The unsteady rhythm of the bus, the fumes from combustion of adulterated diesel from the autos, the constant chatter of the conductors and the buzz of conversation of the passengers in a bus are ideal fuels for insomnia. But i was sleeping and that too on the last row where the jerking was supposed to wreak havoc in my spinal cord or so people said.
However, just as the bus crossed Deshapriya park, some silly auto-driver got in the way of the bus and i woke up as a result of the cacophony of voices of the people offering to pass verdict on the driver. I woke up to find a little boy staring at me with round eyes. Judging by his size, i placed him between 6 and 7. I have this habit of smiling at people who stare at me. So, i smiled at the boy. The boy immediately looked away, shuffling from side to side.
I took the opportunity to study him, because lets face it, i wasnt working on my world famous thesis at that moment. He had a heavy bag slung across his shoulder and almost sagged under its weight. He looked very tired to me. I decided to start a conversation.
"Hey kid, which class are you in?" i asked.
"C-Class 1" he replied. I have noticed that young children, on being asked a question by an unknown person tend to ask the same question back. This boy too was no exception.
"Which class are you in?" he asked cautiously.
"I'm in class 10." i replied.
"Wow, class 10?" he asked.
"Er, yeah." i said uncertainly. I didnt quite realise why he said wow.
"Why did you say "wow"?" i asked curiously.
"Because you are already in a double digit class!" he said with deep respect.
I coudnt help smiling.Double digit class? Never thought of it quite like that. Or have I? Quite suddenly, quite unexpectedly, a wave of deja vu hit me, and a number of childhood memories and thoughts resurfaced. And then i remembered the awe and reverence i used to have for class 10, the inexplicable feeling of achievement that i associated with it. As if i just realised it, i remembered with a start that i wont see class 10 again.
It was an odd moment. After the last day, after the farewell, i finally realise it on a bus because of a little boy. A feeling of nostalgia mixed with similar proportion of nausea due to the driver's incompetence, clouded my thoughts.
I remember getting up and asking the boy to take my seat. Somehow i couldn't get his grateful smile out of my head, cause what i saw in him, was a little flash of my past.
6 comments:
wow.. dats it i wont say a word more.
To say I was TIRED of the way my blogging was turning out would be an understatement. Yesterday, while returning from tuition, I suddenly realized how much my blogging is affected by thoughts of the audience. I mean, when I first opened the blog, I didn't want anyone to read it and I had the express to write what I want to write. But somehow, under your evil influence and your lectures on "takers", I subconsciously came to attach more importance on what people might want to read about than what I want to write about.
Ok, I don't know why I said all that in a comment, except that I was going to tell you sometime and chose this as the time. This writing..is...well...totally exceptional. I mean, I wouldn't have believed YOU capable of even having such thoughts! I sort of considered you the kind of guy who sleeps through bus journeys with an earphone plugged in. And is irritated by children's questions.
This blog revealed to me a completely new dimension of your thoughts. Maybe I just realised that you're four-dimensional. you once asked me exasperatedly, "Can't you ever get the whole measure of me?" Well, I guess I no...discovering new things everyday...maybe tomorrow I'll know you're five-dimensional! That's the fun of knowing people.
And i have to end with a "Wow!", becoz sometimes, the dctionary's woefully inadequate..
:) well actually i like interacting with children, as em questions and look at things from their perspective. How can i get irritated by a little kid? unless of course he asks me a 1000 questions when i am watching a movie.
i am four dimensional? cheers!
and i was wrong about that. You cant have the whole measure of me. I doubt if i myself do.
i understand the bit abt comments affects. I realised how wrong i was just today, i admit it. Sorry if my "evil" influence biased your line of thinking.
Thank you!
This was new...and the element of surprise always works!
But wait, I won't flatter you. Cause ur still not giving enough care for ur sentences. One thing is that u are using too many conjunctions, and that stops the flow of the sentence!..Cumon, u must hav the patience to break up ur sentences...there's no sentence limit, remember?
Oh heck! Sentences! Technical aspect is not all there is to a piece of writing!
@ Rohitashwa:
Pardon my French.
Who the f-ing hell started to write f-ing beautifully by learning a f-ing textbook of grammar? All fiction is either a lie of Homeric proportions, or it isn't fiction at all, it's plain life.
Don't break up your sentences, let them run on for a hundred pages, use twenty thousand conjunctions, just as you feel- a language doesn't have any rules, f it!
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