It must have been half past midnight. I was busy texting my
virtual friends in WhatsApp, people I had never once met in my real life. I had
always thought it was meaningless, these conversations. The dead and emotionless
words and the freedom to backspace sentences meant you are totally clueless
about what really went in each other’s mind. I missed those moments where a
simple look into the other’s eyes would equate to countless words exchanged. I wondered
how weird it would be if I ever get to meet any of them. But all these didn’t prevent
me from chatting. That was the way of life, these days, and you were almost
addicted to it, the thrill of being ‘friends’ with total strangers.
My roommate was busy with ‘Houses Of Cards’, the thrilling
political drama, filled with awesome Kevin Spacey moments. He was glued to his
tiny mobile screen, sitting like a duck, motionless. He must have been in the
same position for the last three or four hours. God, doesn’t it hurt to sit
like that? Apparently he didn’t care.
“Let’s go drink some juice?” Ah, must have finished an
episode. “Now?” I asked. “Yea!” came the reply. I checked the time. It was
later than I thought, ten minutes to one. “Wouldn’t they have closed by now?” I
asked reluctantly. The fact that this city was one of the biggest Metros in the
nation didn’t seem to have any effect on the night life here. Shops were to be
closed before midnight. Very rarely you would find one or two shops open up to
1 am. The city I had in my mind before settling here was brimming with
nightlife. And that’s just one among the many shattered dreams.
“It’s not one yet”, he said, “I know a place. There would be
no traffic, we’ll reach there in five minutes.” I was still lazy to get up from
the comfort of my bed. But a juice did seem inviting. “Okie! But you got to
take your car!” I set my condition. I was already lazy, and burning up petrol wasn’t
something I looked forward to. And it was his idea. People think owning a car
is a big deal, but the fact is most often I drove it with my fuel indicator
blinking, signaling imminent death. “Fine, let’s go”, he was already changing
his shorts.
In a minute we were flying at over a hundred kmph, as the
roads were virtually empty. The port was nearby and the roads usually were full
of container trucks at this time of night, but today even those were too few.
The climate was awesome. The breeze was cold and exhilarating. The smell of
fresh air was heartwarming. I thanked him in my mind for this great ride. “It’s
superb, driving at this time. See, these are the thrills of life. Doing simple
things that we will cherish forever. Small things that makes life so awesome to
live”, he was apparently intoxicated with the ride too.
We were half way through, when we noticed Police checking ahead.
It was a routine at this time in many places. We slowed down to pass through
the zigzag roadblocks. And then the Policeman on the right signaled us to park
at the side of the lane. They usually rarely stop cars with a Medical emblem. One
of the perks of being a doctor. “Must be due to added security. It’s independence
day week, right?” I was sure about them letting us go as soon as we showed the
ID cards. My friend was already out of the vehicle, “Sir, we’re GH doctors.” Although
we weren’t doctors yet, we still used those words all the time. It was the
trump card, no one asked too many questions afterwards.
“So what? Where are you staying?”
“At the College Hostel, sir.”
“Do they let you guys roam around at night? Isn’t it
indecent driving around at this time?”
I was unsure if I’d heard that wrong. Did he just say
indecent? The guy looked decent enough to have said that. I looked at my friend
in his eyes, and it seemed he wasn’t sure about what he had heard too.
“Where are you going?”
“Eh, Juice…”
“What juice?”
Seriously? Did he wanted to know what juice we were going to
drink? I thought of replying lime, but then voted in my mind against it. Maybe
he would want to know sweet or salt next.
“Show the license, documents.” My friend reached for the
documents inside.
“Why are you going so
far away to drink juice at this time pa? Can’t you wait until morning? Or you
could just drink some water.”
I no longer knew what to reply. I wondered how he might have
behaved if we were a pair of girls. This man called us indecent, what word would
he use to describe them? He was already scanning through the documents. Then I
saw a wicked and triumphant smile spread through his devilish lips.
“Where’s the NOC?”
It is mandatory by law to get a No Objection Certificate to drive
other state registered vehicles. We didn’t have it. No one I knew had it. There
are thousands of such vehicles in this city. It’s a metro. People from all over
the country live here. Most of them never care to obtain an NOC for their
vehicles. And the Police mostly didn’t care.
The trap was set. He winked at his senior officer. Seems his
job is to find the prey. It’s the senior who gets to settle the scores. The new
guy came toward us and started explaining the law points. We listened to him
lecture through Transport rules, like fifth standard kids listening to
literature. Just say the amount already, I sighed. At the end of the lengthy
lecture both of us took our turns in explaining our ignorance of the rules, and
in promising that we will go get the NOC first thing in the morning. We even
swore never to drive the car again until we had an NOC.
He looked cold. He must have heard a thousand such pleas in
his life time. It was music to his ears. He patiently heard us. And after we
both had a turn, he replied, “That’s twenty thousand fine.”
We stared at each
other. “Eh...Sir...” We tried our pleading in its entirety once more.
“Ok. Since you are medical students, I’ll leave you for three
thousand.”
“But we don’t have any money with us, Sir“
“There’s the ATM ”
“We don’t have the ATM card”
He looked at us ferociously, “What do you have?”
“Sir, Juice…”
“Get the key”
“Sir….Please”
“Thousand?”
“Hundred”
“Five Hundred.” He was losing his patience.
“Sir, juice…”
“That’s enough get me the key.”
I looked at my friend. “Sir we don’t have five hundred.” He
reached for his purse. I saw his fingers slipping the two thousand rupee notes.
They vanished inside his fingers like magic.
“This is what we have”, he showed the purse. The poor guy didn’t
get a chance to hide the hundred rupee notes.
“Take it all”
He gave him three hundred rupee notes. “Ok. Go now!” He wasn’t
obviously happy with the catch.
In silence we got back to the car. I looked at my friend. The
thrill had vanished from his face. The breeze that we so much enjoyed now felt
chocking. The smell wasn’t of the fresh air, it was of the overflowing drains.
The next five minutes went in dead silence. We reached the juice shop at half
past one. It’d been close for half an hour. Without a word he took a U turn.
Down poured the heaviest rains in recent times. If only this had happened half
an hour earlier. But it wouldn’t, this is what they call destiny. We drove back
in half visibility through roads filled with sewage and gutters.
