It was around late evening that fateful day, when I waited at the bus stop to go to a friend's house for a party, The cabs were on strike in view of the hike in diesel rates. Surprisingly, there was only a sparse crowd at the bus stop. May be the people of the city had retired early, that hot summer day.
A cosy couple caught my eye, they were very intimate with each other and probably would continue their public display of affection, in the same vein in the rear seats of the bus. They looked the type of couple who stayed in a small flat with their joint nosy family and were making the most of the privacy available to them. Such was the plight of most married couples in this cruel city. I wondered about their silent sex life in the night with their family members sleeping next to them, they would have to be indeed, quiet and very careful.
How they procreated was beyond my comprehension.
A sweet girl in her early 20s was waiting patiently, as she did daily for her evening livelihood. She had a garish lip-stick on her thin lips. Her dress sense was also very loud and inviting. The sweat in her underarms was staining her silk blouse profusely on this hot day. She was frantically speaking to someone on her weather beaten cell phone with a heart shaped pendant attached to it. Soon, a car came and a corpulent elderly man took her for the night. Some money exchanged hands before she reluctantly sat in the car. Her sustenance for the next day was insured. May be she would be seen at the same bus stop again, waiting for other people's cars to ride her night away.
An elderly man was smoking a cigarette rapidly as if it would be his last one, Later, he was seen violently coughing blood stained phlegm, caring a damn about the hygiene of this newly constructed bus stop. We had already ceased to exist for that coughing old man. Strangely, the other people standing there hardly noticed his plight. All the eyes were patiently waiting for their bus which would transport them to their dreary destinations.
Lastly, I noticed a blind man with his white cane, asking everyone about the arrival of his bus, he was worriedly seeing the time repeatedly in his braille watch. He carried a big box of incense sticks which gave fragrance to this bus stop's humid atmosphere. The blind man used to sell these incense sticks at the nearby foot over bridge, was worried about losing his clientele. He had a job to do and agitatedly, was cursing the drunk delayed bus drivers who were depriving him of his daily bread.
I boarded the bus along with the crowd and sat on the front seat, The conductor was hurriedly giving tickets and collecting the coins and small notes for them silently. I was stretching my arm to get his attention, surprisingly he was ignoring me. I did not want to travel ticket less, just because of his oversight. I got up and confronted him with a 5 rupee note in my hand, As he saw me, he smiled at me and denied the note.He told me that the ride was on him. I was surprised and sat down on my seat, soon he came and called my name. I was shocked.
How could he know my name? He sat next to me and reminded me of our school days, when he used to sit behind us in the back row. I slowly, but surely recollected his name. He was a bright student, who never saw the face of college because of his adversity.He had to start earning at an early age to support his family. I could not bear to see him, in this conductor's attire. We had the comfort and the support of our parents, hence we could study medicine up to post graduation level, without ever bothering about the finances.
I got down at the next traffic signal.
I returned home.
I hugged my parents and my eyes poured tears like the oncoming monsoon rain.
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