Go!

“C.N.G!” I had screamed out those three letters an uncountable number of times in my life but not as insanely loudly as I had been screaming on that afternoon. I was an hour late for meeting my friends and the humidity, combined with the heat and the stagnant air felt the same as being inside a pre-heated oven. For the last 60 minutes several C.N.Gs and Cabs had come and gone and not one driver was willing to listen to me, let alone take me to Dhanmondi from Gulshan. I have tired offering them extra money, I tried pleading, yelling and not to mention begging but nothing works with these absurdly arrogant aliens who operate the green colored space ships that we all know as C.N.Gs. It was after another ten minutes that I finally found a C.N.G driver who was willing to go for Tk.80!

The long and tiring C.N.G ride, during the summer rush hour left me even more exhausted and cranky. I finally reached Dhanmondi and entered Café Mango, a place that I loathe for its annoying waiters, who lack the ability of having a normal waiter-customer interaction. To my relief, my friend Atif was already there, sipping chilled coke. He looked up at me with his usual satanic smile, which I always find confusing and weird and said “Nicee!”
I realized I was completely soaked in perspiration and that was the basis of his comment. I sat at his table for a while, finishing off the rest of his coke. After I was done I dragged Atif out of Mango with me as fast as I could. We sauntered around for another five minutes on the street outside Mango, waiting for our other friend Aumiya to show up, who was surprisingly punctual. Aumiya wasn’t in her best mood that evening and neither was I, which wasn’t hard to capture from our disturbed faces while Atif still had the awkward smile on his face.

The reason for our meeting that day was to run a couple of errands. Only a few days earlier the Care-taker Government had imposed the new rule of having all shopping malls and other stores closed by 7pm with the exception of restaurants and drug stores. It was already 4:30pm and we had to go to Elephant Road, come back to Green Road and finally go to Rifles Square. Hence, we had to get everything done by 7pm and not a minute later.

At first we headed towards Elephant Road. I needed to buy new sunglasses and although Elephant Road was the last place I preferred for shopping, I just couldn’t afford to buy more sunglasses from Navana at Tk.500 each.
We hired two rickshaws, Aumiya and I on one and Atif on the other. Halfway to Elephant Road, we couldn’t trace Atif’s rickshaw behind us and had no idea of how to reach Elephant Road; apparently neither did our rickshaw-puller. Annoyed, I called Atif on his cell phone and to my disgust he told me he got caught up with a long lost friend who he had suddenly met and would catch up with us in 10-15 minutes.

As time was passing by, the scorching sun was not getting any kinder but seemed to be glaring down on us with its eyes of fire. With the help of several strangers we finally reached Elephant Road. Atif’s 15 minutes had transformed to 25. When he finally showed up, it was already 5:15pm and we were infuriated. Instead of yelling at him and ruining more time, we all went in search of cheap sunglasses.
I do not shop often, but when I do I make sure I buy something I love and I happen to be a very picky shopper. It took me another hour to literally browse through every single store in Elephant Road, failing to like any of the sunglasses they had to offer. Being sarcastic and making fun of the grotesque sunglasses that the stores had on display, was our only entertainment. Time was running out and I was constantly blaming myself for coming all the way to Elephant Road, which obviously wasn’t the best idea. Eventually I bought two sunglasses at Tk.200 each that I didn’t have any strong feelings towards but they weren’t completely hideous. The sun had finally begun to give in to the evening sky and the heat was getting bearable, making it a little easier for us to roam around.

Next stop was Green Road, where Aumiya had to get her picture taken for her passport. We needed to go to her place at Indira Road first, since we were a little short of cash. No rickshaws would go from elephant Road to Green Road but fortunately we managed to hire a black cab just as we were on the verge of losing our minds. The clock was ticking and a rush of excitement was flowing through our veins like tidal waves. Despite the constant tension, we couldn’t help but admit to ourselves that this was turning out to be a fun day. After picking up the money, we made it to the studio to get the pictures taken.

Another 15 minutes were spent on taking the pictures and thankfully, the cabbie agreed to wait all this while, unlike most cabbies of the city. It was 6:30pm when we started out for Riffles Square, where Atif had to exchange a DVD. However, to our dismay there was a disastrous traffic jam at Panthapath with the traffic hardly moving. Another 10 minutes passed by with the traffic moving at the same pace as a tortoise when abruptly the road cleared ahead and all the cars shot through, taking us by surprise.

We all sat tight in silence as the cabbie took us for a wild ride through the streets to Riffles Square. I wasn’t exactly supportive of his reckless driving but I thought it was better not to object than to reach Riffles Square and find it closed. The cab came to a screeching halt in front of Riffles Square, almost throwing us off our seats. It was minutes before 7pm and I hurriedly paid off the cab. We ran all the way to the 3rd floor of Riffles Square to the DVD section. Atif went to his DVD store to exchange the disc, while Aumiya and I stood at a corner panting heavily for breath.

While disembarking from the elevator of Riffles Square we were all stressed out from being on the constant run for the last almost 3 hours. Somehow we were all smiling. It was a smile of accomplishment; the one warriors have on their faces after they have come back from war. No matter how trivial our errands were, we had won the race against time and it felt great! After hanging out for another 30 minutes, we all headed back to our homes but not before we swore to each other to go on another crazy ride like this again!