also will have to carry money so that we can cook. I will .. I will..'

He goes on 'The life was just OK and did not realies when it went out of my hands. It is very difficult these days to make ends meet. I hope I will be able to earn enough.' We enter in the bustling city. Now he starts affecting me by saying 'My mind it already tired and messed up and then this traffic does the rest if anything is left. I do not know when this will stop.'

For a long time this goes on and on I was thinking to myself should I encourage him to talk to me or may be just ask him to shut up. Is he talking to me cause it is safe to talk to a stranger. Should I go out of my way and help him find some support. Can I ask him to wait for me so that he get another long distance fair. I just kept thinking may be just thinking too much. -I was relating to what all he said vis-à-vis the globalization and what it is doing to people and families like him, who are affected in more then one ways which unfortunately is never a consideration of Economic planning. -I never realised that how i had become part of the Rush and Madness he was talking about, I chose not to be human then.

At a later point it made me think what is happening to me, to us and to the humanness in all of us.

May be I have a guilt of not acting, may be I want to write something nice and feel good about myself I don’t know why I am writing this. But I felt that life knocked my mind today, may be as if it wanted to say don't rush be alive to me.

He touch me with his life and now I am already looking forward to mine.

Thanks to him….