[suresh15]

This gives an excuse for Sridhar to go 15 minutes late from his usual time – the ‘enchanting taxi ride’. This new taxi ride, since it has started 3 week ago, is unusual for Sridhar or perhaps first of its kind for this 29-year old guy. Sridhar as an expatriate, never thought of buying own car and instead relied on the Public Cab – a popular radio taxi company in Kuala Lumpur – for daily commuting to his office and back to his condominium where he rented a 3-bed room unit on 19th floor. Sridhar stays alone with virtually no visitors to his house, but enjoyed a happy life with his good collection of books, international magazines and TV. And he was living there for almost a year. The routine life begins at 5.30 am for him to cook the rice and curry to be carried to office. He wants to avoid MSG from the restaurant food to be replaced with healthy vegetarian food without adding unwanted curry powder as well. Many of his officemates ask him how little he eats everyday and with a simple smile he replies them that it’s enough for him to survive.

He recalled the girl who used to appear at the ground floor waiting bay for the taxi same as him and usually gets off with one earlier than him as his taxi, at many times, is still ‘on the way’. Once he almost lost the chance to get into a taxi as the same girl had already booked and supposedly ‘belongs’ to her.. She rode off keeping Sridhar at bay. He felt jealous of her that she had an upper hand in getting a cab and perhaps better reasoning considering firstly that she is a female and secondly she is a ‘local’. No choice for Sridhar but to wait despite offering additional $ 5 to the cab.

It was a Friday, at the same bay his taxi was about to move, the girl appeared and asked the cabby in Malay something, presumably on taking her too in the same taxi with a different charge. As soon as the taxi man got Sridhar’s permission to allow the girl for the intended ride, she got into the backseat beside Sridhar who quickly rearranged his 2 bags for better space. There was a beautiful smile in her face and suddenly there was a lightning of anxiety and happiness flickered deep inside Sridhar’s mind. He bought his usual newspaper at the gate when the cab stopped and started reading without paying much attention probably due to the unexpected pleasant feeling. He just asked her whether she is studying for which she replied that she’s not but working in the IT field. The conversation went on until sharing the limited info on each other. Sridhar, after getting down from the cab, was the happiest man in the uptown area – the place where he works – and kept on thinking about the girl, her looks, her clothing, her smile, her beautiful nose, and her bushy hair. And he remembered her name, Maya, a Punjabi girl. She is the cutest girl ever travelled with him in his life that too sharing one cab and one seat!

That night Sridhar was thinking about her and never shared his experience with anyone as no one have any contact with him to talk on the personal matters. Saturday and Sunday passed waiting for Monday to come. Sridhar had become exceptionally enthusiastic on Monday morning. He purposely delayed his trip down by 15 minutes through the elevator to synchronise the timing with Maya. As he was waiting for the cab, Maya appeared from nowhere and walked past Sridhar saying “hello”. Soon Sridhar saw her boarding a taxi alone to his utter disappointment and dislike. For a moment, Sridhar got annoyed and became gloomy to watch Maya getting into the cab alone, which was stopped hardly 10 metres away from him. But the disappointment lasted for a minute only until the cab stopped near to him to offer him a ride. And this time Maya made space for Sridhar beside her to welcome him with cuter smile. His heart once again pounded to a particular rhythm, which is unusual for Sridhar. She gave her mobile phone number and both of them got it saved after a ‘missed-call’. Sridhar couldn’t concentrate on his reading of the newspaper. They started talking on the possible deal with the cabby to pick them up daily toward two separate destinations though in the same route. As Sridhar got down from the taxi – he has to get down first before Maya reaches her place – his heart was filled with strange feelings! He became nicer to his subordinates and colleagues. He couldn’t resist giving Maya a SMS! And he did, she replied and subsequently called him on the possibility of finalising a package-deal on a contract based taxi-ride with the cabby, Mr. Ahmad.

Next day was the holiday and the following 6 days too for the Chinese New Year. Sridhar was restless and he became sick just because he missed Maya on the daily taxi ride. Moreover, his anxiety could have weakened him as well. He had to visit the medical centre for the chocked throat and flue.. In the same evening, Sridhar went out to the nearby shopping mall to buy books. Walking toward the taxi stop in front of the condo, Sridhar’s heart once again flashed with emotion – Maya is getting down from the taxi! What a coincidence and perfect timing! They talked for a minute or two. To the question whether she is going out these days, she said she might go out with her brother. Sridhar watched her until she fully disappeared from his sight. She had a perfect body shape with beautiful curve, which he couldn’t usually observe during the taxi ride. He was in the bookshop and typed a SMS whether Maya would like to buy any books but erased without sending. Back home, ordered pizza for the dinner on home delivery and could not eat even three slices. He wanted Maya badly there to share the pizza with him. Then thought of taking the pizza to her room – but unsure about the floor or door number of her - and finally dropped the idea as well. Typed another SMS inviting her to go to Mega Mall and kept it in the draft folder waiting for the next day to be sent.

He sent one SMS to Maya on enquiring about her on Wednesday for which he didn’t receive any reply. Another one on Friday and yet another one on Monday all just casual like “how are you?” and so on. But he didn’t send the SMS on Mega Mall trip, which was saved on the draft folder. Meanwhile, Sridhar bought two gifts for her – a crystal bracelet made out of pink opal and chalcedony worth $89 and a Dior nail polish for $65 – and packed inside his laptop bag to give Maya on Tuesday when his office reopens, of course at the end of the taxi-ride. Sridhar received no reply SMS from Maya on the other hand. Sridhar couldn’t sleep well thinking about her reaction when the gifts are handed out to her. He had mixed assumptions on the possible reactions from Maya.

He got up at 5.30 am on Tuesday, the special day he considered for himself. He got down on the elevator bit early so that he shouldn’t miss Maya at any cost. The lift stopped at 15th floor and unexpectedly Maya got into it and it stopped nowhere until it landed at ground floor. Maya said ‘hi’ in broken tone from her throat that made Sridhar grasp something amiss and the deafening silence inside the stainless steel walled elevator sent Sridhar momentarily to a graveyard. As he observed, he could see Maya murmuring something to her. She just walked away from the lift without even bothering him and headed straight toward the main gate. Sridhar, out of shock, helplessly, just watched her disappearing from the gate. He then called a cab offering straight away $5 extra so that he could quickly get one cab to take her along. The cab came, Sridhar got in, looked outside the window everywhere to find Maya. She could not be seen anywhere on the roadside. Teary-eyed Sridhar could not read the newspaper as it became illegible. He stared outside with extreme disappointment through the window as if a kid lost his favourite balloon. He asked the driver whether he could take both of them for work daily and how much is the rate. The cabby then asked who is the other person and Sridhar said that is his younger sister (he doesn’t know why he said so at that moment) who works at different location. He gave his mobile number to Sridhar – with a missed call - as a token of the ‘deal fixing’ to $18 per day.

Sridhar reached the office and out of anxiety he couldn’t do anything until he made a call to Maya. He headed toward the conference room to make the call from his mobile phone. He called Maya, she said “hello” and stopped for a moment. Sridhar sensed something strange in her voice. She said “Sridhar, please don’t call me or SMS me in future because my husband don’t like it”. To shocked Sridhar, he wanted to hear once again who is that who don’t like SMS once again. “My husband” is the answer from Maya. “I am very sorry”, said Sridhar and disconnected the line.

This made Sridhar traumatised and couldn’t concentrate on any work the whole day. Wet eyes and extreme depression became the order of the day for Sridhar. He sent her the last SMS to convey the message on the taxi arrangement he made that day morning and further mentioned that they are not going to travel together anymore. He also gave the phone number of the new cabby, Mr. Zainal, in the SMS. Finally he conveyed his abject apology to her for on whatever happened and that it was purely inadvertent.

Sridhar went back to his house on the 19 the floor, changed his clothes, and ate very little. Did nothing but lost in thoughts about Maya. He switched off all the lights. He didn’t drink – neither had he drunk water - as he is not used to drinking liquor or beer on any occasion. He threw all the papers to rubbish, deleted all the messages, erased Maya’s phone number, kept all the garbage inside the garbage-room near the lift and locked the front door. He then slowly opened the sliding grills for balcony and stood there for 10 minutes recalling every incident associated with Maya, like a flashback in the movies. Watched the shopping mall from where he bought the bracelet and nail polish. Closed his eyes for a while and opened to realise that there is no more tears in his eyes. Yes, he is not sad anymore; he is going to be happy hereafter, forever.

The noise of falling heavy object made the 1st floor residents curious until they realised that someone has jumped to death. The people waiting for the lift at the ground floor suddenly rushed toward the location of noise. Security personnel arrived, some resident association members too arrived before making call to police. Body was removed to the hospital in the ambulance and majority of the residents were unaware of the incident.

Wednesday 7.15 am: Maya came bit early that day to see a taxi waiting at the bay. She enquired to the driver whether he could take her to Kelana Jaya. “Are you the younger sister of Mr. Sridhar, who arranged me to pick him and you everyday morning?”

Maya said” Yes” with astonishment and hesitation with further curiosity. “Can you wait for another 5 minutes? He might me coming at anytime.”

The flashing blue lights of the police car approaching the building made Maya bit perturbed. Three policemen got down from their vehicle and walked straight to the elevator where the resident association president was waiting to lead their way to investigation.

Maya got into the taxi to hear the impatient driver’s ranting. The cab sped away through the exit gate of the condominium to the main road toward Kelana Jaya.



Written by: Suresh

26 Feb 2008