Too much talking

A Bus journey

I just boarded to a bus from AIIMS to Cannaught Place. It was over crowded since there are only a few buses, which go to the heart of the capital. I always hate the system to enter through the back door and get down through the front door. It is worse when you need to sail through by passing all those sweating bodies from back door to the front door. Somehow, I managed to find a man sitting in a ladies seat.

I went to the seat and asked in the most polite way.

“Bhayya, ye ladies seat hai. Please seat dedijiye.” (Brother, this is aldies seat. Please let me sit.)

I could see him suddenly falling asleep. Poor guy, he might not have slept for the whole night yesterday.

No way, how come he fell asleep immediately after my polite request. I decided to make a second attempt.

“Bhayya, ladies seat khaali kar dijiye.” (Brother, please give the ladies seat)

Then I could see his face muscles drawing alphabets with the detestation for me. While I was thinking of the next step to call the conductor, he kind-heartedly left the seat for me.

I made myself comfortable in the uncomfortable crowd and the sometimes-annoying Radio Mirchi (FM).

Listening to a Himesh Reshammya song, I passed the Safdarjung Tomb, then, India Gate and was approaching the Krishi Bbavan. I was annoyed by somebody leaning towards me. It was a girl of 11-12 years in a skirt and top. From her, oily hair and Chandanakkuri, I could smell the Mallu connection. She must be approaching puberty with her assets showing prominence. Let’s call her Ammukkutty.

Since the bus was overcrowded, she was not even able to stand properly. Poor girl, the just-sufficient-for-two seats did not allow me to accommodate her also to my seat. Irrespective of all these, she was just enjoying the close view of Parliament House. When I came to Delhi for the first time, I was so fascinated to see all those monuments, which I had seen only in my history text books.



Thinking of this never-ending metro construction work and wondering what will be going on behind the big metal bars with Metro Construction going on written over them. I could hear only some machines roaring and the horns of vehicles caught up in traffic jam.


I just looked up to see my little Ammukkutty and a fair hand grabbing her yet-to-be grown assets. He was standing so close to her that she could not even move left or right. I was literally shocked to see the guy, decently dressed in formals, doing this and looking out of the window with an unknown happiness reflecting on his face. My little Ammukkutty was still wondering at the mystic shapes of Jantar Mantar.



I too drooled to those red shapes with a touch of sympathy for her. It was a big fuzz, which brought my attention back to the bus. A lady was asking the bus people to stop the bus and the power of her voice itself made the driver to stop the bus near LIC building.

" Aap ko pata nahi ye saale ne kya kiya is ladki ke saath. Kapdade to ache ache pehenke aate hai, iske maa- behen nahi hai kya" (You don't know what this idiot is doing. Wearing nice cloths, does he have mom and sister at home?)

I could see the wierd smiling faces staring at my poor Ammukkutti. Conductor asked her.

" Kya hua?"(What happened?)

She was looking totally lost. From her face, I could make out that she is totally confused as to what happened. She was not even able to understand the language. She tried replying.

" I mmmmm , this man does caught ..." ; she was trying to answer in broken-English words, failing to convey the meaning.

I was thinking of helping her, but my inherent keralite mentality pulled me back.

"Enthinaa ithilokke idapedunne. Ennaalum njan ida pedante, hmmmm" (Why should I involve in all these? But, I should intrigue...)

The lady was burning with anger.

" Take the bus to the police station. I don't allow a single step forward without solving this issue. These kinds of idiots should be punished."

Then she turned and asked Ammukkutty.

"Beti, you please tell what has happened"

While she was still searching for Hindi-English words in her dictionary, her parents came to rescue her.

At the end, our in accommodatingating nature made her parents stop that lady from going further.

On my way back to home, I had a lot of questions to answer...

1. Was it me or my compromising nature (a birth gift as a Malayali), which stopped me from reacting even after seeing the injustice to that girl?
2. Were the parents right in difusing the problem without leading it to the police station?
3. Why didn't I support the lady, who reacted for a genuine cause? Being a Malayalee and above all, being a female, I should have done that.
4. Is it the same inability to react leads to more crimes against females? Is it the same that makes thejourneyunery in Kerala a night mare?
5. Are we lacking in giving proper sex-education to kinds nowadays? If we say that kids are very much aware of these things from TV, then will it be a wrong conception?

The list continues....and so as the molestations...

posted by Lekshmi @ 4:46 AM 7 comments