Aap Farishtey Ho! Bhagwaan ka roop ho mere liye !!!

19May09

With these words you will be welcomed by this obscure autowallah if you are trying to get a ride from Begumpet. I swear, you will be taken for the ride of your life.

Seven months ago I had to go to the Odyssey store near Karkhana and it was a dark but non-stormy night. I was in a hurry and didn’t care to cross the road near Shoppers Stop (The last time I attempted the feat, it took me a week). The guy looked 35, bearded, portly built and the khakhi uniform was snuggly fitting him.

I asked him whether he will give me a ride till Karkhana and he was elated. I couldn’t be sure why, though. Five meters away from ‘Mochi’ and I heard it – ‘Aap Farishtey Ho! Bhagwaan ka roop ho mere liye !!!’

I dismissed the talk as I do most statements in a GD, with a chuckle, thinking he might be talking about the ancient Indian concepts of Atithi devo bhava etc etc. Another 5 meters and he repeated the words. I was still dismissive of him and started looking out of the Auto as I was more interested in finding the source of the smoke blasts that were homing in towards my nostrils and counting the number of vehicles which were going berserk with the excessive honking at that time.

The U-turn at Mayuri marg junction had been taken and the guy started crying. I kid you not! He started crying and after wiping the tears he started talking about how his wife, who was due for delivery that day, slipped from the staircase and I was gutted. He went on as to how his relatives couldn’t even give him five hundred bucks for the necessary operation. Throughout his crying he kept on reiterating I was a Farishtaa and Bhagwaan ka roop.

By the time we had reached Paradise circle I came to know that he had taken a loan for the auto and is unable to the pay the installments. I started thinking whether I was sitting in the auto-rickshaw of the unluckiest man in Hyderabad? Being a perennial cynic I was conflicted. Should I do a superhuman gesture and become the God and give him the five hundred bucks or was he “Meri Le raha hai” as they say in chaste vernacular?

The fare was thirty five bucks. I usually don’t carry a lot of cash when I go to a book store as a defensive mechanism for not spending more. I thought a lot and gave him a fifty. I was in no mood to become God and somehow I was very worried about his constant eulogizing. I was tempted to give him another fifty rupees but restrained myself.

I bought the latest issue of Maxim with a remorseful heart. All these days I had this feeling whether I did the right thing. Time flew and I forgot the incident.

Last Sunday I had to go to a friend’s house and pick Ludwig on the way. The hot sun had blinded me, almost. There was an empty auto near the Satyam office at Begumpet. I was about to leave that behind when the autowallah came running from nowhere and gestured me to sit in the auto. Before I could say Banjara Hills he had started the engine and by the time I had reached Pantaloons, in came the words “Aap Farishtey Ho! Bhagwaan ka roop ho mere liye”. I was stunned into silent disbelief.

Before I had reached Ludwig’s house I also learned how his wife slipped from the staircase when she is due for delivery. Again! His relatives haven’t changed and they kicked him away instead of giving that elusive five hundred bucks. He cried again, with the ease of a Brando doing his best method.

I quickly made up a story of my own and got down the moment I was near Ludwig’s apartment and paid him the minimum twelve bucks.  A CITY moment of success indeed.

You have been warned. 

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Tags: citylife, Hyderabad, India, Travel