First, lemme tell you, this post is not meant to harm anyone, but I want to point out some flaws in our society. All the characters in this blog are real and the incident too.
I am proud to say that I belong to Kerala, because almost all of the Keralites are literate. While reading this, you will think why I wrote that, which absolutely has no relationship with the following post. But believe me friends, it has relation with the coming post. So please go through and enjoy.
Two days back, on the occasion of Diwali, I was traveling back to home by a bus. The bus was full from the starting point itself. According to the new regulation of our High Court, most of the front rowseats in the right side of the bus are reserved for ladies, and the first one is exclusively for them, a practice followed by the private buses for years. For the information of passengers, it was written in big bold white letters, over the reserved seats, in MALAYALAM.
Nowadays, there are many non-Keralites are coming to Kerala, for a living. Most of them are from North-East, so obviously they are illiterate in MALYALAM. I'm afraid that they even know how to read their mother tongue! But that's not the case here. I have already said that the bus was full. As our tradition, soon after the bus came to station, the typical Malayali's as well as the other Indians hurried to get a seat. The winners got the seats, whereas the losers stood like clowns.
I also won the competition to grab a GENERAL seat. Then few words were heard from the back side like the one in a DTS ready theater " Today's youth are not ready to help or obey the elders!" When I looked back, I saw an elderly person, who was standing there was yelling these words. Even though his face seem to be clam and his statement was like a General Truth, we all, I mean the one's who got a seat knew that that was his desperation coming out as words. By the word desperation, here I mean that the one who lost the game of grabbing a seat!
This old gun's yelling was towards a young guy. Even though our old man was trying to behave that he's not looking at the youth, the boy got the idea that the old man badly wanted his seat. He reacted pretty fast. He took the earplugs of an IPod from his pocket, and put that into his ears. The old one became more desperate. But he was not ready to agree his failure. He moved to the next seat. I guess the next seat guy was too kind to give away his seat. Finally, the old man, who was ready to make a speech about the necessity of respecting and obeying the old one's, got the seat even before he made the speech! He kept silent and soon fell asleep.
Just before the bus start, two more people rushed in. Two of them were ladies and one of them was carrying a child. By this time, our bus was filled with rough and tough gentlemen, who overpowered the ladies and grabbed their reserved seats too. Out of them, 4 were non Keralites. As soon as the ladies enter, they were trying to get a seat. But like the other ladies who were standing inside the bus, these two were also afraid to ask for a favor. We should not call that as a favor, it's their right, because the seats were exclusively reserved for the ladies.
By watching all these, the other men were asking them to go and ask other ladies, who already got a seat, to give a seat for them. But these two were standing in confusion. So I gave my seat to the one with the kid. Nobody else was even moving. Then the wheels rolled, the conductor started giving tickets for passengers and the ladies were still waiting for someone's kindness! When he approached us, these ladies asked him nothing! I wondered why. I asked him gently" are these writings are for real, brother?" he didn't answer, instead he gave me the ticket.
Then one of the ladies couldn't stand with this. She tried to ask to the others"Shall we ask them to change their seats?" The others also didn't reply. She became hopeless. Then I turned to her and asked"Sister, why don't you ask them? Its your right isn't it?" I got this reply" No no.. they are males" Me"So what?" She"So we shouldn't ask them to change the seats" Me"Shall I ask them to?"She"nope, let the conductor say something" Once again, with a determination to help them, I asked the conductor" Hey, can't you see this?" this time my voice was a little bit loud, so the conductor reacted in a sudden. he shouted to those Non-Keralites, in MALAYALAM" Hey you, get up, those seats are reserved for ladies"
The poor guys didn't get a word of it, but they suddenly jumped up and left those seats for ladies. During all this time, another gentleman was standing aside those seats, he made a waste try to grab one of the seats. But this time the ladies were lionesses, they shouted to that poor guy" Hey what are you doing, its the ladies seat" So this guy felt ashamed, and left the bus when it reached next stop :D. While all these things happening, the two "bald headed" ladies :D, who were sitting in the front row seat, that was exclusively reserved for the ladies, looked back, enjoyed the whole show with a smile on their faces and turned back when it ended.
I punctuated the term BALD HEADED LADIES because they actually were gents. I used the term ladies because, both of them were good looking middle aged Malayali males, with thick mustache, family packed abs and heads which resemble SAHARA desert. I guess they might have thought like this, either getting seats in the bus is their birth right, no matter whether it is reserved or not, or they must be ladies, at least in their minds. Because these two looked like two literate people, who were discussing about political issues all the time. These gentlemen, as I described earlier, never tried to get up from the seats, till I reached my destination. Also the conductor was afraid to ask them to change their seats! Earlier, he was shouting like a warrior and gave commands to those North Indians in pure MALAYAM! Now he is like a little lamb in front of those real Malayalis!
While watching this comedy show, the public body elections came to my mind. The same thing happened there too. 50% of the seats were for the ladies, so many big shots quit their parties and competed as rebels! And as the journey continued, I found one one more thing, a truth. None of the Malayalis are ready to help the others and none of them will stand with the one who speaks against injustice. While the talks and arguments were going on, most of the passengers in the bus were enjoying the show! Really bad to say that we are literate!
Here I would like to share two more experiences in the bus. Not the same one though.
