Secret suckers for love, Ain’t we?

Devanshi Parikh
Nov 1 · 4 min read

You get a call at 12:34 am in the night on a weekday from a number you don’t recognize, the person, on the other side, goes like :

Hey, there’s is an Uber waiting for you outside, get in! I have come from Brisbane, gonna be here for the next couple of days! We should meet, its been more than five years!

Me (taking a pause, trying to recognise the person on the other side, also thinking that recognising voices are one of my strengths — I can’t get this wrong) : Smit? What the hell are you doing here? Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?

Smit: Okay, the Uber’s there now, get in.

Me: Where am I coming again? Isn’t it too late? Let’s meet tomorrow?

Smit: Kew, just come. We’d go for a walk and talk, I gotta tell you so many things.

I was super excited to meet this guy. During my undergrad days, I and his coolest sister on earth had volunteered together. Whenever I missed home, I used to walk to their house in the neighbourhood to get dinner or for occasional study sessions too. Back in my head, I was also wondering if he’d be the same carefree, fun-loving and eternally in love his classmate from primary school guy (Guess what? He was!Barring from the fact that the girl from his primary school had changed to the girl from his college days now ;) )

Anyway, I got in the car and met the driver who was about to help me know one of the most fascinating stories of my quarter-life.

We exchange greetings and he asked if I was heading out for a party.

I replied — Indeed! I am meeting a friend after five years and we are gonna paint the streets of Kew tonight!

He smiled and said, you look happy! I was :)

Well, he gave the vibe of a person who you know you could strike up a conversation with and Kew was far too ( also it was an UberPool, it might have taken longer to reach the place ;) )

I asked how his day was and what he did for life apart from helping people to reach their destination at midnights.

He said, he works at Manus Island as a social worker and helps immigrants with the documentation process.

I was surprised by the response for I have always wondered how places like Manus Island or Papua New Guinea would look like. In my head, I was wondering, perhaps he had seen the Birds of Paradise dancing on the island?

Well, we continued our conversation. He asked me where I was from (He obviously guessed it from my skin complexion), but let’s say he didn’t want to be racist so he asked it anyway).

I said: India! Been there?

Him : Yes. I am a huge fan of the Khans from Bollywood. I had met Salman at Mumbai and Aamir & Shahrukh In New Zealand.

Me in my head : Wow! not that I want to meet them, but our people are making us proud all over the world!

Suddenly his phone beeped thrice — he laughed and said I use Uber, Ola and Didi and they keep sending me trips.

I smiled and said, “looks like its a good day for you then”.

Him: We never know, you might get lucky too — after all Uber Pool works like Tinder these days!

Me ( in my head): I had this exact same thought back in my days in Chennai (maybe Uber should roll out #UberGoesTinder this Valentine’s ;)

Okay, I didn’t really get lucky that day BUT!

The two people who we picked up after I, Did! (we picked up the girl name Alejandra first then the guy name Josh).

Alejandra was from Columbia and the Josh was an Aussie. Both of them that night were high on life and something else.

And in the second minute of Josh getting in the car, they started talking in Spanish and he started sharing stories of his travels from South America and in the third minute, they added each other on Facebook! Whoaa

(You see, you gotta act fast when you travel by modern transport services like Uber and Ola!)

And the driver rolled his eyes looking at me with a proud smile which said — I told you so!

I smiled too thinking in my head — after all, we are all human beings, secret suckers for love, hope and conversations. Ain’t we?

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