Babu - The Auto Driver in Chennai

On a tight string budget, I had an urgent trip to make to Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu, one of the most crowded place that I have so often travelled. I was on a 5-day business trip as was I told by the person who had invited me to the city for a business. As I boarded the bus, I booked the return ticket, with the help of dispatch guy who had come to examine our tickets. Five days later it would be the weekend for harvest festival ‘Onam’ in Kerala. All Keralites working in Tamil Nadu would be returning home for celebration with family and friends. I was happy to be handed over a return ticket at preferred location on the bus for such an eventful weekend.

Large cities these days keep changing its look and feel in a matter of couple of years and I was revisiting the city after about four years. Chennai being a metro city will have many corners that you may not have travelled even if you have stayed there for a year or two. Chennai looked more crowded even on the city outskirts, the bus I was travelling was moving slowly even at six in the morning. As I looked out of the window, I could see people queuing up for water with their pots. Soon memories returned of a year-and-a-half long stay in the city about ten years back. The crowd, the heat, the humidity and mosquitoes. It was terrible when I had come back temporarily to the city about seven-and-a-half years back with my little daughter. We had rented a good apartment at a seemingly good locality, but when it was evening, the swarm of mosquitoes almost seemed would carry her away if she was left unattended. Today, I had arrived at one new corner called Arumbakkam.

My three-year-old technological assistant, a Lenovo A536, mobile was no longer reliable, with a rapidly draining battery, I could only dream of starting Google map for assistance. I had to rely on God’s best creation, my fellow human beings. As I climb down the bus that I took from Kerala, here comes one among them, an autorickshaw driver, introducing himself as best guide to the city.

I shared with him information and told him that I wished to go to Sholinganallur and find a temporary accommodation there. He came up with the most wonderful plan for my stay in Chennai. He told me that the place that I had landed up was the best place to stay. Not only was the Kallada bus office nearby, but also it has the Arumbakkam metro rail station right next to it. He said, I could take the metro and reach Sholinganallur in half-an-hour. Any other means would mean hours of travelling in the heavy traffic of the city roads. He added, that a hotel nearby was just walking distance away and that it has fresh water running in its pipeline all 24 hours. I could not but concur with him when he added that there was water problem everywhere more so when I had already witnessed it through the glass window of the bus I had just alighted. To boost up his convincing power, he added that I could easily plan or re-plan my return journey staying right next to my preferred bus service office. He had witnessed my arrival and certainly had a clue on my preferences. He concluded his chit chat saying that as a Muslim he will not cheat and that I could trust him.

The hotel ‘Chennai Park Inn’ was just about 500 meters away and looked decent. It offered AC/non-AC rooms. Being on shoe string budget, I opted for the non-AC. The uncertainty of the choice I had made guided by the auto driver who got engaged in a chit-chat with hotel caretaker in Tamil being another reason. The auto driver had promised to leave his contact number and wrote it down on the receipt the hotelier gave for the payments I made. He wrote his name as Babu on the slip, an unusual name for a Muslim. Babu left and I checked with the hotelier if mosquito repellants would be needed. His ‘No’ was a surprise that made me feel he was misleading. I was guided to my room and it looked neat, and I could also feel the heat. However, all I looked forward to being was to freshen up and start for the business that I had arrived for in Chennai. There was no towel, or toiletries on offer and had to get them from a shop nearby. As I was returning from the shop I recollected information that was given to me by the person whom I had come to meet. I check with the hotelier if there was a metro station at Sholinganallur. The answer in the negative concurred with my invitee.

I got ready and left to meet the guy I had come to meet. I took a bus to get the feel of the city, it would have been a long tedious travel had the business guy not called me right after my journey began. He now wanted a change in the location and it was in a direction opposite to the one earlier. I got down from the bus and as I inquired, I began to realize that goodness that God had in plan for me even though I had been misguided wishfully or not. The new place was closer to the accommodation I had landed up and I could reach there in 15 minutes. The guy who had invited me to the city could not meet me and he had arranged for others to meet to make the deal workout. These other guys seemed to me the people that I wanted to deal with for the phase, and we soon arrived at a timeline of working things out. It also meant that, I was no longer required to stay in the city until a few more days had gone by.

By evening we had finalized on all aspects to push things forward and I returned to the ‘Kallada Bus Service Office’ to cancel and reschedule my earlier booked return ticket to that evening. The staff then available at the office did not have access to rescheduling part of the software they used on their computer. They asked me to return one hour later. To my delight the hotel I had booked was just a five-minute walk away. Had I booked an accommodation at Sholinganallur I would have had to travel more than two hours one way and may have never made it back to the Bus station in time to catch the evening bus that day. I would have had to extend my stay one more day with nothing recreative or profitable to do on a shoe-string budget. But here now I could go back to the hotel, freshen up again with a tummy that seemed to have got a bit upset, return to the bus office one hour later and reschedule, go back to hotel, rest a while and then take a bath before boarding for the return travel.

This incident brought back to memory a WhatsApp message on an African woman who had, been praying for supplies to feed her starving family. An atheist who learnt about her decide to mock her God and had sent her a huge quantity of supplies and wanted the courier deliverers to let her know that the devil had sent her the stuff. The woman was overjoyed to receive the parcel and thanked her God for the parcel. When the courier deliverer asked her if she wanted to know who had sent her the ration, she just responded that she was not bothered, as when her God acted even the devil would work to make her prayers heard.

For believers, such faith, makes them feel the presence of a God who can make work every adversity work for the good in the life of a faithful. Atheist and devil worshipers would keep the world in dark making them run after scientific proofs. In these times we see, that many of the scientific proofs that people linger on to make their life better push them in the wrong direction, when science begins to study the missing parameters that lead to proofs that were misleading in the first place. Depending on God to make wrong things right, give us a more joyful and a life of thanks giving.

Babu, the auto driver may have not had the bad intention, to mislead. He must have assumed the existence of a metro station at Sholinganallur. However, his dependence on good deeds to declare the victory of him in his faith as a Muslim may not be enough to help him in the good he assumes he is doing. However, faith in the true God, would make all bad situations that man may perceive he is living in to work for the benefit of him. That true God has given us his word that need no correction, it remains true and relevant for all ages. That true God has also transformed the word into flesh and dwelt among us to be called ‘Immanuel’ meaning ‘God with us’. The fruits of the His spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law. That helps us free ourselves from the laws of science too J.

Boy in the 80s in Orissa

I have vivid memories of my life from the age of three. As vivid it is so is it gloomy vividly. Yet the stories of my life were extraordinarily exciting. I do not remember what concepts were being taught at home but at nursery school I was bewildered at the variety of humans around me. Boys were already boys and girls were kind of a new world. I remember what was packed for lunch and what went on at home for every lunch box to be packed. Dad got one and my two other elder siblings got theirs. Each had their own boxes and I remember the shape of each one of them.

My books would go into an aluminum box. And then a man would come on cycle, three of kids would be loaded - one on the front bar, the others on the carrier behind. Off we would go about 6 kms from home. When the shoes went between the spokes we would remember our parental advice and silently continue our journey more carefully. I do not remember saying thanks or talking much with the guy who dropped us. In India we are not taught such things, beside, he would be in a rush as well. He would have the next set of children to bring or go for work.

I remember observing others more than talking myself. Probably I was learning new languages apart from Malayalam that I spoke at home or the Oriya that I learnt from my neighbors. However, I don't remember having difficulty in comprehending the teachers speaking in English nor my friends who would speak in Hindi. I do not know how I learnt all the languages but I seemed to be comfortable even in my nursery. Though, I would always wonder why I did not have much topics to discuss. I always felt the need to talk more but I never did. However, language never bothered, it was fun.

Then came a promotion. I was not a good at getting grades. My report cards always have red marks in them. I believe my promotion came with a few reds and advises to improve. I had new company in the new class. I noticed that some of them spoke my mother tongue. Some would smell in the morning and I probably came in clean uniform everyday. I was happy that Pinky was in class. I had also got a new pencil box which looked like a large chocolate bar. The very next thing that happened was the whole class was to be punished. When the cane started descending on my had I pulled it away and it fell on my pencil box. I am not sure if I cried but I was very upset. The teacher noticed it and came back with a new one for me the next day. I surely appreciated the teacher for her gesture and I surely learnt some goods lessons in life.

The next thing I know is that I had to change school. I felt in me that I would never ever see Pinky again. The new school was the best in town. Was much bigger and grander and I would now be travelling on bus to school. Again boys were boys here and girls no longer occurred as it was a boys only school. I don't think that bothered me much, there were enough things to worry about and life was just opening up before my eyes. There were bullies who got scared of my big brother when they learnt of his presence in school.

My sister was also there in a nearby girls only school. We would alight our school buses from the same bus stop. My sister had her school bus and me and my brother had another for ours. I remember getting commented on my dirty knees and neck. From that day onward I started paying attention on scrubbing while bathing. There were games played en-way to school, sometimes it was a game on country names and at times on people and songs. I was not much intelligent in such affairs but still enjoyed the moments.

Once on the bus a best friend of mine who was probably on a new path of discovery on personal hygiene asked me what I had applied on my hands as winter skin protection. My mention of oil didn't match up to his use of vaseline. He looked down upon me as an inferior being. I was happy with the olive oil rub I would get at home - even today I would not mind using it, but back then I saw a friendship drifting into separation. It felt bad but he was moving into a world of his own. At a later date at home he mentioned that the pillows we had are much harder than the once at his home. That was the last time he sat with me as a friend. I never heard from him again. I miss him as a good friend I had in the earlier years of my life. It never made sense to me that a guy could take such things serious enough to move on from a friendship. I never felt any other tension between us.

Now apart from school and home there was another regular activity in life. The five of us in our family had one scooter to travel. We did travel all together on one scooter quite often but then on Sundays we would walk to church. We had about 5 Km to walk, but that never seemed to be a problem. I enjoyed the walks. I enjoyed...

Indian Railways and Two missing ladies

We were expecting two ladies to arrive at Kottayam Station today. These ladies were to arrive from Pune through an agency that helps people in getting household helps. We were told that the Ladies have got on to the S6 compartment on berth number 41 and 42. They were arriving at 5:25 and so we started from home at 4:30 in the morning to pick them up from the station. 

The train was late by about 45 minutes, so we spent time drinking coffee from our flask, reading a news paper and talking to people at the help desks. At the first desk I inquired if they could tell me the coach position. The led displays were not working at that time. The man at the counter was a policeman and hence I didn't not think he would know - yet I took my chances as his kiosk only mentioned help desk. He instructed me to check at the information counter. 

The information counter was closed. However there was another kiosk with another policeman. All I wanted was information so I rephrased my question. "Would you be able to tell me the position of S6", I asked. Well he told me that he could tell me the position of the train that leaves but not of the one that arrives. I was happy to have whatever was available. To my surprise he had a chart to refer and he told me that it could be at display number 8. I had no choice but be there. 

Thankfully when the train arrived coach S6 did stop at display 8. I went and asked for 'Souiya Maiti'. There was nobody by that name. There was only one lady and by her looks she was a Malayali for sure. I was expecting to see Bengali face. To my dismay they were not in the coach. They could have been moved to a different coach as may happen in India or they might have got down at the wrong station. They were presumably illiterate and might have found it hard to communicate. 

I came out of the coach looked into the adjacent coaches and by that time the train left. I ran through the entire station to check if I could spot a couple of worried eyes looking for me. I was just left with mine own to be troubled with. I went back to the helpful help desk Kiosk. This time he asked me to check with the Inquiry Desk. This being at the entrance of the station I ran towards it. I asked them if they could let me know if 'Souiya Maiti' and her companion boarded the train. The lady at the counter told me she couldn't. 

She gave me a number 9846200100 to contact to get more information. When the phone was answered the man at the other end asked me to check with the station information desk. When I told him that I got his number from them he told me that they wouldn't be able to tell until the train arrives at Trivandrum it's final destination. I told them that they could check with the TT and help me out. However, they told me that the TT could not be contacted until he arrives at his final duty station. He dind't sound helpful, however, he took my contact details and told me that I would be contacted if there was any information. 

I came back to the platform and went straight to the station master. On being told that people were supposedly missing from the train. He told me that he could do nothing. I asked him if he could find out for me if the missing passengers alighted the train. The station master responded by asking a question. "How do you think I would know that?" I maintained my clam and told him that he could check with the TT. "How would the TT know?", he retorted. At this I made a stern face and told him that that was the 'TT' job - to make sure that people who have booked have boarded the train. The station master realised his mistake and told me that he can be contacted only when he reaches Trivandrum. I persisted and asked him if he could refer to the reservation chart and tell me if anybody by the name 'Souiya Maiti' was travelling. He bluntly told me that he could not do that. I saw no point in arguing with somebody not willing to help. 

I decided to run over the platform once again to try my luck to spot the ladies. All this while (and even until now about 12 hours from the schedules arrival of the train), we had been unable to contact the agent who had confirmed to us that the ladies had boarded the train. Walking on the platform I saw the office of the RPF (railway police force). I decided to go there as my next hope in getting help for finding the ladies. However, I decided to finish off going to the end of the platform and then return to the RPF. 

Unlucky with my search as I ventured to enter the RPF office I saw a policeman in half uniform and half civil dress. I decided to talk to him. To my pleasant surprise as I explained, the policeman had already got the news and he told me that they are already looking for the ladies at Kollam station and elsewhere. Many non-Keralite travelers according to them confuse Kollam for Kottayam. Whatever, it was finally pleasant to learn that the government machinery is helping me out. 

I was with my Mom at the station. She's old and must return home for rest. I abandon my search and head homewards with Mom. The agent still remains at large, his phone either remains busy or is switched off. The railway search team reported that no such individuals as reported by me could be traced. Hope there were no real ladies travelling and nobody is at risk. It's dark now and I hope to have a pleasant days tomorrow. Hopefully, the agent will tell us that he had made up a story.