12.30 A.M., Parking Lot, Karapakkam Service Lane
I woke up by a strong wind gushing thru my window and the fluttering sound of the trip sheets. I had just made a trip to perambur from karappakkam. I cud see a blurred image of the trip supervisor nearing my car.
I wonder is it just fate or a passion for driving, for if it was passion I would have become Schumacher…[believe me I am not a fan or a follower of Schumacher. I hardly get time to even have a normal diet…just heard this name when one of the employee uttered this name. Out of curiosity, I was asking him who he was and what was special about him…]
Then I told to myself , all the cab drivers are in a way F1 drivers...the Schumachers and Alonsos who drive their way to the chequered flag 18 times once in a year and during each race have pit stops compared to our drivers who also get lot of pits stops, rather all along the journey in the roads of Chennai. There is no G-force its only the S-force It’s called the Survival force which is more powerful than G –Force.
'முத்து இந்த ரெண்டு பேரை போய் தாம்பரம் tambaram sanatorium la விட்டுட்டு வந்துரு ', supervisor
[can u drop them in tambaram]
'சார் உங்களுக்கே இது ஓவரா இல்லையா? ஒரு 2 மணி நேரமாவது தூங்கிகுறேனே ..'
[this is to bad sir..i need atleast 2 hrs of sleep]
'சரி விடு நான் co-ordinator கிட்ட பேசிக்கிறேன்..
[k then i'll speak to the co-ordinator]
'சார் உடனே கோச்சிகுறீங்க'
[c'mon sir..i was jus kidding..no probs..]
One of associate who got into my cab was having a small gift pack and the other associate was asking what it was, and he said he has been awarded the star performer of the team for his continuous hard work for the past few weeks and making the project success in given time.
Sometimes I m just bored of this question ’When do you start your day?’ in fact annoyed .don’t worry I am not a Hancock and getting wild on hearing this again n again , To say I neither start nor end the day…the trip sheets are the sheets of the daily calendar…unlike the calendar which only has one sheet per day…the trip sheets have countless papers to be torn … completed four trip sheets…@ the time of dawn..yeah that’s the end of my day…does that make sense…have I answered the question …mm ..
I have crossed the Medavakkam high road n the cab going smooth with the latest song from subramanypuram…in FM…I know the two young men don’t understand that as they were northies…but they loved the song…one guy was just tapping his fingers to the tunes of James Vasanth on the dash board as he was listening…
They continued with their conversation about salaries and since I had been in Hyderabad for around 4 yrs before coming to Chennai , I had picked up good hindi…they were mumbling that they were yet to receive their appraisals n the salary they get was very less which was more than 10 times the salary I get… …
I went back to my school days..thinking, If I had studied well I cud have become SW engineer…with a white collar job…who said .I m not…Still I am in a white collar job …always wearing the white shirt as uniform….
While getting down the Associate said, in butler tamil
’nalikku konjuum fast a vanthidu..Muthu…enku konjam velai irukku..’
I was gazing at him still he walked to his door and I am sure he will have a good sleep till he wakes up tomm in the afternoon before he gets ready to the shift. Now I have another 20 more kms back to office….in the middle ..a pit stop for ...a tea …n biscuit.
I leave it to you to decide is it fate or passion for me to be in this profession ..I cannot blame fate for some reasons..but its not a passion though ...but I still love this job...carrying those tired minds back home safe...and bringing them next day to office in time…without any appreciations or awards…:)
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