Drivers drive me crazy!

I have always enjoyed travelling and whenever I was forced to think of a hobby of mine, this was the first thing which came to my mind. Unlike other travelogues, I would not detail out the places which I travelled to during my 2 month internship. This is about my interesting and not so interesting encounters in my journey.

In these 2 months, I have travelled by air, sea, rail and road. My project required me to travel to Pune from Mumbai every Monday morning & back to Mumbai every Friday evening. This was not as easy as it sounds. A cab used to pick me up from my cousin’s place at around 630 in the morning. The painful part was guiding the driver to my cousin’s place. No driver had even faintly heard of that place and it took around 1 hour to reach that place from central Mumbai. For his convenience, I had to get up 1 hour before normally I would have got up and explain him the directions in details. And still no one turned up in time. From 630 onwards my aunt, my bhabhi and I would be popping out of the balcony to see if the cab is coming. One of my bhabhi’s neighbours had even asked if it was some kind of a ritual for the three of us to stare the roads from our balcony every Monday morning! After getting into the cab, I used to feel that my work for the day is over and now it’s time to rest and the next three hours of the drive were well spent in day dreaming :)

One thing which I found common among all the drivers who used to pick/drop me was their irresistible desire to keep blabbering all the way. Some would talk about the route to my cousin’s place, some about their previous/next pickup, some would describe Mumbai from their experiences, some would want to know which place I belong to and get into details like where my family members are & their work. However much I hated it, I would still respond by saying just a yes/no or nodding my head for all their conversations. However there was one driver who kept bugging me and wasn’t quiet even for a minute in the entire drive. He seemed to have served many bookings from my company. He told me the names & addresses of all employees from my companies whom he had picked/dropped. And he did not limit the conversation just to this; he even started telling me about his conversations with those people! I was just too frustrated by all this and started talking over phone to avoid any further conversations with him. And suddenly he started asking me the directions knowing very well that I would surely respond to this even if I am busy on phone. I told him to go straight for another 10 kms but even if there was a small road going out of the main road, he would ask me whether to take that turn. I was staying at a naval base which was almost like an island into the sea and there was just one straight road connecting it. I was totally pissed off by the time I reached home. After getting out, I genuinely told him to take the same route to go back to which he replied “haan madam, sea se to nahi hi jayenge! mujhe raasta pata hai...aapko kis floor pe jana hai???”