My shoes are drenched as I step in a puddle before entering my taxi. "Stupid taxi driver", I think to myself. The rains have arrived early this year. I settle in the backseat and think about the long ride ahead. " I should have left early" , the inner me thinks. I look at my watch and calculate how long it'll take me to reach. The cars have their headlights in full power mode as the taxi races along the expressway before screeching to a halt. " Why have you stopped"? , I ask the driver to which he replies with a sigh, "Have to pick up another passenger saheb. You only selected the carpool option in the app".
I curse myself for being so absentminded. I quickly look away the other side as the door opens and the stranger sits beside me. " Why are you so late"?, a feminine voice asks the driver. I am still staring out my window looking through the raindrops pattering on it. I turn my gaze and see her. Oddly my age. Hair tied in a bun with a turquoise salwar kurta with blue bangles. Earrings dangling from her ear extending up to the jawline. Kohl lined eyes with a whiff of lavender perfume. I turn my gaze away quickly, seemingly inconspicuous. The taxi driver finally realizes he has a job to do and pushes on the accelerator to save further time. The car smells of her lavender perfume now. The taxi enters a tunnel and I am horrified by a loud laugh and gasp coming from somewhere near me. We re-enter the world of light and I can see my feminine fellow passenger laughing out of her bounds. She realizes after 5 minutes that she is not alone in the taxi. She looks at me and says, " I'm really sorry I couldn't control myself. Dog memes crack me open like anything". "It's okay", I tell her and return to my usual self. My phone rings and it's my mother. I tell her I'll be late for dinner. It has stopped raining. The expressway is pretty empty today. I look around and try to figure out where I have reached when I see a small hut pass by and I can't help but wonder about the stagnancy of life. About how everything in life is to settle down somewhere and be secure and safe. Everything feels so constricted about that hut. Everything feels so constricted about the house I I live in and the office I work in and the world I live in. I open my window to get some fresh air and then I realize I'm not the only one. I look at her and she has beaten me as she already has half her face out the window with her hair open flailing in the wind. I smile to myself as I see a moment of unflinching and innocent happiness. I think to myself about the things running and dashing around in her head right now. Would she be absolutely thoughtless and not just be there but be present in that moment? Is it so easy to just shut every thought out and be happy?
I gaze out of my window and close my eyes. The driver looks at us through the rear view mirror and there's a hint of a smile on his face. And there we are. Three strangers with different backgrounds, different stories, different destinations, but collectively happy for one tiny period of time.
