In the hustle bustle of this Mumbai city, we meet so many different people, each a character! Like local trains, buses, one of the other places where we get to see different kinds of people is share cabs.
I often travel by share cabs and silently observe the co-passengers. Some are simply glued to their phones, while some try to make a small polite conversation to cut out the boredom of the “traffic-laden” route. Most of the times we don’t even know how the person looks like if he/she is in the front seat.
I would particularly like to share two incidents which caught my attention. Once I was in the front seat and a male co-passenger was already there in the backseat engrossed in a serious conversation. He was conversing in Marathi and being a Mumbaikar I understand Marathi very well. He was in conversation with his wife and it seemed she was unhappy with his job and traveling. He kept on calmly explaining her that he cannot leave the job and that she knew beforehand what his job was like. Later on his relatives also bombarded him with calls and he again and again went on explaining the same thing!
Yesterday while traveling a young girl in her 20s kept on chatting nonchalantly and loudly with her friend not bothering about the co-passengers. She kept on discussing how her boyfriend has cheated her and treated her like “shit” and so on! She was least bothered who heard her and what she said! Actually I liked the attitude. I still think a thousand times before speaking!
This is Mumbai where people don’t bother what others will think or they know that in a share cab he/she will never meet the co-passenger again and hence won’t be judged! Its just another mode of conveyance for them.
As a writer, every new character that I meet evokes a thought in me. It gives an understanding and perspective of how different people have different issues in their life and different ways of handling it!
As the quote says: Traveling; it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.
Life and its different shades 