I had my next tryst with the Bhubaneswar Airport on the same day of my arrival when I went to drop someone at 9.30 for a late night flight on Air Asia. Inauguration of Biju Patnaik's archaic airplane had finished by now and the traffic flow was much better as it was already past 9 O'clock in the night. On the VIP drop lane 1 arrived couple of swanky vehicles, the one in the front had the name "BJP General Secretary" and the party's lotus symbol proudly printed on it.
From the front vehicles whose back seat was covered by lily white towel came out a person looking like a politician talking to someone on phone with his right hand waving like a car wiper trying to make his point. He was followed by couple of burly guys with thick Walrus type moustache from the car following it. Their eyes were as red as their 1 inch thick, 2 inch long vertical strip of red Sindoor (Vermilion) on their forehead which stretched until the top of their nose in between their eyelids. Both had red color strings tied to their hands, on the other hand they were busy talking over phone. Couple of other guys unloaded the luggages and followed the politician rolling them on the ground. A stray dog who was taking a nap close by was disturbed by all this and quitely shifted to another corner under the next pillar, stretched its legs and yawned.It was almost 10 PM at the Airport and I was frantically trying to book a cab on my phone to return back to home. I found it very hard to book a cab late in the night at Bhubaneswar Airport. After several cancelations as the driver information never came through on the screen, to my relief one UBER driver finally responsed.
When I boarded the Uber cab the apparently drunk driver suddenly burped creating a miasma of cheap Whisky and Pyorrhoea. I have encountered drunk cab drivers before. But imagine a lonely girl at Airport encountering an Uber driver in such a condition late in the night. I being a man, used to getting drunk and drunks in my 50 plus years inife took my chance with this guy as it was running late and being dog tired, I was running out of patience.
The driver suddenly asked me to pay Rs.40 upfront to pay at the gates while getting out of the Airport. Not sure if I was supposed to pay that here or my Uber fair included it, I asked the driver to pay the money from his pocket and I will add the amount to the final total. I always pay a hefty tip to cab drivers here, but this time I didn't as I was not sure if I was supposed to pay Rs.40 extra at the Airport gate from my pocket or not. If it's true, then I am good. If the Uber driver cheated me then he lost the tip which would have been more than Rs.40. I din't have anything to lose in this case, but didn't cherish getting cheated.
The Uber driver burped again as I turned my head to the other side. Sensing my discomfort he pulled out a ZARDA (scented tobacco) PAAN (Betel leaf) from his shirt pocket and popped it inside his mouth which kept the foul smell of cheap Whisky plus Pyorrhoea at bay, at least temporarily. No mood for a chit chat, I glanced outside of the left side passenger's seat window. Couple of stray dogs fighting over the food leftover rolled by a fastfood street vendor adjacent to the road. The quarreling mongrels suddenly came to the front of the car. The Uber driver slammed the breaks and slowed down to avoid hitting the poor doggies. The canines snarled at each others until one of them with its tail well tucked behind hindlegs fled away.
My Uber journey resumed. The dust glittering under the street lights sprayed like sawdust over everything - trees, carts of the street vendors, the houses and the parked vehicles as we zigzaged past lanes after another. The pariah mongrels barked at us, some chased our car as the bulls and cows standing blocking the road gaped at us. Roadworks for laying down a new sewage system has made a mess of our locality with blocked roads with no clear directions for detour ahead.
The citizens of our Old Town area are cursing the authorities for the never ending work and causing innumerable pain for them. I had to direct the drunk driver to maneuver the detour roads, snaking through the narrow roads with vehicles parked on both sides. Though I am familiar to the area, it's still a challenge to recognize the places as every time I visit, the roads are shrinking with too many houses erupting on empty spots protruding into the roads, clogging and contesting the city. Luckily for me the Sunday night return trip wasn't too bad sans the company Pyorrhoea, Whisky and a drunk driver. More later.
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