Oorjana

Given the premise of this series—stories of city people you run into, neither friends nor strangers—a tale garnered from an Uber ride (usually going back home for the night, for no normal person will be too conversant on a weekday morning) was going to turn up sooner or later. I live and work in (different) parts of old Bangalore, none of which are Uber hotspots. A good chunk of the drivers I get paired with point out how it is quite rare for someone in my part of town to use Uber. It usually is followed by "yaavoor saar nimmdu?"…

If you are willing to listen, people always have stories to tell. Especially in a city. And despite the best efforts of civic authorities to make us think otherwise, Bangalore is still a city. And people have stories to tell. People like Srinivas. He works as a floor captain at one of those fancy Church Street F&B joints. I found him to be a very familiar face. I was there nursing my cutlery, and tactless that I am I probably was also staring at him too hard, trying to figure out where I had seen him. Probably tired of my…