The air conditioner was switched off inside the bus. Felt like I'm inside a boiler. Time was 3:30 and the bus is parked under direct sunlight in front of Sangeetha College. I gave attender my ticket and he gave me the boarding pass. I took it and the seat number was 40. I looked at him in disbelief. I asked him whether I'll get another seat. He said he'll try, be happy with the last seat in the corner for time being. I recalled my dad's words" seat is conformed but no seat number".I tried to push-in my bag to the overhead rack but it was too big. Usual i managed to push it in. So i have to keep it on my lap. I sat at the rear end of the bus wondering where I'll be tomorrow.
The passengers where a lot different from the usual bunch. I spotted two foreigners in the third seat, a black in the seat in front of me and one gal and her mom have a look of "chinkes" but dressed up like Europeans. There was one more fair lady in seat number 26 keeping all her luggage on the next seat. She already had a fight with the bus attender when he said , the seat is booked for someone else and the lady cannot keep luggage inside the bus. But she's tough I guess!
The aircondition was too cold when bus got started but I had my overcoat. The fun began as the guy in front of the tough fair lady moved his seat a little back so that he can sleep. The lady was having her leg inbetween the seat. As the guy moved it back, she began to scream out of pain. No body screams like that for a small thing like this. Then the culprit( the guy in the front seat)
asked " Mam, what happened ?"
(Fair Lady ) FL: Why did u do that ? U broke my leg U U :^*@ &*^^!!!!
(Culprit ) C: Sorry mam, I didn't see u had ur leg inbetween
FL: I'm not gonna leave u, U %&$#@ Now saying sorry to me AUUH my leg
C: turned back and said in Malayalam ," Do anyone scream like this for getting their leg inbetween two cushioned seat!!!!"
Then happened the most incredible thing, the Fair lady went to the bus cleaner and complained about the culprit. Then she came back and startd to make calls, first one was to one of her friend in Indian Express News paper, then one call to some Ministers's secretary.
Call was all about "The misbehaviourof a keralite to a foreigner :(".
The culprit had a red face and he didn't know what to do. Once the fair lady stopped talking, the other two chinkees joined her and they started to curse people around them. The major discussion was about the illiteracy of Indians, about our manners ( according to them , we don't have any).
Most frustrating thng that I saw there was no one in the bus was willing to comment or to take part in this heated discussion. They all have their own things to bother and the innocent fellow was left without any sleep until the bus stopped for dinner. I was little worried about the culprit and invited him to take the seat next to me. Fortunately the seat was empty until we finished our journey and the fair lady was happy with the leg space for her when no one was seated in front of her. Fir this journey she occupied three seats in effect, one to put her luggage, one for her and the one in front of her :) Luckly as we were in the last row of the bus, no one was there to put their leg inbetween our seat ;)
