Saturday, February 25, 2012

Toofan Diaries!!

Hey friends!

For those of you, who were left a little discombobulated (*yea, this word does exist!!*) by the word "toofan"- I am not talking about the Hindi phrase for a destructive phenomenon of nature (LOL, I prefer to go as per the title of my blog!), but I am talking about this outstanding machine that runs on the highways of Gujarat! Here "outstanding" is both-a compliment and a satire (as you would expect, ha!).

Well, Toofan is a nick name for a car named TRAX by Force motors. Like the famous cheesy line a Bollywood actor would say to the lead lady-"Mera naam hai Vikram, lekin pyar se log mujhe Viky bulate hain." (*Deplorable*). Talking of the Toofan, it really does take the highways here by storm. It is used by the owners as a taxi and it is the undisputed king. You will find Toofans here, Toofans there, Toofans everywhere. The working class will be in deep trouble if the Toofan drivers go on strike someday.

Why it's outstanding? It's enormous (5m long), it's solid and you can run it almost anywhere.
And why the satire? This one's entirely attributable to the drivers. You will never find two Toofans looking alike, from outside and inside. They have "modified" their vehicles to such extent that the vehicles must be going through mental depression. And the worst part, they keep filling in passengers and they keep filling it till there is no space left for anyone to move any limb. Yes, it took three missed call from my BOSS, before i could pick one some days ago. There are 10 people (yes, 10 PEOPLE, thin and fat!!) in the back, 4 in the middle and 4 in the front. While you can very well imagine the torture and agony that we go through in the middle and back seats, you cannot imagine what's going on in the front seat. The guy sitting (it's always a guy!) next to the driver (second from right and third from left) has to bring his right leg all the way round from the left of the gear to the right of it (Keep your mental GPS on for the directions!).  The gear positioning is such that, the you cant help but pray to the Almighty to save your balls in the first and third gears. You swear to God that you will never sit on this seat again if he saves you today. But...... Anyways, you can't help but give a devilish grin looking at this poor soul. You feel so happy that you are not in his position. That you are here, and he is there.. HAHA. But... ;-)

Keep track of my Toofan diaries. I will keep bringing them up. They are interesting and they are many!
Till then, Happy Observing!!

Ciao!





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