Friday night, heading back from Pune, flight is late because of torrential rains in Pune. Plane doors finally open at 11:15pm to another hot Delhi evening.
Mukesh has decided to take advantage of my long absences from Delhi to moonlight at Hertz - he did not make it back in time to pick me up from the airport. So there is another Hertz car waiting to pick me up.
We head out onto the still under construction but usable National Highway 8 for the short ride to Gurgaon. We pass an accident - a brand new car - looks like a Honda Accord - does not even have a pukka license plate - the front part wedged under a truck all the way to the wind screen. Parked on the other side of the road is a Qualis with a loose fender, packed with what appear to be call center employees. Hard to tell if this is all part of the same accident or not. We do our share of pointless rubber necking and continue.
Make the left turn off IFFCO chowk. In the little space between the NH8 and MG Road (Meherauli Gurgaon, not Mahatma Gandhi which I mistook it for initially) between the ditch and the road on a small triangle covered with dirt, sit some 30-40 cycle rickshaws. They are crammed in tightly together slightly away from the road. The drivers are all asleep - crouched in various positions on the 24x9 inch seat. I wonder what they would do if it rains. The driver says they would just raise the little shades - but this is Delhi it hardly ever rains. .... Right - just sandstorms and hailstones and buckets and buckets of rain - but that is only 3-4 times a year.. so maybe they can just grin and bear it... worse things can happen here than being caught in a little rain. I think about it for a minute - yeah that is quite true.
As we round the corner - I see the traffic cop making a valiant effort to contain the traffic mess - he has got to be the bravest, most optimistic fellow in the world. Armed with nothing more than a uniform and a whistle he is hoping to control the big truck drivers, unruly cars, bicycles, scooters, motorbikes, pedestrians, cows and dogs. Even the mildest, sweetest people turn into the wildest people when armed with a steering wheel and a form of automation.
We pass the 3 construction sites on MG Road near Privat Hospital. These had been mere pits 8 months ago. At midnight work is in full swing - the facades are going up - in another 3 months these will be opening for business. Another inexplicable contradiction in a state and business known for dragging things out on the slightest pretext.
The road outside MGF Mall - the center of major activity and traffic jams during the day is littered and empty - its energy spent - humanity has retreated for the night. A couple of people asleep on a ledge around a tree, on a pushcart - but mostly just dogs - even they are tired.
At the gates of BPII I ask the driver to slow down so the guard can complete his visual identification test - if I was a bad guy - we could crash through the barrier, I could get out of the car, stomp my feet wield a knife or other weapon and coerce him to open the door - but I am a law abiding resident of the complex - he waves us through.
We pass what must be an NRI (non-resident Indian) or FRI - (foreign returned Indian) cos ou have to have travelled outside the country to acquire so much self confidence - dressed in full gym gear wearing the noise reducing Bose headsets (the big heavy ones)- briskly walking around the complex - I know what Bana would say... "only in BPII.."
We continue over the speed bumps past the now abandoned tennis courts and basketball court to the entrance to my building. After an interminable 10 minutes in which the driver makes up my bill - I open the gate using my electronic access card and ferry myself up.
Salyani is wide awake - "Do you know what happened today ?" What happened ? Some NRI in the other tower he was shooting at the police. Huh ? Why ? Don't know - then the police went in and took all his stuff out and arrested him and the media were all here - Media - how do you know the word media - oh the guard called them the media - they had cameras and all......... I found out the next morning - some landlord got fed up of his tenant refusing to vacate his expensive apartment had finally forcibly evicted him. I had missed all the drama. Thank God !
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