Karachi: Travelling by autorickshaws and taxis has always been a great experience in Pakistan. Their drivers are extremely friendly and talkative and provide interesting bits of news, better than the early morning newspapers.
I look forward to speaking to them every time I hire them and get to hear tales about the city, the people and even cricketers.
The only difference between Karachi and other cities in Pakistan is that drivers here drive too fast.
Reason being that the roads here have very few potholes when compared to other cities.
Private buses here too drive at break-neck speeds and one bus almost broke my neck on my return from the stadium on Tuesday night. At a round-about, a garishly painted private bus hit the autorickshaw carrying me from behind. My driver immediately jumped out of his seat and screamed at the bus driver with the choicest abuses in Hindi.
Interestingly, a policeman who walked up to the spot, instead of solving the issue and asking them to proceed, waited for my driver to complete his abusive attack. It looked as it was my driver's privilege to abuse the bus driver under such circumstances.
And while the drama went on, the traffic behind us got completely blocked. But my driver seemed least concerned about it and took his own time to return to his seat. Satisfied with his bombardment, he looked back at me seeking appreciation.
Not wanting to disappoint him I acknowledged his act. "He will never hit an autorickshaw again in his life," he stated proudly.
All private buses here are extremely colourful and garishly decorated.
But more than the colour it is the horn that can be even more painful, especially if one of them happens to be somewhere close to you. Looks like their accelerator is connected with the horn for as the speed increases the hooting gets even louder!
The autorickshaw drivers too have mastered the art of driving in a zig zag manner. And if you ever intend to relax on your seat at the back, in all probability you could be out of the vehicle at the next turn.
Many a time their turns reminded me of Wasim Akram's killer reverse swings on the field. The best part of all this is that after the turn, the driver invariably looks back to check if his passenger is still on the seat.
And the way they take off after the green light at a signal is simply amazing. They rev the engine as much as possible while it is red and at the turn of green just dart off with a jerk, just dragging the helplessly shaking passenger with him. Amidst all this shake-up, they carry on with their tales. Like one who very proudly said, "I am always stationed near the stadium and have dropped some of the top Pakistan cricketers like Mohammad Sami, Danish Kaneria and Faisal Iqbal to their residence after matches here."
In the press box, after Pakistan piled up a huge total, a Pakistani journalist asked an Indian journalist whether India would be able to chase such a big total. Without batting his eyelid, the journalist replied: "Our batsmen have taken tips from James Hadley Chase instead of coach Greg Chappell to do it."
