Friday, August 23

Public transport at 5:30am

What do you do when the early morning taxi you call does not turn up ? How do you get to the train on time?

I thought of the metro and asked A to drop me to the station. At the security check a well meaning sardar told me that the train would only come in by 6.

I walked down to the road and waited. A car pulled up. The guy asked me where I wanted to go. Still recovering from the question I answered like have done for 3 decades - Nai Dilli Railway Station, Ajmeri Gate.

He was not going there but could drop me till AIIMS.

How much would he charge?

10 bucks.

10 bucks ? Are you kidding me? I jumped in. I thought I had a chance to catch the train. There was an hour left.

I have driven on that road from the MG Road to CP many times. At best I though he would take half an hour to get to AIIMS. The minute he floored the accelerator, I realized that this was going to be a scary ride. My brother, if he was with me, would have never ever called me a bad driver after that.

This guy stopped the car next near the AIIMS crossing after 10 minutes. I lost count of how many traffic lights we jumped and what rules he broke.

The remaining part of the journey was in an auto I shared with two other men. Since I was still shaken from the car ride, I barely registered reaching Ajmeri Gate 15 minutes later.

I paid 90 bucks for 25 minute ride that the radio taxi would have charged 600 at least. And this was faster than than the metro.

I hope the taxi doesn't turn up again sometime in the future.






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