Sunday, December 07, 2008

Dikhawe pe mat jao... apni akal chalao

I usually travel to and from office in the company bus. One fine day,rather, one fine evening, I had to run to catch the 8:30 pm bus. Since I reached the bus at the last minute, I got a seat on the last row. Thankfully, instead of the usual 6 people sitting on the last seat, there were only 2 of us - one was me and the other was a girl of about 24 or 25. The bus was a TATA star bus. All the rows have 2 seats on the left of the aisle and 3 seats on the right. The left and right seats are not in a line, but thoda 'aagey peechey'. And just before the last seat there is another entry/exit door on the left. Which means, a person who sits on the last seat, right behind the row of 2 seats, gets some free space to stretch his legs. And that section is also well lit as compared to the seats on the last row just behind the row of 3 seats which is very dark since there is no free space in between. I was sitting on the last seat behind the row of 2 seats. The bus started and I was steadying my breath. Within a few minutes, I noticed that this girl sitting next to me was doing something. Since there was hardly any light in the section where she was sitting, I had to strain my eyes to figure out what she was upto. Not that I was scared... :) But still, why take chances. From whatever I could see and understand, I figured that the girl is busy doing 'kroshia' or crochet work. I was mighty impressed. I mean, how many girls aged 24 or 25, working in the IT industry, will indulge in crochet knitting while travelling home in a company bus? I guess the count would be equal to the count of Chinese temples in Mumbai. So there I was, sitting on the last seat in the bus, observing the girl and thinking very highly of her. I was also of the opinion that if a girl likes doing Crochet work sitting on the last seat in the bus, then I could be pretty sure that she would be a master at many other tasks including household chores [the typical image of a what all a girl is supposed to know as she reaches marriageable age... ;)] She actually caught my attention and I was thinking of asking her what she was making. Now, now, don't get me wrong. I did not have marriage on my mind. I kept observing her for some time. Very soon we reached a section of the road where sufficient light was pouring into the bus on the last seats too, thanks to the street lights. That is when thepuzzle was unraveled. The girl was not doing any crochet work. Instead she was busy trying to straighten her entangled handsfree chord of the cell phone. So much for guessing it to be crochetwork... Phew. Thank GOD I did not ask her what she was creating using crochet. And from that day onwards, I decided not to sit on the last seat. And if I ever had to sit on the last seat, never to make my brain work in an overdrive to figure out what the girl sitting next to me is doing.