A Bus Fight

It was yet another Sunday evening and I was on my way to catch a bus to Bangalore. There was a Rajahamsa (Volvo) bus standing . People didn’t hesitate to rush towards it though the fares were about 20% higher than the ordinary buses. Actually the extra money was worth the ambiance. As I squeezed myself into the bus, I saw three men growling at each other passionately.  

Apparently, one guy tried to take a seat and the other guy spoke to him to get lost in an impolite tone. Things got worse when the second guy accused the first one that he had consumed alcohol. The first guy retorted and called the second guy a “Gaandu” or an asshole.

 This was the tipping point of the conversation. The manly anger and passion took center stage. Both these fools were married and had the desire to prove their manhood to their wives who were sitting behind. Honestly, both those ladies thought that they were acting like fools

 “Stop this rowdy behavior or I’ll thump your ass and teach you some manners”

 At this stage a third man entered the scene. By this time I had taken a seat that second from last and settled comfortably. My mother was giving me the customary instructions from outside. I was just nodding from the inside. Within a few seconds stakes of the fight became higher. The guy who was alone had to shout higher to defend himself against the petty threats of the other two. He played a good mix of “victim” and “lone brave man” card.

 Now he advised the other guy in a different tone.

 “You have a wife and son. Don’t spoil your life. Just keep quiet and stay away from me”, he warned in a authoritative tone. The other two guys returned the same dialogue in a louder and firmer tone. I want untangling my earphones and my mom was waving at me from outside. I waved back.

 The baby in the mothers arms woke up and started to cry. But the men started to shout louder and some intervention was inevitable.

 Now they were planning a duel on the platform as the place inside the bus was insufficient. Both parties were ready for the fight.

 There are always some wise men who are capable of stopping fights. Their secret of success is this.

Raise the reputation of both individuals and ask them to hold on to it. This works almost every time. It did. But the damping factor is always present. The fight dies down. Some final comments are always made.

 The guy who was accused of being drunk pulled out some question paper and said that he was returning after attending some exam. The first guy said that he had seen fakes like him many times and claimed to be an employee in commissioner’s office. The reply was even more hilarious. The first guy announced that he was an employee at the High Court. I did not doubt their claims, given the present state of our country. We are like this only because of dicks like these.

 Now their wifes started to use the “Anna (bhaiyya /brother )- sentiment ” to stop the fight. The chances of a long drawn conflict seemed imminent until one intelligent guy made a witty remark.

 “Sirs, both of you are in responsible positions, so please behave yourselves. Otherwise all the people in the bus will be disturbed”

 The conductor also said that the better person should show some magnanimity.

 That was a winning strategy. One guy offered to get down from the bus for the sake of peace. The other guy tried some reconciliatory tactics. And finally silence was restored, thanks to some more interventions. I just noted in my mind that masculinity is such a strong force in society no matter what your social or economic position is.

 Thus , my dose of Sunday evening entertainment came to an end. I plugged in my earphones and played an Adele track. Aha ! What a voice.

Lift Stories

Travelling in a lift on a daily basis might be considered as a privilege though it comes with its own quirks. I wanted to write an article on this topic in the fifth semester itself. But that was still the beginning. There was not much that I could write about. However I think I have picked up enough instances to finally write this piece.

Approximately an average guy spends at least 30-40 minutes waiting/travelling on the lift in my hostel.  There are two lifts in the hostel with a capacity of carrying about 10-12 fully grown men. Since we guys are underfed and quale, up to fifteen guys travel in it the peak hours. I might not be quoting exact values, but am trying to estimate.

There are six floors in our hostel. The lift does not stop at third and second floors. I felt a bit uneasy about in the beginning, but later found out that it was a good idea. Some of the buttons don’t work. And there are few emergency numbers written in blue ink on the control panel. The transparent half on the other side enables you to the inside of the hostel. Very often you can see internet refugees sitting out to claim their share of online bounty.

I thought that travelling in the lift was going to simplify my life and save time. But the first lesson that I learnt in life was this. Nature has the knack of proving the exact opposite of your convictions. The lift is always at the farthest end possible 9 out 10 times on an average. It takes maximum time to reach your end whenever you need it the most.

It gets pretty interesting to watch people when the lift gets overloaded. The guy who got in the last often gets down. But sometimes we have to show some gaanchali towards some gaanchali guy. That guy is pushed out purely on the basis of popular vote. And then sometimes we love some of our buddies too much and we won’t let the guy get down. We hold him tight and take him to the top most floor just to piss him off. If you didn’t have good day just make sure that you press 4 and 5 after getting down at 6. The sadistic pleasure to know that the guy on ground floor waits for extra five minutes makes you feel better in a crooked way.

Sometimes the kindness of strangers touches you when they hold the lift for you just in case you are a few meters short. However those acts go un-thanked on a daily basis. To be honest, I don’t think people should do all that. I often pray that the guy running towards the lift misses it by a jiffy. I pray harder if I know the guy running to the lift.

Hostel lift is the de-facto news wagon. It is literally a travelling news wagon. You get to know a lot of things about the college if you belong to the say-no-to gossip gang of individuals. You get to know about which branch people have which test, which branch classes got cancelled, etc. Sometimes you get to know the weird style of electrical professors who use a particular double meaning gesture to explain “system excitation”. Then there are the intern opening news, who-got-which-intern news and what-happened-in-which-branch news. If you are the average kind of guy who has got nothing, you really feel bad for yourself. Trust me, it hurts.

Then there are moments when you are travelling in the lift with a “dick” i.e. a guy with whom you have had a bad experience. And many times you don’t know where to look or how to avoid that person. The best option in such situations is to pull out your phone and run through some unwanted stuff.

Last but not the least, I must mention the sweaty and smelly guys, the ones who rarely allow water to run on their skin must be given due credit for their bindaas attitude. But that is not cool. That is nasal terrorism. I would say “Use the stairs dude” if I had the balls to say that.  The raw smell of tobacco from certain kind of unique individuals makes you feel like closing your nose. But that would be a bit too offensive if you do it on their face.

Seriously, I don’t know how to end this piece. I am out of touch these days. Sorry if I have disappointed you. I will try better next time. Till then, see you folks.

Ensconced Reality

A Shadow hides a Shadow
The largest one is your clue.
A Lie hides another Lie
The smallest one is the glue

Brightness hides brightness
The faintest one is the proof
Darkness covers darkness
Nobody knows who’s who

Let Me Settle This Thing Today

I set myself just two rules while writing this article.
1.To not quote or refer any source as an input to the article.
2.To write this in one single go in a time limit of one hour

We are all born into this world as human beings. The color  region, religion  time and other identities might be different. But all of are almost similar in the one way i.e time and an option to think and learn from others. Now, the former feature is non-negotiable. The second one is compulsory to some extent, i.e we do learn things like language and some basic etiquette. We also learn the concept of religion or god from our families. At least nine of ten continue to be “god-fearing” people. Some of us tend to ask questions about stuff like “why is the sky blue?” or “where do babies come from”, etc. Our parents often answer some questions to whatever extent they can and then start using a phrase “it is the work of god”. All of us are initiated to our respective religions from a very tender age. It might be in form of prayers, rituals or in the form of stories or movies. Nobody resists or questions things that are said to be sacred, be it kids or elders.

I belong to a family of “god-fearing” devout Hindu family. My grandpa was a trustee of 2-3 of temples and also had a major role in building a temple in my home town. My mother has unfailing trust in god and derives her courage and peace from that entity. My father belongs to the other half, i.e people who hides their hypocrisy behind the entity of god. My school had a compulsory prayer session before having lunch right from the first grade. I was told the stories of Ramayan and Other myths during my primary school. I treated them as just stories as a kid. It was not till class 8 I tried to actually “think” about god.

My mind started asking the following questions? And I tried to search for answers.

Is it true? Should I be able to see something to believe in it? Is god really merciful? If yes, why do we have thieves and poor people in this world? Why is he not solving our problems? What is he doing? Is he enjoying people’s woes? Is there a single god? Where is he? Why did people build temples and destroy temples of other religion? Why didn’t god stop wars that were fought in his name?

I found out that these were valid questions , though they were not new in the public domain. These questions were new to my family and me. The environment in which I living in did not entertain such questions. People around me were not interested in these questions though they did not stop me from thinking. The thing is , they preferred “not to think” about it. By, class ten I was what people call a “staunch atheist” I was among the few atheists in my school. My attempts to find the answers tended to confirm the non-existence of god. It was simply impossible for me to agree to the promises made to mankind by religious texts and theories about the benevolent creator.

At the same time, I started to question what gives us the ability to respect and appreciate the beauty of the blue skies, green forest and the smell of the earth after rain. I wondered about the grand design behind the solar system, galaxies and the seasons. Of course , science offered proof and plausible theories that could be tested by experiments. It was convincing. But any theory regarding the origin of life or universe need not be conclusive. That need not be a reason for anybody to subscribe to fantasies that are sold to people by the institution called religion. Our logic/science must end when our proofs end. We must be ready to agree that some answers are good enough to be remain unanswered. The ones cite in the origin of universe as an example for the “Greatness” of god are among the last people who are willing to find the answer to that question. They simply want to have their way as far as the issue of religion is concerned. Genuine curiosity is always incomplete with a scientific bent of mind.

The general observation tells any unbiased observer that all religions have divided and dispossessed people., and assisted the creation of hate and ignorance. It has created herd mentality in people, making them as followers of seers, saints or gurus without thinking or questioning them.

These things are objectionable. But that’s not the entire story.

People do enjoy kindness, love and care from  family,teachers, and random people as well. Humans possess great potential to do good without any set of doctrines tagged around their necks. We need not create stories and myths to make people “good”. We can treat all the “good” things like knowledge, science, kindness, love and peace as god. Let honesty, friendship and caring for nature etc be our daily dose of worship or rituals. Let us not mix up life and good deeds with religion and confuse ourselves. Instead we can make it a part of our lives and add more meaning to our existence.

I conclude by saying that, I am an atheist. I don’t believe in magical hand that is described in the so called “sacred”  texts. Instead I believe in a more of a spiritual and humanist view that is tolerant, transparent and humane towards all life and humanity. I am for a doctrine that does away with all hypocrisy and phonies that have taken center stage in our society and lives.