When CP, Ritu and myself moved into our current house almost a year back, never had we thought we would find such a “?#$*&” partner in Mr. Sikandar Mashayak. I have consciously put an encrypted epithet in the previous line bcoz thats what characterizes him. He is a fully encrypted man top to bottom, right to left. Its impossible to decipher him, to describe him in two or three words….he can be amicable and apathetic at the same time, he can be happy and sad at the same time. However ironical it sounds, but that’s what I have realized in the eight months that we have been together in “real” sense. He is a intermingled bundle of yarn which needs to unwindled with utmost care. These last eight months have been emphatically great in true sense because Sikki has been the most vibrant amongst all of us. Be it treating all of us outside or having a byte @ Corner House or dragging us all for juice in the night or his favorite ‘HIT’ting the kitchen.

I have thoroughly enjoyed his company in all these months. Because it had become a ritual for both of us waking up early on the weekends and binging on the mouth watering masala vadas and puri-bhaji in the vicinity of our house. He had been my partner to Food World for getting the groceries or the HITLER who made me accompanying him to his favorite KFC( had to watch him eating as I am an eggetarian) or munching cornflakes and omlette in the morning. And add to that his “spicy” stories which myself and CP had become addicted to!!!! And to top it all, the night rides on the relatively lesser densed Outer Ring Road….that was the most soothing experience.

But apart from all these, what we will miss the most is ‘Sikkisms’. Most of these I cant put up here ;) but “Don’t expect anything from anyone”, “Destroy your potential for authentic creativity” (whatever that means!) and the world famous by now “FTA”. However clichéd they became in the last few months but still they have their own charm.

Hope u have a great time @ Purdue. We will miss you BIGGGGGGGGGGGG time. I surely did miss you when I was toddling along alone in Food World last week!!!!

What happened today wasn't something new..... just that it came after a refreshing gap of 3-4 days......I generally commute to my office by an Autorickshaw.... thanks to the superb crowd in the BMTC buses. So I got up a to relatively hotter morning and racing against time and power cut and the hence resulting water shortage got ready for my office well on time. And then started my Pursuit Of Finding an Auto...first few religiously refused to come the Tech Park where my (and many more....ob the term itself describes that there are a plethora of MNCs there) office is located, I got one who readily agreed and said 10 Rs extra boss(thats one line I listen more than Good Morning every morning). I denied it for obvious reasons feeling that ek jaayega to doosra aayega and yeah doosra aaya jaroor....(just for non-Bangolereans.....the charges for nimma bengalooru auto is Rs 6 per km and my office is almost 4 km.....so that makes it Rs 24 one way!) This one promptly let me get in.....and just when I was thinking that this chap was good enough....he said "boss...70Rs!!!!"....I was like ..Dude..its morning 9:00am and u r asking me 3 times the normal fare. And the fact that irritated me the most was that he was so convincingly kewl in asking for that exorbitant fare as if i was going to that place for the first time! And this incident is not the first of its kind atleast as far as my experiences go. Thot this is the right to pen down or rather type down my experiences....
Starting with the most common....most of the times these men ask for 5-10-15 Rs extra and with the arrogance that "meter se chaloonga" but 10 Rs extra...Man..are u doing me a favour by starting the meter. I supposed that's wat the meter is for!!! And this happens both ways....i mean during my ride to office and then back home. Hearing an innocent 40-50..even 80 Rs for 4 km has now become a habit and hence it rarely surprises me!!! The next thing is they will almost never take you by the shorter route. and in case you tell them Boss...Take route A instead of B they will grunt annoyingly. Another experience which i suppose might be rare is really interesting. I took one auto from my home and to my astonishment the meter started ticking past the minimum 12 Rs when i believe that i hadnt even crossed 1.5km mark( now that i have taken the same route for almost 8 months twice a day i can take the liberty of making an educated guess!)...so i humbly asked Boss yeh kya ho raha hian ..aapka meter to abhi se badhne laga.. so he arrogantly ordered me to get out of the auto..and while i was still talking to him with the vehicle parked along the side of the road...it ticked from 13 to 13.50.....and then i lost my patience!!! i know that in Pune the meters do have a temporal dimension but not in Bangalore surely..then he too understood that he has been caught red-handed and then he said that the meter had suddenly developed some problems.....i just smiled at my obtruding ignorance and had no other way than to agree with him...and lo..the moment i got down from the auto he tried luring other passenger in his trap....this has happened to me twice in quick succession. Yet another really amusing experience is that in some autos, the meter probably acquires Artificial Intelligence(i suppose that might be the next reason these people will give!) and it runs directly from 19.50 to 30 Rs. and add to that the time and effort it takes to convince him that his meter is at fault and not me. Yet another one is these people are never ready to come to a place u want to go(sounds similar to Murphy's Law!). This incident happened near the Commercial Street. We(myself and 2 of my friends) asked atleast 4-5 autos for a drive to CMH Road but no one agreed. And finally CP(my friend) lost his cool and asked one of them kahan chaloge bhaiyaa..chaliye mujhe bhi wahi jaana hain!! Or another way for a similar experience is: CV Raman Nagar..achchca CV Raman Nagar main kahan..ok..Lake ke pass..thik hain 40 Rs hoga boss" . And when i ask him out of mere frustration that ok .. kahan tak chaloge CV Raman Nagar main meter se...prompt comes the reply that he doesnt want to come...then why the hell did u ask ki mujhe kahan jaana hain...!!!!!!!! Also try never take an auto within the airport arena for as per my experience u can really end up emptying your pockets paying the fare!!! There are many more experiences to add to this.....but am not in a mood to put them down...i suppose these are enough to alert any of the gullible junta travelling in an auto. As far as i am concerned, though i have to take this compulsory pleasure of commuting in one of the most expensive modes of transport in the city, still i can not enjoy the road side views because i have to keep a watch on the autorickshaw meter ticking at a hare's pace and constantly guide the driver so as not to allow him to take the longer route as surprisingly he rarely seems know the shorter route. And to top this up, its ur fault if u expect u will get change of upto 2-3 Rs back from him. Dare to ask for the same if u ready to take a really wierd yuckwala smiley from him. Its as if u are denying him his prerogative!!!!Am sure there are better ways to begin your day with! :)
But these experiences apart....some of these gentlemen are in true sense gentle......i do get autos whose final fare comes even as low as 22Rs. and ppl who also return your change and ppl who really seem to know shorter than the shortest route u know.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!