The lonely sawaari!

His face wore a calm smile. A smile of contentment. 

"He must have gotten a passenger wanting to go to a pretty faraway place", I thought to myself. I then noticed that the back seat of the auto rickshaw was empty. 

I looked again at the driver. The calm smile still rested on his face.

Observing his smile unconsciously gave birth to one of my own. And then a strange thought appeared.

What if the driver was an introvert?!

I got interested.

If he was an introverted driver, which would he prefer - a lonely ride that gladdened his heart or a shared journey with a stranger that gladdened his stomach?!

Would he be more delighted if a single passenger boarded his auto rickshaw than he would be with a couple or a family?! 

Would he set the volume of the speakers in his auto rickshaw to the lowest in order to avoid attention in traffic?!

How willing would he be to honk his horn?!

Would he prefer the corner spot in an auto stand?! Would he even prefer being a part of an auto stand?!

How difficult would it be for him to ask a pedestrian if he/she wanted a ride?!

Would he even like his auto rickshaw being a bright yellow shade?!

I looked at the driver again. I wanted to board his auto rickshaw and have a hearty conversation. But I could not.

The introvert in me did not allow it.

But having typed this post now, I think - Should I blame the introvert for having missed a great conversation with an interesting man or should I thank the introvert for having been the cause of these words?!

I strangely feel that the auto rickshaw driver would hold an answer.

The hero a nation needs..

Last week, one of my friends was speaking to me about the current political scenario in India. I, not being a person who actively follows politics, was unable to contribute anything significantly to his thoughts. And hence I did that thing which I love doing the most in a conversation - I listened.

There were many new things I learned that evening from my friend. But one thing that lingered on my mind long after the conversation ended was my friend's mention of the growing dissatisfaction among Indians over various national affairs. He had ended the topic saying, "India badly needs an uniting factor.. An extremely positive one!"  

I let my mind work upon that remark of my friend's and in my most idle moment, it threw out an answer.
Sachin Tendulkar.
I couldn't help smiling.

I imagined how things would change if Sachin returned to International cricket. 
I, for one, would start following cricket again. Also, I felt that the collective mood of the nation would be uplifted. 
Like it had happened with the audience walking out of an M.G.R. movie. Like it happens with an audience walking out of a Rajinikanth movie. 
We do not walk into a Rajini movie expecting an artwork that leaves our hearts heavy and our minds intellectualized. We walk into a Rajini movie expecting to be consoled that good will always triumph over evil in this world governed by chaos. We walk into a Rajini movie just to be made aware that despite all the Panama Papers, despite all the Zika viruses, despite all the incredible advertisements being telecasted on Tamil television channels in relation to the 2016 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, Rajini exists. We walk into a Rajini movie simply because we do not have an alternative to prove us the existence of God. 
All the above could be said of a Sachin's innings as well.
This is not to say that a Virat Kohli or a M.S.Dhoni cannot unite the nation. But there always exists a difference between superheroes and demigods. There always exists a difference between a cheer for a hero's victory and a tear for a hero's victory. 

I continued imagining how things would change if Sachin returned to International cricket.
I also realized that my imagination could escape its expiry only till it remained inside my head. Interestingly, at the same moment of the realization, something else hit me.
Sachin: A Billion Dreams.
I couldn't help smiling.
If the little great man could bring together a nation with just one of his straight drives, why couldn't the same or even something more be achieved with a collection of his innings accompanied by A.R.Rahman's score?!
I stopped my thought process and watched the teaser for the nth time. 
I met my friend the next day and told him, "The uniting factor India needs is right around the corner".

A drop of life

I was travelling with my brother to my office the other day. Ahead of us, honking its way slowly through the traffic, was moving a water tanker. Water was dripping from a pipe hanging at its rear end. The dripping water had left a squiggly trail of the water tanker's path. "Possibly the worst escape vehicle after committing a crime!" I thought to myself. 
Some time later, as I was filling a cup of water in the pantry at my office, I remembered a story I had heard from my brother a week ago.
It had been about a young African girl of fifteen. She had belonged to a region of Africa where water is so scarce that bath is a luxury and thirst is a crime. The daily supply of water in the girl's home had been one bucketful, which the girl had had to fetch from a small water reservoir situated a-two-hour-long-walk away from her home. One day, the girl who had left her home in the morning to fetch water had not returned. By evening, the girl's family had set out in search of her and at some distance from the water reservoir, they had found her body hanging from a tree. After bringing the girl's body down from the tree, her family had also found something else a few hundred meters from the tree. It had been the girl's broken bucket.
After I remembered the story, I could not bring about myself to drink the cup of water I had filled. I kept staring at it for some time thinking about the water tanker I had seen in the morning. I could hear the water drops dripping from the pipe at the tanker's rear end. 
I then slowly lifted the cup of water to my mouth and drank water from it. As the cup turned empty, tears rolled down my cheeks.