WB-04/C-9094 at New Market police station (Amit Datta)

Dusty and desolate, it stands outside New Market police station. One of the six two-stroke autorickshaws seized on January 1, WB-04/C-9094 told Zeeshan Jawed its story...

Till December 31, I was just one of those two-stroke autos speeding down the streets of Calcutta, powered by katatel and spewing black smoke.

But January 1, 2009 changed all that. My number will go down in Calcutta’s air pollution history as a member of the exclusive club of six autos that were seized on the first day of the high court ban.

I am sure my friends will envy me once I am back on the road again (yes, I am sure I will be — thanks to Subhas Chakraborty or Mamata Banerjee, or both!).

I made my debut on city roads in February 2007 after Allauddin Ali bought me from a showroom in Hyde Road. I was then handed over to Mohammed Lallan, the 21-year-old trendy youth from Dara Para, off Bridge Number Four, who was to drive me on the Lohapul-Chandni Chowk route.

Lallan decorated me with various stickers of Bollywood actresses and one of Sania Mirza. He fitted me with an FM radio-cum-CD player on which he would listen to Himesh Reshammiya’s hits all day at full blast.

Sorry Lallan, but I must say that you care for your music system more than you care for me. I have cuts and bruises all over my body to prove that.

To reach the auto stands ahead of his comrades, Lallan would often take me up one-way streets. No policeman ever stopped him. Lallan would make it a point to pack in more than four passengers, putting enormous strain on me. Again, no policeman ever stopped him.

No wonder I had not been keeping well of late. I often had to stop in the middle of the road to catch my breath and get started again. The colour of the smoke I was emitting had also grown darker. I wish Lallan would not stuff that foul katatel down my throat.

For the past five days, my insides have been spared the daily dose of katatel. A tiny space opposite New Market police station is my new home, as I was picked up by the South Traffic Guard.

But it is not a welcome breather for me. I sit here helplessly gulping in the foul fumes emitted by autos and buses going down SN Banerjee Road. A few more days in this gas chamber and I will choke.

I even miss Himesh!