In his book 'Riding the iron rooster', Paul Theroux describes the trip he takes to Tibet in a taxi. The taxi driver's girl friend is addicted to Bollywood music, especially Bhappi Lahiri's brand of music. She insists on putting the tape Disco Dancer ad nauseum. Needless to say Paul Theroux is not amused.
Yesterday I went to Viratnagar for a site visit. The taxi driver, Manpreet, had only one cassette-Punjabi pop music. As far as I could make out, all the songs were set to same beat and same tune. He played it again and again and again. Considering it was 4 hours to go and 4 hours to come back with 4 hours in between, I leave it to you to imagine how many times I would have heard the cassette. I did not have the heart to tell him to shut up not when he treated me to the best kulfi I have ever had, and especially not when he said that the previous day he had made a long trip and got back home late in the night, and the next day he was scheduled to take someone to Agra (another long trip). I guess he needed something to keep him awake though whether this music was the best for that purpose is somewhat debatable.
The title of the blog is from a truck I saw on the road.
No comments:
Post a Comment