It was blaring hot and the sun just shined too much on my skin. He was sweating too. But I am sure, he wasn’t aware that his skin was full of tears while he drove me to my workplace this afternoon. I am talking about this auto-driver.
What's the tyre under my seat of Life?
When the auto halted at the signal, he immediately got up, pulled his seat up and tried to lift the tyre which was beneath his seat and started to clean it with a piece of cloth. He cleaned the tyre generously; fast but completely engrossed in it. While I saw him do that- I was wondering, I never thought there would be a tyre under the seat. While cleaning, he just looked at me casually. He saw that I was looking at what he is doing- he said- ‘This is my lucky tyre.’
‘It is there with me past 7 years now.’
‘Once, I had a big loss, because I did not care about my auto. I used to get the thought that I should change the tyres of my auto, but I would not pay a heed to it. And suddenly, one day, the accident made me realized I should have listened to myself and change the tyres. It wouldn’t have taken me even a half a day to fix it, but my laziness and the attitude that everything is okay bought a big big disaster to my life.’
While he was showing me few marks on his hands and face due to the accident, the signal went green. He immediately kept the tyre, pulled his seat down and started to drive again. He was silent. I was silent. We just had to take the last right from the signal for my destination. I wondered all that while, how was this tyre related with that accident.
‘Madam, where do you want me to park?’ he broke my thought.
I told him to halt at the gate, looked at the meter, got off to give him the money but still wanting to know – why was the tyre there under the seat and why was it, his lucky tyre.
He looked at me while exchanging the money and said,
‘Since then this is my lucky tyre. I just keep this tyre under my seat and since then, I have never met any accident and in fact, no problem in my auto since then.’
I still did not get my answer. I kept wondering.
‘Madam, my son used to run this tyre with a stick in his hands on the road. He used to play with it, running behind it. He loved playing with this tyre. He used to run very fast behind it and I wanted him to become a racer. But, god did not want it to happen. That day, when I met that accident, my son was sitting behind to go to school….’
Again, that silent moment in my life. But a moment that just made a deep hole in the heart. It was like my heart was being nailed with those words. I could visualize a small boy running behind the tyre with the stick.
‘Okay, Madam, thank you,’ he said and went.
While I looked at the rickshaw turning and going, it had something written on it-
‘4 x 4’