Danseuse's moves

As we stepped onto a busy road in Jayanagar 6th block, we squinted owing to the bright almost blinding afternoon sun. The nearest Southern Railway booking center was in Banashankari 2nd stage we were told. Booking counters were supposed to be serving the public from 10-1pm everyday, and we were already late.

Weirdly at that point of time, it could have been as far away as Timbuktu and we wouldn't have realised it!

Our first day in Bangalore, and we decided to take a call taxi from the city railway station. We had to go to Sankey road and all we had amidst us was a piece of paper with the hotel name scribbled on it. We were warned that trains stopped at many small stations as the main city of Bangalore neared, but only for a minute or so. So we, the brilliants decided to take no chance and agreed to get off at the last stop-City station. This also meant it gave us extra 1/2 hour of heavenly sleep!

Now that having been said, we stormed out of the station like resident veterans although the little piece of paper and the not so small boxes would have given us away for sure. Our eyes met one of the cabbies, and he came towards us menacingly. We proudly proclaimed the hotels name searching his face for flicker of recognition. We saw something & we decided to take it in the affirmative! He volunteered that the hotel was in Hebbal and the fare was Rs 350. Wow! is this place near Mysore or something...I wondered, hearing the cost to get to the hotel. I gave Manu a puzzled look and his face registered utter shock, perfect corroboration!! We looked at him a little pointedly, and he showed us a printed sheet which had Hebbal- Rs.350 clearly specified. We conceded and 10 minutes later we reached the hotel. "Hmmm.. that REALLY WAS fast" I thought. Did we really fly or was this Maruti van/taxi been boosted with extra horses??? We got down, stretched & paid the fella. He bolted from the hotel in full gallop before we could thank him. "Must be trying hard to make ends meet, poor fellow! See he's rushing to ferry passengers from the next inbound train..." we commented. "Life must be tough being in such a job given the present standards of living" we empathized.

Reaching the lobby, checked into the room and was relieved to be in what would be our home for the next one month. The maid who came to tend our beds started talking, and we casually asked her what good restaurants were there in Hebbal. She laughed, " you have to travel 20 more kms to get there. Do you have relatives there?? ". Thoroughly outraged to find that the hotel wasn't in Hebbal as the cabbie had suggested, we also realized out that the actual fare was only Rs.150!! We had just tasted the occassional dishonest Banglorean in an otherwise extremely honest, friendly and wonderfully cultured clan. Exceptions, Exceptions... was our final verdict.

I flagged down an auto (it's a wonderful creation which is like having 2 seats set up in the center of a triangle with tires adorning each of the 3 corners). I looked at my watch, it read 12.42PM. The auto came to standstill and auto driver looked at me expectantly. I looked at Manu. This seemed to go on for more than a few seconds when I felt a gentle nudge on my elbow.

I had been anticipating this for a while, but now being faced with that eventuality sent me reeling, feeling dumb & thunderstruck. Where should I start? Should I try talking in Tamizh at all? "Oh.... don't worry, most people in Bangalore understand Tamizh", people had repeatedly drummed into my head the last couple of days. I suddenly shuddered, thinking the irritation I felt when I was thought to be a North Indian and someone started yapping in Hindi. How could I possibly do that to him, our very own ticket to heaven--the railway booking counter ?? I carefully contemplated my next move, the hows and whys of it. My POA (aka plan of action) jumped right out at me.

Most people understood signs well and I was supposed to be pretty good at miming (or so I've been led to believe!). I relied heavily on my miming capabilites and my cerebellum got down to breaking up the words. I needed to convey our dire necessity to go to the southern railway booking center, rumoured somewhere to be in Banashankari, god knew where that was! Now, 3 words crossed my mind. Train, tickets and late. I was deperate to make him understand the destination and nonetheless, emphasize the importance of being late. It was imperative he knew that we were really running behind schedule, and it was real important we reached there in the next 15 minutes.

I took both my hands and set them in appropriate front and back motion mimicking a train motion (meaning the wheels part). The driver looked at me quizzically and I felt sorry for myself more than him. I added a Koo.. Chuk Chuk sound effect to the ensuing hand motion and eagerly waited for his response.
He said, Station??
"No no..... no station, only ticket booking" I hurriedly said.

He nodded and I let out a sigh of relief. We hopped in and colonized the rather small space as the auto sprung into motion. I promptly recalled the remaining 2 of the original 3 words. So, I leaned forward and told him "ticket booking, BSK, 2nd stage??"
"Houdhu, adhae" he responded. "Fast please, 1'o clock counter close", I added in for good measure, my last final straw to the puzzle. I detected a hint of what looked like a smile, and I was in 7th heaven . I was one mighty proud lady ....a strange land, unknown language, and yet I had emerged victorious!!

As Manu & I looked out the streets and drank in the city of gardens, we started chatting, probably the first after a tense 10 minutes! Before we knew it, the auto slowed and he pointed to a building on our right. We got down, paid him the fare and stared at the concrete structure looming large in front of us. It had people swarming all over the place. Unsure which entrance to take, we saw our legs exhibit an indolent attitude. As we crossed the street, we heard the auto driver loudly yell "andha side-ula irrukkunga entrance, adhu vazhiyaa ponaa IInd floor-la irukudhu booking center" and his eyes seemed to twinkle. We had embarrassment written all over us!

We gulped, blushing a little and quickly scampered onto safer grounds. We laughed all the way up to the second floor. In addition to the just bygone fiasco, we also got royally frowned upon by the man behind the counter. We were laughing the entire time, so much so the man had to repeat the question a good 5 times before we could hear it amidst our own chuckles.

What on earth possessed me to subject that poor soul to a modern dance recital in the middle of the road, that too in broad daylight?? Why had it been so hard for me to think clear & easy?? All the hands and sound effects?? A lamentable act indeed...*Blink, Blink*

Moves of the Danseuse.. ha ha!!