The Mundane Walk
“Stop Stop Stop, stop the bus god
damnit”, I shouted at the bus driver as the burly bus driver just slowed the
bus down to about 5km/hr but didn’t bring it to a complete halt at the
designated bus stop.
If I was of the fairer sex the bus would have
come to a gentle stop by now and the driver would have waited till I stepped
down completely and moved a few paces above from the bus but alas, being a guy
seemed like a curse right now. Taking God’s name with a quiet breath I jumped
out as the next stop was 3 km’s away. I
ensured that I run backward after landing from the jump to balance the effect
of Newtonian laws on motion, in lay man’s terms, this would ensure that I don’t
fall face front on the road.
After having I stabilized my
walk, I took a few deep breaths to calm my down from the excitement of jumping
from a moving bus. I started to walk back home which was about 2 km’s away from
here.
The way to my home was similar to
a treasure map trail you would see in a lot of Hollywood movies. One would have
to traverse through a posh up-market colony, a children’s park and a slum
before reaching the huge rusted broken gates to the chaotic middle class colony
where I lived with my family.
I call it chaotic because that
was one factor common to everyone living in that colony. There was chaos of
living standards as everyone wanted to be one step ahead of their neighbors.
There was chaos of vehicle parking as everyone had more cars or two wheelers
than the parking space allotted to them. There was chaos of essential supplies
as almost everyone had illegal power and water connections to meet the demands
of the slightly rich middle class of this city. There was constant chaos of
driving faster than the rest on the small narrow lanes of the colony. So,
everywhere you would turn your head there would be some chaos or the other. I
had started walking toward the chaos.
As I was walking through the
first posh colony, along the road dotted with bungalows the size of palaces, my
eye caught the sight of two teenage girls playing badminton. They were playing
badminton in the car parking in front of their bungalow.
“These guys must be really rich
if they can afford such a huge car parking outside their bungalow”, I said to
myself. I stopped to see them play a few strokes. Since I was still dressed
properly from my day at work, I wasn’t sneered at to move on.
I was amused to see the way they
both played badminton. It was totally “prim and propah” as the British would
say, with delicate and deft strokes. “If Saina Nehwal would have seen this, she
would have quit playing badminton”, I chuckled to myself. Along came a gust of wind and the shuttle
cock got stuck on an adjacent tree. Both the girls looked cluelessly at the
shuttle cock on the tree, then at the trunk of the tree and finally at each
other. Had they made the effort to shake the tree together, the shuttle cock
would have fallen down on its own, after all it is feather weight literally but
then two spoilt rich girls putting in the effort to shake a tree was a big NO.
I was looking at all this with certain amount of amusement was I wanted to see
what brilliant idea they would come up with. In my mind, I imagined one of them
come up with an idea and shout “Eureka” like Archimedes did centuries ago.
Finally they turned and looked for help, and unfortunately they spotted me
looking at them. I quit smiling and looked towards the side so that I could
portray that I was not watching their game but then I had lost that moment.
“Excuse me, can you please help
us in getting the shuttle cock down from that tree”, said one of them as she
took a few paces towards me.
“Sure”, I said not knowing what
else to do.
I walked towards the tree and
assessed the situation from a closer spot. The tree trunk was not very thick
and a few shakes would ensure that the shuttle cock falls down onto the ground.
I got down on the task ahead and shook the tree. Amazingly the shuttle cock
fell down in just one shake. Seeing that, both the girls jumped with joy,
picked up the shuttle cock and went inside their palatial home.
“No thank you, nothing, what a
bunch of ungrateful people”, I snapped at them in my mind and started my walk
again. Soon I crossed the sea of Audis, BMWs and Mercs of all sizes and shapes.
As I entered the children’s park,
I felt a cool breeze hit my face. The park was well made some swings and a
small football ground for the kids to play in.
The cool breeze made me feel relaxed. The effect was so strong that I
forgot about the weight of the laptop bag with heavy office files I was
carrying on my shoulders. My boss had given me some work to complete by tonight
and hence the heavy office files were part of my take home today.
A few kids were playing football
as I walked by the football ground. They were mostly 8-9 year olds and so full
of energy. They were running after the football together with all the energy
that Boost /Bournvita/Complan or Horlicks may have given them. It was such a
pleasant sight to see the kids play in the park as otherwise they mobiles and
dating hardly give them the time to experience any extracurricular activities.
“Uncle please give the ball”,
shouted the kids in chorus. I hadn’t realized that one of them had kicked the
football towards me by mistake. I quickly went towards the ball and gently
kicked it back to the kids.
“Thank you uncle”, they said and
got into a huddle to see who could kick the ball first.
I smiled and started walking
towards home.
As I crossed the park, I saw the
final frontier ahead of me, the vast slum. The road to chaos was built along
the periphery of the slum. The slum was inhabited by mostly Bangaldeshi’s who
had come to the city to find a decent job and in turn had ended up working as
maids and servants in the nearby colonies.
The slum was an abode for drugs
trafficking, illegal liquor sales and a safe haven for the petty thieves of the
area. Walking on the road alongside the slum at night, all alone, is scary
enough to keep all the humanly possible senses on their tip toes. Thankfully,
it was just evening and the darkness hadn’t completely engulfed the road.
However the daily drinkers not that of tea or coffee at this evening hour, but
of the country made liquor had already started to line the footpath along the
road with their 170ml bottles and pouches. Dressed in vests and pants or torn,
dirty shirts and pants they sat, drank their magical elixir, gossiped amongst
each other, rolled around on the pavement and kept the vicious cycle going on.
As I was walking on the road to
my home, I saw a familiar face coming towards me on a bicycle. The man was
cycling hard considering the cycle was not only carrying his own weight but
also the weight of the 4 milk cans attached in a 2 by 2 formation on either
side at the back of the bicycle.
As he neared me he said “Hello,
Rajveer sir” with a gentle smile.
“Hello, Suresh”, I greeted
politely.
Suresh was one of the official
milk suppliers to our colony. He was the most honest amongst the dishonest lot
of milk suppliers who existed there, as he only mixed 15% water in the milk he
supplied whereas the adulteration of water in the milk ranged from anywhere
between 25%-30% of water for the rest of the milk suppliers cartel.
“Have you given the milk at
home?” I asked.
“Yes sir, I am coming from your
home only. I just gave fresh buffalo’s milk full of healthy cream at your home
sir”, he replied with a big smile.
“Ok Ok, very good. I hope you
didn’t mix any water in it”, I said knowing that it was already adulterated
with about 15% of water.
“God swear sir, I don’t mix
anything in the milk. I am an honest guy”, he replied with a slightly fake
look.
“Ok Suresh. Thank you”, I replied
and looked towards the road.
“Thank you sir, thank you very
much”, he replied and started cycling ahead.
I had walked a few paces when I heard
a loud crashing sound behind my back.
I turned back and saw that Suresh
had collided with one of the slum kids trying his hand at cycling a toddler
cycle.
The collision was so severe that
it led to the fall of Suresh and his heavily loaded country ride while the kid
picked up his toddler cycle and made a run for his home to the safety of his
mother in the slums.
I walked back to help Suresh get
up and as I neared the accident site, I was left speechless.
One of the containers on his
bicycle had opened up due to the fall and wet the surface of the road. The
surface of the road had just become darker instead of white, as the liquid that
had spilled out was water and not milk.
I started at Suresh with flaring
nostrils. I didn’t give a damn about whether he was hurt or not. I was angry,
he had just told me that he wasn’t adulterating milk like a gentleman. I still
believed him knowing that he was lying but since I hadn’t seen it with my own
eyes I still believed him. Now I knew, he was adulterating milk and it pissed
me off.
He saw me staring at him angrily;
he quickly got up, closed the container, picked up his cycle, got onto it and
paddled as fast as he could to safety.
The way he made a run for his
life, was so hilarious that I lost all my anger and ended up laughing. After
all, this is something one sees mostly in Jackie Chan movies, where the bad guy
makes a run on cycles in the narrow streets of Chinese towns.
I turned back, looked up at the
skies, wondering what was in store for me next, took a deep breath and started
walking.
Finally I reached the gates of
heaven, rusted iron gates, more like hell I would say but then I had made my
peace with that.
Standing on either sides of the
gates were two guards. Tall, slim, with long flowing hair, dressed to kill were
all the stuff one would want to associate with them if the gates were to heaven
but reality was different. Both of them were short, ugly, almost balding men
with huge beer bellies. They were constantly chewing tobacco and spitting it
all over the place. The wall next to the gate seemed as if a bloodbath had
taken place there but it was the red colored spit of the tobacco which had
bathed the wall.
I made my way inside the gates;
my home was a few paces inside the colony.
“Stop them, Stop them, thieves”,
shouted a lady
“Stop them, they have stolen my
purse”, she shouted again.
The shouts were coming from the
deserted market street on my left. I turned to see a lady probably in her mid
thirties running behind a motorcycle with two men on it. They had stolen her
purse and were now making a run for it.
I saw them coming towards me, and
I looked around to see what would be their exit route as surely they wouldn’t
exit from the main gates and then I saw it, about 10 metres from the gate,
there was a small gap in the wall, big enough for a small motorcycle to go by.
The guys on the bike pressed on
the accelerator so that they could run away with the bounty through that gap. I
looked at the security guards; even if they were slimmer they wouldn’t have made
it to that gap to catch the thieves.
“Stop them Stop them my purse my
purse”, she shouted again.
I looked around, there was no one
else who could have helped the lady. I
don’t know what came over me and I quickly walked near the gap in the
wall. As soon as the guys came neared
the gap, I swung my laptop bag in the face of the guy riding the motorcycle.
Not knowing what hit them, they lost balance of the bike and fell down on the
road while the bike collided in the wall.
I quickly picked up the purse of
the lady. In the meantime, the guards had managed to come to the accident scene
and caught hold of both the thieves.
“Well done Rajveer sir”, said one
of the guards.
“Thank you so much, these two
thieves have been creating a lot of havoc here”, said the other one.
“Call the police and hand them
over”, I said in a stern tone.
“Yes sir”, they both said in a
chorus and took the thieves towards their cabin.
“Thank you son”, said a ladies
voice from behind me.
I turned back and saw that the
lady whose purse had been stolen had made her way toward me.
“Here is your purse madam”, I
said with a gentle smile while handing over her purse
“Thank you son so much, you are
an angel”, she said smilingly.
“In today’s times no one comes to
help in such situation. I thought I had lost all my money and important
documents today. You are a good man. Thank you once again”, she said.
I felt like as if I was superhero
from an action comic who had just come to the aid of an innocent helpless woman
in a crime infested street.
“No problem madam, good people
are still there, don’t worry. Please take care of your belongings and be extra
careful”, I told her reassuringly.
She put her hand on my head and
showered blessings on me.
I bowed, accepted all the
blessings, smiled at her and turned to walk towards my home, my superhero
abode. I was on a cloud nine, I had done a good thing, I felt like a superhero
but just that my home didn’t feel like it was a superhero’s abode. Only if it
was like a Bat Cave, I wished to myself with a chuckle.
Finally, I made it to my home,
greeted my mother and went to my room to change after all I had pending work to
complete for my boss.
After changing I sat down on my
bed, opened the laptop to work on the presentation.
My mother came to the room and handed me over my cup
of tea and went back to her kitchen.
I held the cup and said to myself smilingly “Cheers!! Finally a relief from the daily mundane walk, hopefully tomorrow will
be better”.
