Pata Nahi

Traveling from Gurgaon to Delhi is no joke.

You can take a DTC (Delhi Transport Corporation) bus ride which is quite cheap. 15 bucks or so for a distance of 20 odd km. The bus ride is apparently a nightmare so people avoid using it. I've used it thrice, covering a Delhi - Gurgaon patch each time. 1hour 15min. It's ok... not as nightmare-ish as per my experience.

There's a taxi service too. The Indica arrived dot at 9.30am today - as called for. Surprisingly, it didn't have the usual white bodied paint with the yellow license plate. Metallic blue and a private car number was more like it. I had with me a list of 11 hospitals to cover today. (Very optimistic I know, but that's how it's gotta be targeted if you want a result out of it)

Then on the way to Delhi this jackass of a driver starts scaring me with his regular "Pata nahi" replies. It was soo frustrating. He didn't even know how to get us onto Ring road. Either of the two - Outer or Inner. He didn't have a clue about the most famous hospital in the city. He was a moron immacutely placed as a driver for my 'taxi'. So I did all the assessment of our location at every junction using a road map (thank my lucky stars I took it with me). The driver was least bothered, chuggin along at 60kmph. That too, on Delhi roads. With the gearstick locked on a maximum of 3. The tachometer would've yanked its needle off the gauge.

I expected local rick guys to be informative with landmarks or the destination itself. Not a speck of value from their side. Public transport personnel in Delhi seem to know nothing apart from Ring Road, Lala Lajpat Nagar, Gurgaon, Nehru Place, Delhi Railway Stn, Mehrauli, India Gate, Qutab Minar and maybe the Lal Qila, better known as the Red Fort. A heavy membership in the "Pata Nahi" forum of fools. It's not only the rick guys I'm talking about now. My Gurgaon bus rides never gave me confirmatory replies from the conductor or the driver saying, "Haan yeh bus DT City Centre jayegi". All I would get is.. "arre pata nahi, kisi aur seh poocho" or something similar.

What a weird city. Dare I say those two words? ....

pata nahi... maybe in a couple of days I'll know.