The journey back

We had a beautiful and pleasant stay with our daughter, son-in-law and our grandson in the States. The climate was great, and with no power failures, no non-working telephone and above all no traffic jams we completely forgot about home. We counted the days we were there as we knew good things never last forever. Soon it was time for us to return & what an eventful return it was!

Reaching home, we decided to hail a taxi (cab) to get ourselves home. The first taxi we hailed quoted a price for which we could have traveled 4+ times to our house and back! Even before we could react to this demand, he looked at our luggage and said he had made a mistake and revised his quote. At this time an auto driver came along and quoted his price. But we knew our luggage won't be safe in an auto as we had 4 large suitcases that will not fit inside an auto. Looking at the luggage, he started to suggest that one of us travel with the luggage and the second engage another auto to travel. With a quick calculation (even without calculating the fare for the second auto) I realized that the fare quoted by him would have been half the price of the taxi, which we had originally thought of hiring.

In the meantime, I called my friend who came with his car, and after loading the luggage in the car, it was obvious that only one person could travel with him. I sent my wife and waited a few meters away from the airport for that elusive autowalla to take me home.

This time, it was a little different story, as I was waiting for the auto away from the airport. More over, I was alone and without any luggage. Many passing autos did quote a smaller amount, but I was hoping to get an auto within the amount I was willing to pay. Finally an autowalla told me that he would charge me by the meter and as is the norm and approved by Government for the night travel, I will have to pay 50 per cent over and above the amount shown by the meter. I agreed to it, as it was not a number the autowalla thought of at the moment which he might change once reaching the destination but by the meter which with some good faith I assumed had not been rigged.

He brought the auto into life with a blast of noise and continued making noise by blowing the horn, seemingly at the insects flying around as there was no one else on the road at that hour. The street dogs welcomed us home with their load barks, waking up the neighbors’ in the process as well. Next day we were told by our neighbors’ that whenever the street dogs bark continuously at night they check because with so many burglaries taking place at night, the noise made by the dogs have turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

After entering the house, I checked on the telephone to tell my daughter about our arrival, but the telephone was dead. There was a thick layer of dust that had settled all around the house and it was next to impossible to get any sleep. Instead we sat down, reliving the days that we had spent at the States sitting amidst the noise of the street dogs and the smell of dusty surroundings.

You could say we had finally arrived at home!