Experiencing the garden city

DISCLAIMER: this post should have come sooner but for some nasty internet flop ups. i am too lazy to edit it, so read it as it is. :D

indeed it has been a long time since i blogged. partly it was due to a well meaning discouragement i received from a "well wisher". partly because my life was going nowhere and there is nothing imaginative in stagnance.
but for the past one and a half months my life was seen tumultous change. from an unemployed bum now i am a working professional. i am gaining strides in self confidence and earning valuable experience.
bangalore is truly a remarkable place. not that i love this city in its entirety but it has its charm and wonders. some experiences of mine have really stunned me even in hindsight!!
for the first three weeks of work here, i referred to b'lore only as this friggin city. that was because i was a patron of BTC, namely Bangalore Transport Corporation, the infamous public bus system of Bangalore. The fact of my site and my place of residence being on opposite corners of b'lore did not help either. i had to commute in a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 10 buses everyday. the event i am going to describe happened on august 14, more famously known as Pakistan's Independence Day.
on that day i had boarded the regular bus to marathahalli from bellandur. naturally it was a re-enactment of wagon tragedy, filled with tired laborers on their commute home. getting inside the bus itself was a luxury and most had to adjust by having to hang from the windows. it was in this strenuous ride that it started to rain. i expected that such a turn of events would make people more uncomfortable and hence more unfriendly. but i saw and experienced something magical happening. the people who till then brooding silently started to crack jokes and the entire bus got a jovial mood. it were the people who were the most uncomfortable who were the loudest at laughing at and cracking jokes, me included.
finally i reached marathahalli in one piece and started the trek upwards to the bus station. the slope of the underpass created a river of mud flowing down. i waded up , already being drenched despite my insufficient rain jacket. the van ride and the subsequent bus ride are inconsequential except for the long wait which i had taken to be a frustrating norm and being drenched to the skin in which there is nothing remarkable at all. by the time i reached the shivaji nagar bus terminal i was drenched, cold and shivering. the station was crowded with people and empty of buses. swearing at all the people who directly or indirectly led me to this point of time, i went looking to catch an auto to get home.
the autos in bangalore, and on second thoughts everywhere are amazing examples of murphy's law in practice. when u dont want one u are heckled by them trying to lure u into a drive. but when u actually need them they either conveniently run out of fuel or in supreme arrogance they refuse the ride.
that was teh situation i found myself in. time was 0930PM and i had to leave the next day at 0300AM to go home. i asked many auto wallahs to give a ride. they refused. then i sought to bribe them going as much as rs. 200 for a rs.50 ride even at night. they refused. then finally i had to beg a person who had refused me twice already. i weaved a plaintive story liberally infused with my very real cold induced shivering and stammering. i also raised the loot to rs.250. thankfully he accepted to take me home. i got in expecting him to leave but was stunned when he started hoarding other passengers to share the ride. apparrently he thought all people would be as desperate or as crazy as me as all the people who approached him turned down the rate he offered. finally after yet another 15 minutes we started.
if i thought i would have a steady ride now, i was yet again mistaken. this guy, being a consummate businessman stopped everywhere 5+ people congregated trying to lure an extra rider. at that point i offered him rs.275 and 50 paise the entire contents of my purse.
to make matters worse the lighter which i always carried with me was missing i teh confusion and i could not light up the very wet cigarettes i had in my pocket. i asked him for a match and he said he had none. resigned for a nicotine deprive cold ride, i was surprised when the driver pulled to the side and went off to buy 2 cigarettes and a match box for me!!
only a smoker can understand how much gratitude such an act generates!!! in that instant when i took the first puff i forgave him for all the waiting and all the ignominy he forced me to experience.
and that too without being bidden!!! i asked for a light and i get two kings and light!!
i reached home that night at 1030.