‘Beware of Smiling Faces’: Paradise’s ‘Poets on Wheels’
+9 ‘Beware of Smiling Faces’: Paradise’s ‘Poets on Wheels’
‘Beware of Smiling Faces’: Paradise’s ‘Poets on Wheels’
‘Beware of Smiling Faces’: Paradise’s ‘Poets on Wheels’
‘Beware of Smiling Faces’: Paradise’s ‘Poets on Wheels’
‘Beware of Smiling Faces’: Paradise’s ‘Poets on Wheels’
‘Beware of Smiling Faces’: Paradise’s ‘Poets on Wheels’
‘Beware of Smiling Faces’: Paradise’s ‘Poets on Wheels’
‘Beware of Smiling Faces’: Paradise’s ‘Poets on Wheels’
‘Beware of Smiling Faces’: Paradise’s ‘Poets on Wheels’
‘Beware of Smiling Faces’: Paradise’s ‘Poets on Wheels’
‘Beware of Smiling Faces’: Paradise’s ‘Poets on Wheels’
‘Beware of Smiling Faces’: Paradise’s ‘Poets on Wheels’
Drivers in Kashmir are known for putting out some amusing lines on their cab screens and shields. While the world around them is changing fast, they still carry their pining hearts and painful couplets.
In the city of seven bridges swooped by scrutiny swarm, a pensive man is finding it hard to run his survival ride. The roads are no longer free. There’re barriers, barricades and batons around.
The renewed tensions triggered by targeted killings in Kashmir and their rattling upshots are making it a bumpy ride for this poor cab driver.
His glowering mood and glum outlook conveniently map a commoner’s misery in Kashmir today.
He carries his own broken paradise with him. On the backside of his three-wheeler, the name is speaking volumes. With suspicion running amok around him, he awaits customers with his tired eyes and dismissive expressions. Life, it seems, has become some jinx.
But while he grapples with the unleashed gloom, someone in the woeful vale is endorsing a smile. Much of this spirit comes from the lived experience making many believe that terrible things eventually run out of their course.
Amid sorrow and smile, the screens flash the deep-rooted affection making things easier and perhaps meaningful for masses in the valley.
Some dream merchants on driver’s seat display some quixotic elements to amuse the anxious commoners on street. This liveliness in the lifeless times does alter that sullen state of mind.
He might bear no resemblance with that “Controversially Yours” Pindi player, but then he’s quite assertive about him being an Express unto Himself. After all, it’s all about speed!
The couplet on the screen is the writing on the wall, as the poet in this wheelman is expressively speaking for his class.
Apart from their telling couplets, the mountain drivers are quite legendary for their one-liners. Here, he comes up with a subtle warning!
Sometimes these screen statements are spot on. Just look at the faceoff here! Lucky Boy is being praised for not the heck of it.
These hulk buses of yore, barring their remaining-rundown cousins still running on roads, carry that divine line. In times of tumult, such lines invoking Heavens became a signature comment on the valley’s uncertain life.
Many of these rides might’ve already become redundant or outlived their utility, but their moniker lines are still Mushtaq—yearning.
But the wheel lines aren’t always about a lament on lost love, some talk about daredevilry amid despair and distress.
And then comes a joker with the last laugh: “Why so serious?”
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