A One Act Play...

Scene: The end of a long, weary road!
Cast: An apparently stylish auto driver, two tired souls (A and me), and several begrudging auto drivers.
Stage Directions: With melancholy music playing in the background, the stylish auto driver comes whizzing out the stage backdoor, and just manages to halt to a stop alongside the flailing arms of the two tired souls!

Act 1, Scene 1

Two tired souls: Care to ride us to such and such a place?
Stylish auto driver: Sure, hop on!

[The two tired souls heave a sigh of relief! After having been refused by at least a dozen auto fellas, it makes them feel blessed to encounter such an obliging one!]
[The two tired souls get into the vehicle. The vehicle sets off on its course.]

One tired soul {me}: Doesn’t he look all funky, what with those handsfree wires hanging out of his ears?!?
The other tired soul {A}: Yeah, he sure does; although, I don’t think he understands either of the languages we’re conversing with him, in!

[The first tired soul gives a tired smile.]

Act 1, Scene 2

[The stylish auto driver looks furtively to the right, then, to the left, and then decides to embark upon a certain road!]

One tired soul {A}: Aah, looks like he knows a shorter route to get to such and such a place, different from the one we usually take!
The other tired soul {me}: I sure hope so! He doesn’t look too confident about knowing the route!
The first tired soul {A}: Boss, do you know where you’re going?

[At this point, the stylish auto driver makes some kind of an indiscernible gesture, leading the two tired souls to believe that he knows what he’s doing. However, after a few more minutes, his knowledge of the route becomes increasingly questionable!]

The second tired soul {me}: I don’t think you know the route you wanted to take. You could have just gone by the main road. We’d have reached such and such a place by now!

[Again, the stylish auto driver mumbles incoherently, followed with some more apparently meaningless gestures, and quickly darts in and out of small lanes and by lanes that seem to lead nowhere, other than bringing the two souls back to the same place!]

The first tired soul {A}: Boss, what are you doing?
The second tired soul {me}: [Increasingly getting worked up by the second…] We’re going round and round in circles! Let’s disembark right here, right now, and take another vehicle!
Stylish auto driver: Okay okay, just deduct five rupees when you pay me by the meter!
The second tired soul {me}: He drives more than a kilometer circling the perimeter of the same lanes, not moving anywhere close to our destination, and he has the audacity to ask us to deduct only five bucks?!? Deduct six, I say! Six bucks for a kilometer, is the rule!

[All this while, the first tired soul {A} tries to calm the second tired soul {me} down, as also tries to make some sense of where the stylish auto driver was leading them and his vehicle!]

Act 1, Scene 3

The first tired soul {A}: [Almost at his wits end now….!!!] Boss, what exactly do you think you’re doing!?! We seem to be going nowhere!

[Yet again, the stylish auto driver does his noncommittal shrug and gestures thing, leaving the two tired souls to almost tear out the hair on their heads!!!]
[After a few more twists and turns and snaking in and out of a few more lanes, voilà, the two tired souls find themselves right at the spot from which they’d hailed the very same auto!]

Stylish auto driver: I think you guys should get off here. I really don’t know how to get to such and such a place using the route I wanted to take!
The first tired soul {me}: What did you think I was saying all this while!?!
The second tired soul {A}: HAHAHAHA… This is hilarious, man! I’ll never forget this ride!

[The two tired souls get off that fated auto rickshaw, not being able to fathom what had actually taken place! Soon, the furrows over their foreheads straighten out, the creases as though magically erased by the laughter that takes control of the two souls. They start guffawing like seldom before; the ripples created by their deep-throated laughter to remain with them for a long time to come!]

Exeunt

[Curtains fall…]