3 Wheeled Luxury

Manoj Kumar Mallik is punctual. Bulls eye punctual types. I call for him at 9 a.m. and he comes at 9am. I’m rummaging through the toilet bag for toothpaste and I hear the familiar exhaust of his diesel auto, dragging itself up the slope of the society lane. Diesel engines return a higher mileage but they’re larger and hence heavier than their petrol counterparts. From what I’ve heard, Bhu is loaded with diesel ricks.

Mallik is a thin, lanky figure with tousled hair. His quiet nature makes me feel that much more guilty for every minute that I’m late. I notice how neatly ironed his shirts are when he comes every morning. With that in mind, I can’t picture him driving interstate trucks like he told me he did. But that was for a couple of months. He pulled out then. Just wasn’t his cup of Oriya tea I guess, whatever recipe that is.

Recently, he had to get his seat covers done up. He'd asked me to pool in for the payment (a tag of Rs 1000) two days ago, on the way to office. So I asked him to stop by the ATM and I took out some buffer for his pay, apart from the extra bit of hard cash I'd like to have on me. In the evening, the poor visibility didn't allow me to appreciate the new look on his rickshaw seats.

This morning I saw it. A deep green shade. So I told him and he didn't respond like he does - with his head turning back and giving that sheepish smile - instead he seemed to ignore the compliment. It does look nice though. And I'm sure he acknowledged my statement too. I think he was just sleepy, tired from the previous night's ferrying service.