The Magic Word

I've been in Bangalore for more than 5 years now and this is my last weekend here. It's kinda come full circle, at least as far as my mode of transport is concerned. I started off commuting in autos and now that I've sold my car, it's back to those yellow-black vehicles again.

But something strange happened yesterday, something that hasn't happened in the 5 years of commuting in autorickshaws. I took an auto to MG Road and when I reached my destination, the metre showed Rs. 38. I handed the driver a 50 rupee note, he dung into his pocket, took out Rs. 12 in change and placed it on my palm.

And then he said, "Thank you."

Just like that. He said thank you. If you haven't been to Bangalore, you probably wouldn't know what a great miracle that was. He said thank you! I smiled back at him, a little shocked, but the smile stayed on my face for the rest of the day.

On a separate note, Fri was my last day at Vendio. Over this weekend, I have ended up on the Vendio webmail site at least a dozen times before realizing that I can't login anymore. I've spent 5 years here and have some great memories that I'll treasure forever. Some people had some very nice things to say at the farewell, it left me a little surprised because over the past 2 years at least, I've really been a pain in the neck, not taking anything at face value, questioning everything that I felt should be questioned. I did get an email from this one person who said he appreciated my "candour", that's sounds about right! :D

I remember telling Shilpa this when the Tirupathi trip was going all wrong. For some strange reason, the moments that you remember the most are the ones that were the most screwed up. It's the same with my Vendio memories, I remember the cage-move, the free-listing-day night outs, the critical crashes, the calls at 3 am, the quickly cooked up implementation over the Diwali weekend. Those things were crazy when they happened but you couldn't have dragged me away. I know now that I'd rather have been there right in the thick of things than anywhere else in the world.

Thank you, Vendio (and Andale). It was great fun and I loved every minute of it.