2947

The 2947 is a Kia Sportage, a local and popular model in its class. It plys only on the one route that it is made for. Following its daily routine, transporting us Indians from here to there. With the ever-increasing .cpp files in our minds, beautiful Korean women in our hearts and hunger in our bellies, we wait at the gate daily sharp at 12 noon, under the pleasantly hot Korean sun, only to see the 2947 loom into the picture from far off the road, and then to heave a sigh of relief "Aa gayee". Its driver, a tall and broad chinki, with a face as stern as the face of stone, with mannerisms as dry as any pissed off giraffe at a non-Korean zoo (animals at Korean zoos possess an abstruse vitality in that, they always seem waving their hands in circular "Hello"s and smiling the chinki smile), has driven it dutifully to its 50,000th kilometer now. The 2947, with its normal trip lasting a total of only five minutes, give and take a few due to the annoying traffic-signal-following-culture here, with some passengers having their breakfast and spilling their tea, with their Korean bosses in their heads crying "Palli Palli", with some like me singing out Sonu Nigam or Himesh Reshammiya along with the CD, and with most of them either laughing it out on a not-even-a-chuckle-deserving issue, or simply quiet sometimes due to the unwelcome presence of a woman passenger, is a technologically advanced, GPS enabled, automatic transmission sports utility vehicle with a nine-seater capacity, convertible into a six-seater cum 20-Indians-carrying boot space (true, Indians can fit into anything!!!). Each normal trip starts with the giant driver's heavy honking to hurry us up, and ends with his dry but somehow pleasant "HaveANiceDay", the only English word committed to his memory, to please his English-speaking passengers, and succeed he does. Gradually and undeniably, the 2947 with his HaveANiceDay driver, has crept into our daily lives. And with each passing day, as I wait for my visa to expire, every morning when it honks me to absorb me in, and take me to my workplace, I wish that this time atleast, let it have wings. Let it not stop at the gates, let it just fly away, let it take me home. Me, the HaveANiceDay and the 2947...