Lessons from Mumbai's autorickshaw drivers

Mumbai dabbawallahs have already been much talked about and made famous by Prince Charles. Well, there is another breed too, equally professional and profusely skilled but not talked-about - Mumbai's autorickshaw drivers - a truly amazing and fascinating species in this diverse and chaotic human-zoo. Frankly, I am so impressed by them that I wanted to make a documentary film on them once. Right. It was one of the thousands of things I had planned on doing but never got on to. Anyway, coming back to them, it is quite intriguing to me as to how these people maintain their cool despite what they go through. They can probably give lessons in anger management and workplace competition. Think they got no option but to get used to it.

All of us in Mumbai know that city has a great spirit and all, but at the same time, it has an equally tortured body. I guess there's something about that too. For some reason, good spirits tend to prefer tortured bodies and vice-versa. The combination almost always is a disaster, though. Anyway, given the traffic situation here, which is like one of those diagrams, I saw in my Physics class in the school of sub-atomic particles moving about in all conceivable directions in an excited atom, the adroitness of these drivers display in reaching their goals is lesson for any top management executive. They are not only inventive in finding new traffic-navigating strategies and creating their own roads but also risk-taking in breaking all possible traffic rules. And have you noticed their ingenious move of never committing to a particular lane fully and driving in between two, always? Honestly, I believe that they have adapted really nicely to the city. I mean seriously, there is no other way out.

Sometimes, I think how much of this is also true in real life. Life is as chaotic, ruthless and unpredictable as Mumbai traffic. The best way to drive is to probably keep one's cool and do whatever one feels right at the moment. One can beat the traffic or get stuck and crib about it. It's all about being flexible and adaptive. The autorickshaw wallahs here know that!

The truth about depression

All right, it's come back again in the last week. Depression. It's been behaving exactly like a flat mate I used to have. I haven't been able to fathom, despite my advertent analysis, how and when that thing creeps in. As happens with most people who are possessed by the menace, I too do not know the cause of my depression. But finally, I think, at least I am beginning to take cognizance of the fact that I may be clinically depressed. Normally, people don't like to admit that they have this condition. In today's world when there is so much emphasis on "being happy" or "feeling good" or "having fun", there is just something awfully depressing (pun intended) about admitting the whole thing. Anyway, prodded by a friend, I finally decided to post something on this.

Admittedly, I was a bit amused to find out that there's also a website called www.depression.com that gives rudimentary information on the same. They are quite serious about it! However, allow me to share my revelations (think it should qualify as revelation especially considering that these days every everyday experience is shared as a revelation or an insight, thanks to the mass media) on the subject. I have found a rather simple solution to the problem. I have come to the realization that depression is like a spirit or something - eternal and constant. It cannot be eliminated or reduced. You can't sit around thinking of ways to kill it entirely. True, that's depressing again but let me also quickly add that there is a way out. It can be passed onto others. That is the best way to get out of it. Perverse, you may think, but it's true.

Now, how can you pass it on? Firstly, you may go for a really depressing conversation with someone, who may then catch it from you. It's like a spirit, present in everyone. You just have to help the person find it. Or secondly, you may act as any jerk around you does. That will definitely do the trick.

To Mumbai, with love

Last night, after a few drinks with two of my friends, I was totally into my favorite pastime - bitching, what else? Now, who does not love that, eh? Cathartic, it feels, blaming everyone except yourself for everything that is wrong. The teeming lights at the other end of Arabian sea formed a boundary, attempting to keep the sea by the city of Mumbai, while the resting wooden boats told the story of the struggles the common citizens of the city go through everyday. Surreal, it felt, at the Gateway of India, discussing our naive hopes about future at this wee-hour in the morning, in the cool breeze and with the usual hoi polloi missing. Although, the middle-class life in the city is no less than an ordeal but it always felt like the city was mine whenever I did this with my friends.

While we commiserated and thought about the future, this harsh obnoxious voice cut in sharply "Did you guys not hear the whistle? What are you doing here". It was your quintessential Mumbai policewallah at his crude insolent best. When I protested politely (and, I really was, trust me) that there was no sign indicating any permitted time or anything, he threatened us with consequences. Indeed unreasonable, I would assess, as we neither looked suspicious nor created any nuisance. Honestly, from the way he was acting, I think, things would have definitely turned out much worse than they actually did. I might as well have been nursing an injury at home rather than telling you this story. That would have happened, of course, only if we did not have the minds to take recourse in the ecumenical and tested solution of passing on some moolah to him. I know, there is nothing to tell actually. Thousands of such instances happen here everyday. And it's not just the police or anything. Contempt and disrespect for others are a way of life in India. It's ubiquitous!

Anyway, fortunately one of my friends was from a bureaucrat family who managed the situation and got the police guy to apologize for his unreasonable behavior. That language the policewallah understood well, though. On the bright side, we got something more to bitch about and continued till five o' clock in the morning. Is such way of life going to change? Such behavior, I believe, stems from something very fundamental. Probably, the lack of individualism in our culture. This way of life is not going to change with our economic growth or affluence only. To change this would require a conscious effort on every individual's part. But hey, it's just me! Can't take me seriously.