Thursday, March 31, 2005

Yellow Roses Part I

Spring....so eternal, so beautiful was in the air!! It was the time for men to just start breaking all their new year resolutions but not so much that you start regretting it. This is the season for all things new - even broken resolutions.

Yellow, the color of new beginnings and a shiny new taxi. Being a cab-driver in the city of New York is sort of a drag. But all that did not bother me. I am new to this city, but I know all the locations pretty well. After all, you cannot afford to lose customers by saying that you do not know a particular part of the city! Felix would have been a better name for a cat, I had thought so many times in the past, but well, you learn to live with your name.

Life started anew for me from the day I lost my folks to that lunatic, drunk driver who mowed them down back in my hometown. Moving to a strange new city with no knowledge of the people was scary in the beginning...but I have got over all that. Not all the people are nice, even the Indians, but I have learnt to live with it. There have been very good people wherever I have turned and they have made me get this far. I have also to mention my lovely girl, Fiona. Yeah, a very nice sounding name. And maybe you all think that thats not an Indian name, well, it isnt but she is Indian. Her folks moved in here a long time back and are doing well here with her dad running a small mom and pop store on the corner of 84th street.

Its good that they are not stuck-up people like people back there when it comes to a guy and gal. They never did find it odd that a "taxi driver" can fall in love with their beautiful daughter and give her happiness. They did treat me with a little off-handed courtesy but still, it was just out of habit than anything else and never did stop us from going out together and recently, even staying together. Her beautiful eyes, long, black hair and a long drive in my car...well, seems like I am veering a little off the topic here.

I wanted to just talk about a strange incident that happened a little while ago. It was a day close to the dreaded Valentines day and I thought I had to buy Fiona something. You know these women, they act all coy and say that you need not buy them anything, but they do actually expect you to buy something for them. And when you do, well, they can take you to seventh heaven. Hmmm.... Anyway, I was already absorbed in getting my first catch of the day when I see this really well dressed guy walking on the pavement. He seemed like he was going somewhere in a real hurry. What other person could fit in my version of the "catch of the day"? I gave chase, asking him if he wanted a ride. He gave me a half sloppy smile and waved me away, preoccupied with something else.

He was positively radiant, beaming, with all the world to see that he was in love. Do I look like that sometimes when I go to meet Fiona, I sheepishly thought. Running on the pavement quite close to me, he approached an old man selling flowers. There were some really fresh looking red roses, all ready for the picking, but he asked the old man for some yellow roses. Yellow?, and I am sure that he was taking them for his girl. Who would want yellow roses? Each to his own, my mind quickly decided and made me ask him once again if he wanted to go somewhere fast.

But the old man would not let him take those roses. Damn you old man, I said inside. "Mister, why would you ever want to take these sad looking roses? Here are some red roses, all packed and fresh!", said the old man. Out shot the dreamy looking guy, "No old man, my apologies. I would love those red roses, but my girl, Fiona, she loves them yellow roses only". Fiona!, I thought. Did that sound like a name from somewhere? But my mind would not let me dwell on these small things. It kept screaming that I had made no money all day and I was to concentrate on the job at hand. So I walk up to the confusion and said out aloud, "Let him have what he wants, old man. I guess he knows best!". The old man gave me a really wierd look like he had heard a voice from some other realm and actually looked past me. Fear gripped me like a vice and images of beatings by neo-nazis and jackboots gripped me.

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