Today I will tell you about a funny incident that happened with me. Any of you who have travelled by bus might know how sharing a seat meant for two with a third person is a common scenario in buses. Well one day on my way back from college I managed to get a window seat in bus (mind you it is indeed a blessing to get a window seat in bus!) and luckily a girl and not some rowdy guy sat next to me. I was contended and hoped a happy journey back home. But my happiness was short lived because just after 20 minutes we reached a stop from where large number of passengers boarded the not so packed bus(actually the number was large enough so as not to fit in the sitting capacity but yupp they could stand comfortably). And in this crowd of people were two aunties who became a matter of concern (no they were definitely not injured nor were they old!).
They were a matter of concern because one of them asked us to adjust on a seat meant for two so as to accommodate her. We tried our best not to comply with what she said. But she was so persuassive that finally we did adjust. In the remaining journey she didn’t even for a minute stop complaining about how uncomfortably she was sitting. Mind you she thought only she was uncomfortable and not us (the lesser mortals as per her). And much astonishing was the fact that although she kept on complaining but she would not get up and stand more comfortably instead! Well this was about how uncomfortable the journey became.
Now about the other auntie. She of course like her friend(yes they were friends……more about it later though!) adjusted on the seat in front of mine and the occupants this time were a male and a female and still the auntie insisted on adjustment. It happened such that the two aunties were friends and amongst all the adjustment and cribbing they managed to carry on their gossip varying from how to make pickle ,to how to control their children, to how their neighbour’s dressing sense was so out of fashion. And completely fed up and irritated of all this gossip I took recourse to the much coveted headphones (I am indeed very grateful to the person who invented cell phones with music player).
I had also managed to start a conversation with my co passenger (the other lesser mortal who was also upset by the fact of losing out on a comfortable journey all because of the auntie we had to share our seat with). Therefore I was in a way multi tasking, listening to songs and chatting with her. Volume in my headset was pretty loud and so my pitch while replying to her rose a little sometimes and it so happened that she made a comment on the male who shared his seat in front of us and waited for my reply. I forgetful of the fact that headsets were in my ears and not hers replied a bit loudly. Well not a bit but loud enough so that the male about whom the comment was made could hear it. Not that I said something wrong. In fact I stated the obvious that if he had so much respect for the auntie he could well have got up and vacated the seat, why to make adjustment sitting in between two ladies on a seat meant for two. I understand that the auntie was very persuasive to get a seat but it would have been more dignified on his part to get up and vacate the seat instead, if he had to indeed bow to her demands.
But my stating the obvious meant a bit of embarrassment for me and a lot for him. For me because he heard me and stared back at me in shock and disbelief. And for him, because the poor fellow could not even get up as that would mean accepting his fault and sitting their became even more uncomfortable for him as now he became conscious of what other people might think about his adjustment. But I was also in a way happy as through this incident I managed to state the obvious and hopefully next time the fellow would get up and with full dignity vacate his seat for the auntie.
And as far as headphones are concerned I still plug them in my ears, pump up the volume to the maximum and make it a point NOT to open my mouth with the headsets plugged in my ears.
