On my way back

It was October, and I was on my way back from Delhi, having some nice pieces of photography I’d done in the rare outskirts of the railway station. The two seats in front of me were occupied by two ladies in their late teenage, most probably heading towards the same destination as mine. As we left the ISBT (inter-state bus terminus) Delhi, everything seemed to be so normal; Delhi was facing the routined day-end quiet early, the month being October. Coal-burn-smoke could be seen through the window.

The bus was not yet full the seat next to me was still empty. So I thought of having a nap, as I was a bit tired of the photography stuffs throughout the week. There were disturbances, horns, the shouting conductor while he managed hanging, with half of his body outside the bus`s entry. My nap was not a deep one though, I woke up every now and then as the bus vibrated, looked here and there for a while, checked out for some new passengers, expecting them to be coetaneous females (As I was still inside the Delhi-Territory) and again went back to sleep.

The two ladies I specified earlier began their chit-chat which started gaining my attention. As we moved and as the sky went reddish, their conversation went really interesting. They talked about guys, their interests, food, and some science. Now when you hear science from gals, there are two categories of reactions that usually come out of normal people:-

(1)Annihilating frustration followed by an intuition that might end up donating a tight slap or a further intuition of a suicide due to ‘why am I still listening to them’ phenomenon.
(2)Remembering the exact sentences used and sharing them with your friends, which might end up changing their perceptions about you and you getting the throne of the funniest person in the group.

Their innovative talks about ‘The various shopping spots in Delhi where you may find some smart and rich guy who may afford you for the whole evening and who don`t have the guts to ask for your phone number’ and ‘What to wear in which weather’ let me figure out that they were typical Delhi locals. Around 30 minutes later they had nothing more to talk about. So one of them took out her iPod and the other kept looking out through the half opened window.

My eyes opened when we were at the midway halting for some refreshments. I went down to have something for my stomach as I hadn`t done my lunch that day and was terribly hungry. It came to my notice from the driver who was smoking his brand 101 bidi, that we had been halting since the last 10 minutes and were about to leave. I decided to carry along some packed stuff. Thinking about the available options, I headed towards the dhaba. I saw those two sitting comfortably on the chairs, relaxing. I kept thinking why didn`t the driver tell the same thing to every passenger. I got a pack of lays and two packets of chocolate cream biscuits. I looked at my watch; I had a safe and clear 7 minutes in hand before the bus was to leave. After getting my change back, I heard the conductor shouting, calling each passenger to board the bus, requesting to every one of them in the most modest way possible and then I heard the two girls ordering – 2 pav-bhaaji, 2 patties, 1 chowmein and 2 softies once the rest of the order had come.