The driver is a old man in his late 50's. His white shirt with the badge of his firm shines in the golden yellow glow of the morning sun. Somehow, I had gotten used to the feeling that if I see his badge glow in the morning, it would be a nice day for me!!

Being an old man, he drives carefully, avoiding all the raw "me-alone-in-this-road" bulls, with a characteristic smile in his face. With a perennially reddened mouth with beetle nuts, his daily stories about the way Hyderabad had changed is an experience in itself.

His(Yousuf) stories mostly revolve around his child hood days in Old Hyderabad..how his life centered around the Charminar and the tourists that used to come there. About the initial problems when Andhrapradesh was formed, when NTR came to power and his other stories...

His tongue is a characteristic Hyderabadi Hindi...He loves Hindi songs...his latest hit being "Kajra re"...He says, Aishwarya looks awesome in that. The story sessions are always a treat in themselves. His hyderabadi hindi is a bit hard for me to grasp and there are certain words which would just fly over my head. He takes extra care to explain them to me in English.

We trade words, picking one at a time, explaining the meaning of the word with anecdotes, feeling the fit of the word to the situation, each one wanting the word he proposed to fit the bill, but only to find that, the situation doesn't warrant that word...the context doesn't fit...we search for another word, fit it in, and then the nodding smile that crosses our face...that is something to look forward to...

We feel passionate about the meaning of the words...the contextual significance of them....we look life through those words..those words mean life..its as if we had found our soul mate..we had found our life...the peace of understanding...

Then, everyday, as we drive past the Buddha with his face turned to the other side, I wonder would he be smiling still. His smile was captivating last time. It made me realise many intricacies of life. May be I wouldn't have realised all of those intricacies as yet, as life throws so many new surprises every moment.

Yousuf loves the statue. He would like to stay here in along the tak bund at times, when he had gone through some rough patches of life. He likes to look at the smiling buddha, and then curse him....I wonder why Buddha smiles alone....

Then I realise, afterall, He is, just a stone...