Truck Driver Poem by Rajat S Bhattacharya

Nagging monotonous noise
replaces the tranquility of the night
As the driver drives his heavy vehicle
along the highways crisscrossing
the expanse countrywide.
The noise carries the tell-tale story of the
friction between tyres and asphalt every night,
And, of course, the sad saga of the person
behind the wheel sitting tight,
Steering the vehicle with a pace,
despite a tired body and sleepy senses.
As he has the duty to reach the address without lapse.
For his hungry stomach, who cares?

He had to sell his nights in cheap deals,
to feed his dependents' hungry mouths with meals,
Spends precious time of his life away from home,
Sacrificing much of its delicious flavour and volition, alas!
Society cares least for his struggle day and night
As it lacks earnestness and has no time
to spare for those like him toiling for us outright.

High way drive is fraught with hazards galore,
He knows not or cares not to know
what lies ahead, however imminent,
But braves to live a life not scared with paranoia.
As he has a family to support back home anyhow.

Wee hour of the day, much before sunrise,
He drives his vehicle into a road side eatery,
That remains wide-awake,
doing brisk business when everything else is fast asleep,
As if their biological clock runs
ten hours fast or slow at least, always.

Laying his tired body on a charpai, infested with bedbugs,
He awaits the special, long Dhaba tea he has ordered.
Does he ponder for his near and dear
at far away village or slum
And imagine how doing they are?
Or his tired mind in a tired body just fails to do the exercise,
Or he has learnt how futile it is to think about them,
When there is nothing but to drive
Stretching all his might in right earnest, damn.
Someday his near and dear ones appear in his mind's eye
and then he remembers
how eagerly they are awaiting his sojourn back home for long time.

He tolerates the extortion by many at regular intervals,
As he has to take his vehicle to the address assigned,
He knows, pretty sure that any resistance
to such ritual is useless and dangerous,
As he is only a defenseless driver alone in a scary environs.
Much more dangerous is the utterly undisciplined traffic
that swarms the highway,
Any mishap finds no bystanders
to drop tears for the plight of the hapless driver.
He gets booked any time by the law enforcers
for happenings on the road -
Even for the incidents happening not at his fault always
as he is the softest target on the road,
He lives in a society where the adage ‘live and let others live'
is not considered to be a normal mode.

After a cheap refreshment and a break,
Again he sits behind the wheel,
Driving his vehicle laps after laps
sprinkling his sleepy eyes with water time and again,
Till he reaches his destination
And gets a small time to rest
before starting all over again for his trip next.
Cycle goes on and on.
Who cares?
Tyres perhaps only sympathize with his grim life
with monotonous moan.