Bye-Bye Autorickshaws.. sob.. sob..

As I pull myself up from the bed and get on with my daily chores, I am generally not the least bothered about the long walk to office from home since I know that there will be Autorickshaws standing in a line just near the signal, looking for us, the TP-carriers. And once I get into one, they squeeze the vehicle through all the blocks, and take me inside the campus.

After a short bumpy ride from the gate till my block where they fill us all up with details such as which blocks have interviews, how the candidates do not know anything about finding their way in, and how sick the security people are, I am all set to get down. And in case there are friends with me, I will also be all set for the impending fight coz they ask for double the rate in such cases. And I guess they should by now be knowing my reply byheart (its always the same drivers) - "Does your rickshaw swallow double the quantity of gas in case one more person gets in?"

However, these rides have indeed made my days simpler since there are no fixed timelines for ricks. I need not pick them up at 8:23 sharp or anything like that. I am the king, rather, queen :) I still remember those days when I was down with disk prolapse, and all the humps made me feel sick, I asked the driver to go a lil slow and the next day, this guy actually called out to another guy(in whose vehicle I had got in then) and asked him to drive slow and safe. And another day when I could not find enough change in my purse, the driver casually remarked - "there is alwaya another day when you can give it to me".

And in the evenings when I did not feel upto a walk(which is quite rare), I just have to walk outside the block to find a parked rick. Well, they do lay out their rules and conditions - "I can take you only until the signal, cant park to the right, cant take u-turn, cant take service lane... cant do this, cant do that, give me these many bucks... ", but then, it was only until that point that I wished to go, and had no issues with it.

And on one lazy tuesday afternoon, as I kept refreshing my official mailbox for some unseen mail, I saw a new one creeping in. Little did I know then that it will actually be a letter bomb for me. "Traffic regulation at campus", said the subject line and as I was thunderstruck as I opened it thinking it will be another of a closing-gate or new-gate scenarios. The mail said that ricks will not be allowed inside the campus anymore starting the next week, for security issues. Well, I for one, have not seen or heard about an Autowala sneaking a bomb in, and so were the others around me. People with cars and bikes probably did not give a second look at the mail, but people like me could not even find words to express what we had.

And today, as I got into a rick knowing that this is probably the last time I can take a Rick to office, since today is the last working day in this week, I felt troubled - of the long walks I have to take if I miss the shuttle from the gate at 10:20 sharp! And as were riding, the driver whom I have known from many journeys said with a troubled voice - "I think this will be the last journey in this route for me"...

Madhuram Malayalam :)

(click on the pic to enlarge it)
Saw this picture in an e-mail forward and simply loved it, coz it brings back so many memories of my Kerala , and makes anybody respect this state for the unity she has among several linguistic families...