jesus.

... or, the most horrendous taxi ride ever.

woke up in the morning to discover fever as hearty as ever. went to college to pick up material for tomorrow's test, and, of course, cigarettes - i ran out last afternoon. anyway, by the time i'd finished collecting all the stuff that i need for tomorrow (okay - more than what i need since i have the faintest suspicion that i'm not going to be studying at all, and will be using fever as the instrument of appeasing my conscience) - i was absolutely drained. so decided to take a taxi home from college. managed to get hold of one after a few minutes. the journey went quite normally until we reached the gariahat flyover, which is when i spoke to the driver for the first time to give directions. and oh my god - once he spoke, he just refused to stop! we had to take a slightly roundabout route because a lane was blocked off by dear sweet KMC, and the entire journey took me about five minutes longer than usual. and in those five minutes, the driver proceeded to tell me the tale of a couple who had paid him seven hundred rupees to take them around the city for three hours in lurid detail. and for the longest time, i couldn't actually believe that this was happening, and thought that i must be delirious - it was the pauses in between the story while he asked for directions that finally convinced me. and i just had NO idea how to shut him up. he just went on and on. finally, when the taxi reached my house, and i was thanking my lucky stars that the journey was over, and was handing over the fare with great relief, he said arrey memsahib, dono milke pichhe itna kuchh kiya... mera toh haalat hi kharaab ho gaya! by then, i was scrambling out of the car. and then - then - he grins and says kaise khadaa ho gaya... zara aage aake dekhiye na... and at that, i just ran.
i have a feeling that i should have done something before escaping with a muttered nahin, chhodiye. but i was feeling too appalled and ill. still... may be i should have done something.

but the next time i consider hailing a taxi because i'm ill, or because it's late at night, i think i'm going to think twice.