Re: [silk] Daily Commuter

["editors@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <venky1@xxxxxxxx>]

Arsalan, Welcome to Mumbai. As I keep joking, this city is a battle between
man and machine. And the machines are winning!

Venky


----- Original Message -----
From: Arsalan Zaidi <azaidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Vishal Doshi <vishal@xxxxxxxxxx>; <silk-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2001 9:22 PM
Subject: [silk] Daily Commuter


>Hi.
>
>I'd like to inform all concerned, that I, Arsalan Zaidi, have turned into
>that most pathetic of all creatures; the Daily Commuter.
>
>Yes indeed.
>
>The days blend into each other and I find myself following a mind-numbing
>routine as far as the commute goes. I come and go at a regular time. I sit
>in the same train and in the same compartment every day. I look at the same
>posters for Shah Piles Clinic (for permenant cure of Piles, Fissures and
>Fistulas!) and Baba Bangali (Impotence? Foreign Travel? Marriage Problems?
>No male children? Bhoot Preth? Jadoo Tona? Come meet Baba Bangali for cure
>to all ailments. Jo mera jadoo katey ga, usko Rs 1000 innaam!).
>
>\OT
>Now these posters are an institution in their own right. There's this
entire
>class of posters and ads one sees in the local trains that just can't be
>found anywhere else. The Shah Piles Clinic and various Baba ads are the
most
>common, but we also have party lines (For filmi talk!), Kinleys Soda (Zyada
>Josh walla Soda) and Tortoise Mosquito Coils (which indulge in the most
>insipid humour imaginable). There's also Gravity.com, which has to be the
>weirdest name for a business ever. What's their slogan? Gravity! We pull
you
>down? or Gravity! Holding you back since 4,00,00,000 BC? The mind boggles.
>
>Really OT. Has anyone noticed that all the ST bus stands in Maharastra have
>ads for 'Gaey Chaap Zarda'? These ads appear *nowhere* else and are
>simplicity itself. Just a picture of a beady eyed, turbaned farmer with his
>mouth w-i-d-e open, *pouring* in the zarda and looking mighty pleased with
>himself; with the line Gaey Chaap Zarda written below it...
>
>\OT
>
>Anyhoo, back to the topic at hand...
>
>I find that my path crosses that of the same people almost every day. I've
>crossed the road *twice* in front of a bright red scooter ridden by the
same
>sari clad woman. The Bihari's I travel with in the train the day before, I
>find seated in front of me in the *bus* going to the station the next day.
>Oh yeah, the bus... For the past THREE (count them, 1 2 3) days, I have
>ridden the exact same BEST double decker 251 bus to the station... What are
>the chances of that happening? :-) At the station, I find my self walking
in
>just as the 4:38 Andheri-CST train slinds into the station. I buy a couple
>of packets of peanuts/chikki/vague sweets (it's best not to investigate the
>origins of these too closely... I've found all kinds of surprises in the
>chikki already. I've spat out human hair, strings, sutli, chips of wood and
>various other unidentified (but uniformly disgusting) objects) from the
same
>shop every day. I think pretty soon he'll know me by sight. It'll just be a
>matter of handing in the cash and picking up the goodies, no needs for
>words.
>
>"the usual saab?"
>
>God have mercy!
>
>I knew a daily commute to an office would be bad, but this is reeediculous!
>I spend THREE (count them, 1 2 3) hours every day commuting to and from
>work! I spend 2 hours everyday sitting jammed up 4 to a seat with the rest
>of the commuting crowd, with some guys crotch (or butt, take your pick) in
>my face. I use just about every mode of transportation known to man. I ride
>to the station on a bike, I take a train to Andheri, I take a bus to 4
>bungalows and then walk 400 mts or so to the office... Throw in a horse, a
>screaming babe and some bad editting in there and we have a hindi movie
>chase scene!
>
>I wonder what it will be like doing this for a year... two years... a life
>time. Can't help but shiver at the thought...
>
>Anyway, I'll stop ranting now...
>
>Back to our regularily scheduled programming...
>
>--Arsalan.
>[No. I have no idea why I wrote this.
>I think it's the after effects of the chikki.]
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