The city of Mumbai never fails to surprise me! Today was proof enough of that :)

It was like every other day... until it was time for me to head back home after a particularly tiring day at work. Hailed a rickshaw, and proceeded towards the railway station. So far, it's been like every other day.

Then we get caught in one of Andheri's infamous traffic jams... Again, nothing eyebrow-raising there.

Then I hear a cellphone ring. A hip and happening MP3 ringtone, blasting through the rickshaw. I instinctively reach for my phone... only to realise that I don't have that particular ringtone on my cell, so it couldn't possibly be my phone that was ringing. Yet, it sounded like it was coming from within the rickshaw I was in. I looked around, assuming the previous passenger had left their phone behind as was trying to locate it.

That's when the driver reached into his pocket and whipped out a spanking new MotoRazrV3i! He nonchalantly flipped it open and spoke, in perfect English, "I'm driving right now, I'll call you back in a bit"!

At this point, I'm sure my jaw dropped because he seemed to notice my astonishment in the rearview mirror. Glancing back at me, he smiled amusedly and explained, "This is just a day job, I work at a call centre". Sure enough, he had the signature accented English of the city's fast-growing BPO culture.

We continued forth to the railway station, and when I thanked him, instead of the usual "Haan, theek hai" I'm used to getting from most drivers, this guy replied "No problem ma'am, my pleasure", smiled and waved before driving off and disappearing into Andheri traffic.

Like I said... Mumbai never fails to surprise me! :)