Love at first Carpool

Nowadays, carpooling is a big thing, and according to many, the need of the hour. However, I was never one a great supporter of it. I couldn’t understand that how can someone travel with a bunch of complete strangers, with whom you probably have nothing in common. So, no matter what the circumstances, I never went with carpooling option while booking a cab. Until one (un)fortunate day.

I remember that day clearly for many reasons. I was getting late and the nearest individual Uber was 20 minutes away. On top of that, it had started pouring half an hour ago. At that time, because I was out of preferable options, I checked the waiting for the carpool and much to my dismay it was just 5 minutes away. So, half-heartedly I booked the carpooling Uber and waited for it to arrive. Once it arrived, I saw that I was the first passenger. I asked the driver if he had any other pickup, he replied: “abhi bas 1 aur hai”. After 5 minutes we reached for that other passengers’ pickup. Turns out that passenger was an angel. Clothed in a white shirt and black trousers, she was dressed to perfection. Not even a hair was out of proportion.

Finally, she entered the cab and much to my surprise to the seat right beside me. The reason I was surprised was that we were in an Inova and I was in the last row. I had assumed that she would sit in the middle row but was happy that she was sitting near me.

Immediately after sitting, she started arguing with the driver, asking why was he 15 minutes late and that she always went to carpools and never had she had to wait for so long. In reply, the driver told that this sir, referring to me, too had booked the cab at the almost same time and since my place was closer, so he picked me first. At that very instant, I got the dirtiest and angriest possible look from her.

Imagine this, on one hand, I am fascinated and in total awe of this girl, and on the other she is fuming inside seeing my smiling face. And, what happened next did not help either one of us.

Remember I said it was raining, so guess what happened, traffic jam. Once the driver moved from inner lanes to the outer road, I was clear that we would get stuck in the traffic jam. We both tried contacting our offices for a leave or work-from-home, but surprisingly it was rejected and so no matter how late we got, we had to report to the offices.

Well, everybody knows that there is no way two people avoid each other if they are stuck in a small space, even if they are enemies. So, automatically after few minutes, the driver started some talking about the corrupt govt. and thereafter, the conversation started to flow.

After some time, I realised that this girl sitting beside me was a perfect combination of beauty with brains. And with every passing minute, I was more and more impressed by her. Busy in our conversation, we did not realise that the driver has just pulled in front of her office.

However, she did not immediately get down, as if waiting for me to say something. But me being me, was not sure what to say. Whether to ask her out or to just say goodbye. After almost 5 minutes, she finally moved to get down of the car and at that same moment, I gathered some courage to say something. But as my luck would have it, her phone rang and answering it, she left. Not once looking back. And, at that very moment, I realised that I didn’t even know her name.