An Urban L(ove)ust Story

'Did you sleep with her?’- Alex demanded as she got her handkerchief out; her eyes were welling. 

For the last half hour Francis and Alex had been arguing in Luis' taxi, and were being largely unrestrained in voicing the thoughts each of them had about the other, and Luis had been a patient audience, watching them do so, courtesy of his rear view mirror. 

Luis had been driving his taxi for just over a week now and his older experienced colleagues had told him about the things they hear while they’re working. He wouldn't be the first to have a story to share about a man’s alleged infidelity and the thought of still being the cynosure in the gathering of pseudo-intellectual taxi driving folk later that evening amused Luis a little.

Yes, cab drivers were worldly-wise. As Old Xavier, a mentor of sorts for many of them always says- ‘I’ve learnt more about life driving a cab than most people learn through their education.’

When you’re a cab driver, with little hope of making it big in any other walk of life, words like these work wonders to raise your spirits.

‘That is not the point Alex! I want to give it a shot with Amanda, because the life I’m going to have with her certainly looks more promising that what the two of us have had so far, and to put it bluntly I know that it has been a MISTAKE!’- Francis said; his face had been steadily turning red over these last few minutes.

Luis could see his lips quiver a bit. Men are never too strong, he thought to himself. They are made out to be far stronger than they actually are.

Alex let out a sob; she’d reached the rather infamous hysterical threshold women of her age have. ‘So it was all a mistake you say? Cameron is a mistake? The house we own is a mistake? Oh Jesus, after all this time, this is what all of this means to you?’

‘So you think this is hard for just for you? It’s a big decision, but I’ve thought it out well. How long were we going to pull it off? We couldn’t have lasted and I think that it’d be better for the two of us to acknowledge this and move on!’- Francis said, now shaking visibly.

‘Why should we? Why can’t you see there’s nothing to acknowledge? Why must you always try avoiding seeing the truth? The truth is you’re as filthy as they come! And no matter how much you try to rationalise this you’re going to realize this someday or the other and Amanda will too!’- Alex retorted, as she buried her face in her hands and sobbed uncontrollably.

Luis slowed down a bit and turned around to ask Francis if he should stop, but strangely enough Francis asked him to go on.

Heartless, that’s what this generation is, Luis thought as he suddenly proud of how his Papi had raised him. He fully understood a man’s commitment to his family, and how he must put his family before all else.

The traffic in the evening was as much a cause of displeasure to a taxi driver as a perpetually misbehaving kid is to a teacher in elementary school. There are things you just can’t avoid, and just can’t get used to. Thankfully, there were just a few minutes away from their destination.

‘You know I’ve had it with you! You and your stupidity! It’s as clear as it can be Alex! For once why don’t you think something through? There was nothing in our lives worth continuing this!’- Francis bellowed, his fists clenched and his face contorted menacingly.

Alex sobbed even harder- ‘Our child, our beautiful child! Why do you have to make him go through this?’

‘Can we press on the gas a bit harder? We’re getting late!’- Francis said; his tone rather different from what it had been so long.

‘He’ll be better off without having to listen to his parents scream at each other every day!’ – He continued; his tone as acerbic as it could be.

‘He’ll be better off without having a moral-less father like you!’ – Alex said, almost howling.

‘YOU DARE ACCUSE ME OF NOT BEING A GOOD FATHER!’- Francis hollered now turning to Alex with a vicious look on his face.

‘A father who loves his family so much, that he considers fornicating with women as unprincipled as he is as a sacrifice for their well-being’- Alex replied, wryly as she struggled to control herself.

‘STOP NOW!’- Francis growled, raising his clenched fists, his face more menacingly contorted than any face, Luis had ever seen before.

The car screeched to a halt.

‘We’re here sir!’- Luis said; his voice betrayed how terribly distraught he was.

‘You’ll pay right!’- Francis said as he lowered his hands.

‘I paid the last time, Phil!’- Alex complained.

‘Ah well, how much mister?’- Francis asked Luis as he opened his door.

Luis didn’t answer. He just stared blankly at a poster on the telephone box right next to his car.

’20 bucks. Wait, you’re in it?’- he asked Francis disbelievingly pointing at the poster.

‘Err, yeah, just like the poster says. That’s me and that’s Erica! We have a hard time in this town. We’ve got to take whatever comes by our way. We hardly earn! Had to take this one too! Asked the folks to think of a better name but ‘An Urban Lust Story’ is the best they could come up with. You know what? This acting thing gets on your nerve and damn it I’m going to quit soon. Stupid names, stupid scripts, stupider cast. Gosh didn’t it sound ridiculous to you! You just saw almost the whole of Scene III. And we’ve hardly practiced!’- Phil said as he handed Luis his fare.

‘You think we need to go through it once more?’- Erica asked as they walked away from the cab.

They clearly don’t, Luis concluded, they most certainly don’t.

Annyeonghaseyo Korea

I can’t help feeling like a five year old in a candy store as I write this and as trite as that analogy is, it is but true.

Korea has been nothing short of breath-taking, so much so that I couldn’t help mouth a ‘wow’ as I made my way into the high speed train that operates within the airport that took me from the departure gates to immigration where traditionally dressed ushers (I take the liberty of calling them ushers as their job was to usher us bedazzled visitors to the immigration counters) greeted us with a smile as radiant as the smiles that were worn by the remarkably sweet Korean folk in the advertisements that were constantly playing on the innumerable flat screens installed on every wall of the airport.

Incheon International Airport has been voted as the world’s best and this we realized as do many of the millions of its visitors who do their best to absorb in awe, the many ways it has depicted Korea’s characteristic and simplistic elegance with its love for surging ahead in technology.

It’s been nearly two weeks that we’ve come here and we’ve taken to love the city we’re living in- namely Daejeon.

It’s a quiet city with lovely people and is Korea’s research nerve centre with a huge number of universities and research establishments within its bounds.

To describe how this city represents the truly indomitable Korean spirit would take more than just one blog post but I’ll try to as much justice to it as I can here.

Daejeon is systematic in the most infallible literal translation of the word.

And Korea’s insatiable desire to create a perfect blend of its illustrious past with its promising future is evident everywhere.

From the smart phone savvy shop keepers and restaurant workers who say – ‘hwangyong-hamnida’ as you enter their establishments to the taxi drivers who smile broadly as they ask you for the address of your destination so that they can enter it into their GPS systems, this wonderful fugue of tradition and modern day technology really makes you wonder how ideologically superior these people are in comparison to the rest of the world.

Never have I had cars stopping to let me cross a street and I surely haven’t ever come across an iPad wielding youngster help an aged cleaner carry a trash can out of the elevator.

It really is exquisite.

The institute I’m working at also exemplifies this beautifully- students bow gently when a professor or any familiar elder walks past and these are the same students who are studying and developing cutting edge technology in an environment that is unbelievably conducive to scientific thinking and rationale.

Research at KAIST is serious business and the millions of dollars the government is pumping in into every project that every department undertakes is most certainly paying dividends and why shouldn’t it?

Diligence and sincerity always do.

And it isn’t limited to just research mind you.

The immaculately dressed security guards salute as the campus shuttle bus enters the premises and the cashiers in the cafeteria never take more than a few seconds to complete a transaction.

KAIST takes the word efficiency very very seriously and I have reason to believe that so does the rest of this wonderful nation.

This is just the beginning of your ‘Korean Adventure’ as the very hospitable Professor who is guiding me likes to phrase it.

I am yet to undergo the neck craning exercises required to see the high rises of Seoul and I still have to visit the enchanting beaches of Busan.

Blog posts there will be many, but I have fairly understood what this country tries to put across to each of its visitors.

‘This is our home and we’ll do what we can to help you feel like it’s yours’.

PS- Food has been a problem, yes but I’ve been brave enough to try most of what has been offered to me and I consider it all part of a thrilling life experience of sorts.

Clear the air mate!

Dear Srijan Maulick,
It wasn't easy hunting you down, but I had to.
I have received innumerable letters, emails, texts and phone calls from my fans in Guwahati, people claiming to have sat next to me on buses, restaurant owners claiming to having had me visit their restaurants and the owners of several shady places (one of them being a place called Bhumi) claiming to having been patronized by me. I have been unnerved to say the least.

But today, something even stranger happened, I received an email from a Korean named Won Hee Lee who says he's a super market owner in Daejeon and that he had tried selling exquisite Korean Seaweed in India (That's how he came to know me) as an exotic product but failed miserably and then he went on a little about how Indians can never appreciate gourmet food, but that's beside the point here so I won't talk about that any further. He claims I was in his store last night and was confused between normal tissue paper and toilet paper.

I am indescribably appalled and I sincerely request you to do what is required to prevent such misunderstandings which now seem to have spread on a global scale.

Regards,
Shankar Mahadevan 

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