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Nowhere Adjectives

Adjectives met or may meet again or never, in a twist of fate.

 Stupid, Ignorant, Kind and Charming...

Four adjectives with little context in each other's lives met in the strangest of circumstances. Charming travelled half way across the globe from Washington to Delhi in search of a delicious meal. His ride was hit by a rogue speeding car in the old lanes of Delhi. He lost everything, except for life and locomotion.

Kind, an orphan from the upmarket Greater Kailash happened to see the accident and rushed to help Charming. She didn't know then that Charming would become a liability for many days to come. Little because of circumstances, more because of her own nature. Kind took on the responsibility while she barely could help herself.

Kind taught Charming how to beg, borrow and steal. Daily unsure but surely each day, they made a living. From the riches of Clarendon, Washington to the streets of rich Greater Kailash. From being the rich to being the recipient rich.

Enter Stupid. He decided to help Charming and Kind provided she took care of him for the rest of his life or till someone comes looking for him.  A girl of 15 took care and fell for a 25-year-old foreigner assisted by a poor taxi driver.

Stupid drove his taxi and earned in fits and starts. He dreamt for most part of the day, because he mostly slept. But when awake, he dreamt of going to the US and driving on those roads, in between the skyscrapers, as he had seen in the movies.

It is wonderful how one's understanding of the world has to be a reductionist view. US is skyscrapers (maybe because of excessive dose of New York in popular culture), France is voyeuristic, Middle East is explosive, India is... no comments.

Anyway, one day Stupid came home dejected and crushed. Kind and Charming were not happy either because they too had bad day at the collections. Apparently, people were turning away from faith and this meant the regular 'business hot-spots', the worship places didn't offer dividends anymore.

As they sat dejected, Stupid told them how a lady named Ignorant climbed into his taxi that morning and left him ignored! The so-called good adjectives were confused.

So, he explained further.

Ignorant was an executive in a big firm. She was in a hurry to go somewhere and asked him to drive. 'Just Drive'. Stupid had no idea where to!

She just kept shouting directions from behind. The meter and the road ran in competition. She had asked him not to worry about getting paid. 

So, he drove. All around the ring road, up and down the city. It seemed she had maybe lost it. After a little over two hours, Stupid asked her if there was a destination in her mind. She scowled at him and he kept driving.

After four hours he got aggressive and told her he was hungry. Actually, he was sleepier. She didn't even look up at him. At one of the red lights, he saw Kind and Charming, seeking their fund. Pointing towards them, he told her they were his younger brother and sister and wanted to reach out to them soon.

Ignorant ignored. Stupid said he was running out of gas. Ignorant ignored. Eventually, the gas ran out. She got out of the cab, hailed another one as she fumbled into her purse. He waited and before he could realize, she got into other one and was off.

Charming, on his haunches, said he remembered something similar happened one day in New York city.

Kind kept looking at him. 'Where, what?', writ large on her face.

Stupid didn't realize what had happened. Only Kind did, not even Charming, whose utterance puzzled her.

He went on to explain how he was driving one day, towards Brooklyn Bridge when his Indian girlfriend, Ignorant, talked to him about coming to India to try an elusive meal. He was in the middle of a prank, he was dared to complete by his affluent friends in Clarendon.

It was to go to NYC, pick up a ride, take it everywhere, get down at the airport and take the first flight out of the country; not paying for the ride, of course. Only, Charming decided that his overseas destination would be specifically India, to his girlfriend; in search for that perfect meal.

Flabbergasted Kind looked on. Stupid didn't care or still didn't know what was happening. Charming simply narrated without understanding why he was saying whatever he was saying, supposedly about places and people he never knew.

Again, Kind got up to heat some leftover soup, as kind as ever.

Whereas, Ignorant kept going through the streets of Delhi looking for the boyfriend who, she was told, had arrived. It's been a year now; she keeps ignoring her ride meters, wilfully or otherwise. 

Just as she had been ignorant about a certain flight’s timings, a year ago.

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