My first choice of name for this newsletter was ‘India Travails,’ but I decided not everything is a travail. Some of it is downright funny, and educational, as I hope you will find.
I had just arrived in India for work. I used to take a taxi from my rented apartment to work in central Bangalore, where my American multi-national employer used to have its many offices. A sort of downtown but without the skyscrapers.
Each morning, I booked a taxi (pre-Uber, Ola apps) by phone—usually a Maruti Omnivan—one of the worst examples of Japanese efficiency married to Indian frugality—to take me on the 20-30 minute journey to work.
The cabs had a radio just like taxis in the US. Every morning, I heard the driver check-in, and the operator talk to multiple drivers.
One particular phrase bothered me no end. Each morning, the operator on the call would say 'Comma online.' At first, I thought I hadn't heard it right.
The next time he said it, I listened very carefully. He said 'Comma online.' I puzzled over this for a week with the daily 'Comma online.' calls.
Were they learning English in the pauses between bookings?
Was this perhaps an unknown local form of English?
I asked the driver what he said, and the driver repeated, 'Comma online.'
I spent many a morning and evening that first month, straining to listen, intrigued by these two random words combined to mean something to the taxi drivers but not to me.
One fine day, the mystery was solved. I chanced to be in a cab that had an operator who wasn't in a rush. He took his time to speak into the mic on his radio.
He called out, 'Suresh, come online,' and 'Ravi, come online.'
This reminds me of my story when on my first job, almost in the first week, a colleague overhearing my phone conversations, had a perplexed look on her face and asked me "Are you Padma Desai or Padma Chari" Though I clarified but had me baffled for a long time till I realised, that I had the habit of introducing myself on the phone as "I am Padma this side and she was hearing it as Desai". Never did that again.