Heard and Observed....

When you are on the road; which most times you are commuting to office or home or someplace else; if you happen to be in any major city in India, there are chances of encountering either an interesting conversation, or an amusing scene that will keep you entertained. Sharing some of my recent ones...

I have the privilege of listening and observing lot of things going around at the railway signal I need to pass through. Sometimes; 2 to 3 trains pass at a time; so you have to for a while. Thats when you get to hear and see interesting things. Recently heard this conversation between two guys on each side of the auto I was on. So you see; I dont have a chance but to hear their talk. Men; generally talk about their capability; whatever context it may be. So one guy starts with asking the other one if he heard about "Victor" being slapped by someone at the bar. This one responds with "Yeah, heard it. He has decided to keep his mouth shut here on". The one who started this has to now feed his own ego; now said "Yeah, he is going to get from me one of these days. I am going to beat him up. Do you know; his car was taken away by the bank. He failed to make loan payment. This is his third car." So it went on that way for five more minutes. Phew! guys talk is it?

Posted this on FB couple of weeks ago....I was walking Gypsy this evening. He has lot of fans and admirers who Ooh and Aah his handsomeness and gait. Overheard this conversation between a lady and her 10ish year old girl in Kannada. "I need a pet too. Look at him(referring to gypsy), he is so adorable". The lady - "You first try to get out of out in all your subjects. We''ll then get one for you." The girl - "But I can still get out of out". The lady - "you'll have to spend time taking care of the pet. So you first show you can get out of out". Sigh! I didn't understand the logic. But what was obvious was parents using anything and everything as a carrot and stick to get their wishes of kids' academic success.

This one is a gem. Happened yesterday at a temple. We were in the queue; I was getting irritated with people pushing and jostling and the heat was getting on. There was this girl of about 4 years old maybe; running around to their parents' pride. The mom called and gave her few coins; saying it was 10 Rs and that was for "Maami.." I understood "Maami" meant "God" in the kids lingo. The kid promptly said "Why 10 Rs. I will give 4 Rs and keep the remaining"....!!! Now I dont think the kid knew the math or the value of money but she did know to divide the money :-o

The final one - No conversations. Just my observation. One of the traffic signal waiting for the lights to go green. Smoke from cigarette from my left was coming on; it was irritating. I recalled smoking in public is a no-no and so turned around to politely ask the person to stub it out or move it away from my face. I turned around and it was a lady around my age riding pillion; holding on to a lit cigarette. She had left her hair loose, smoking occasionally and chatting with the guy riding the motorcycle. Now I stopped; dont know why I didnt tell her. Was it because I didn't expect a woman to blow a cigarette smoke at me? Instead; I just started noticing her. Candy pink painted toe nails and finger nails; sheer leggings and platform heels. All I could think was - Is she going to office this way. Hope not". I know I was wrong in judging; but this thought even came about because the smoke came on to my face :-/