ONE FINE EVENING!!

                        Kids are always awesome. When you are with them or if you watch them, you would accept Einstein’s theory of relativity without any more questions. True isn’t it? Time will run like Indian Auto meter faster than a home appliance Grinder. Because, everyone wants to be a kid, an age that doesn’t have any serious responsibilities, aim or fear. It’s all fun they need. We can’t become a kid, but we can watch them and console ourselves.

                        A day of decider at my office; Plenty of people were awaiting the union election results. Everyone was on their feet because the results were going to be out. I sneaked out of my office early because of the fact that I’m not interested in unions. My office’s next door is Bus Stand. I was waiting at the bus stand for the buses routed to my place. As usual bus arrived and within 5 minutes, the entire bus was loaded. People had to throw their things on the seats from outside through the window in order to book their seats. That is the case with our route bus, because of infrequent bus facility. Fortunately I got a seat behind two school boys probably doing their 5th or 6th standard. I had to throw my bag for getting that seat.

                        One boy's name is Sriram (I came to know when he was about to get down) and the other one is Balu (Sriram called out his name while playing). As soon as the bus started, the two boys started playing hand cricket.

Hand cricket: Majority of us would have played this game at-least once, while we were kids. Game rules don’t need a book. Since I have forgotten the rules I had to watch them play and understand. These are the game rules which I’ve observed while those boys were playing. Both persons playing has to spread their fingers at the same time, one to bat and the other one to bowl. If the numbers are same, then it is out. If it’s Thumb, it’s six and the remaining numbers follows the usual number system counted as runs.

    

                        The game began and fists got the hit. Both were saying “all trials, first ball” and spread the fingers. They nearly finished 6 matches and it was getting interesting when Balu scored 250 odd runs. Sriram was chasing it. They started to shout when the game was a real nail biter. That's where the fun began. Gazes started to shift towards those little boys, Kids hardly notice that gaze and nostalgic eyes. At last Sriram won. The final game was pretty interesting. Because, both boys didn’t trust each other, so Balu took out a paper and he drew a table with wickets in the first column, Sriram's name in the second column and his name in third in-order to track the runs and wickets.

                        Again Balu was batting, poor Sriram, he didn't know Balu was betraying him almost in all the matches. Balu wrote the runs. He counted it. It was 223. I peeked into it. The count wouldn't even cross 150. Then Sriram batted, he scored 193. Poor Sriram, I felt bad for him. Sriram was about to get down, his bag was about to tear, that was the first time when Balu called "Sriram".

                        Nice kids. After seeing them, my school days started to roll in my mind. No fear, no concern, funny play, small fights, talking justice. Wonderful days!! Why didn't man invent a time machine!!

DINNER AT THE TIFFIN CENTER

Everyday some moments may go unnoticed. May be sometimes you get noticed by all because of your obnoxious behaviour. Some may say you are over ambitious. Some may say you are selfish. Whatever be it, the above said things would cross your mind after the incident. You might think, “God, what have I done?”, “Why did I go to that place?” You would fail to notice a thing, because of your one silly behaviour, things might get into normal. This has happened yesterday night at a mini restaurant which is two blocks away from my home. 

            “Selvam Tiffin Center” my favourite one not because of the kind of food they are preparing. But because of the accent they speak.  Whenever I eat there, I feel that I’m in my home town because of their accent. Since my mom is not home, I had to eat there every night. Yesterday night 8:30, I went there for my routine dinner. 

            The restaurant was always crowded. Since they have less space, you have to stand and eat. I went there and didn’t know that something was wrong with the center boys. If you are a stranger, you hardly notice it. So, I went in and thought of eating Idlies. Two center boys started abusing each other. Till that time, things were under control. Suddenly, one of the two boys slammed a big plate on the head of the other boy. I was stunned and everyone was. My eyes blinked and my mind voice said “Oh my God, Where did that come from?”

            After that incident, both started to hit each other and people who came there to buy food, started to pacify but things went out of control. I should have kept my mouth shut. Well, this is what I said during that fiery fight. “Anna (brother), please pack four Idlies”. Was I over ambitious there? Everyone stopped pacifying and started staring at me. “Did I do a murder or something? I am not responsible for this”. The worst case was, the two boys who were fighting stopped their fight suddenly and looked at me questioningly. I didn’t know what to do. My mind voice said “What did I do? Why did they stop the fight?”  One of the boys shouted “Muruga (the other boy’s name is murugan), pack four Idlies”.

            Idlies were packed at a rapid pace. I got my parcel and left the place. Before moving out of the shop, I turned to have a one last look, I said to myself “never do those again”. The stares started to fade, situation turned normal and I was the one who had the last laugh.

JOURNEY WITH THE UNKNOWNS

 Life will be boring until you learn to admire the things around. Until you pay attention to the beautiful scenes around you. Until you see a girl, who is not looking good at a place where you don’t have any other choice.  All you have to do is, look at her activities. A kind of notorious thing to do. But, this is what i did from Chennai to Nagari to pass my time.

            My higher officials ordered me to visit a site at pallipet which is some 130 kilometres from Chennai needed three bus journeys. I started at 8 in the morning. I got into a bus routed to thirupathi. To my amusement, I was the first one boarded the bus. I sat on the seat aside the window seat. It might be a coincidence but it happened. A girl boarded the bus and like in movies she sat in the window seat diagonally in-front of my seat, so that i could get a diagonal view of her activities.The seat aside her was yet to fill in.  People started to fill in the gaps. The conductor issued me a ticket worth Rs 80/-. I requested him to let me know when I reach Nagari. Welcome to India. Conductor sucked another 10 for that help. Well, you can say that, a nominal fee for the help.

            Bus started from Koyambedu bus stand, as usual kids started screaming, mouths started murmuring, moms started to beat the little kids. But, I didn’t seem to think that way, but it happened. The Girl (don’t know her name, so let’s call her the girl throughout this story), for the first time, turned and looked at me. Boy’s first weak point, fall for a girl’s look. Questions started to rise in my head; did she actually look at me? Well never mind. Be optimistic, Think positive. Yes, she looked at me. At that time, a small kid sat next to The Girl. She seemed disturbed by that.

            Time passed looking at her activities, after half an hour of my travel. She took out a biscuit packet from her hand bag. Sometimes I wonder, what could be inside a girl’s hand bag? A Million dollar question.  If we ask a girl about that, she would say “shut up”, an obvious reply.  She was eating the biscuits; the kid next to her looked at her mouth crushing the biscuits into pieces. She offered the kid a biscuit. God, so nice of her (you know when you fall for a Girl, even a smallest thing zooms into a monster. This little gesture looked like life saving gesture). The boy ate the biscuit and looked at her again. I started to laugh, she offered another biscuit and this continued. At one point, she lost her patience and gave the entire packet to that kid. You should be in my place to visualize the scene. The kid was eating the biscuits and she was looking at him with anger that could speak thousand words. The kid didn’t seem to notice that. His mission was accomplished.

            She looked at me again, this time I was unable to hold my laughter. I laughed.  She smiled back. I told myself, this is it!!! This is what I was waiting for!!! Hell no. She turned back and continued with her another biscuit packet. But, she turned to see me every now and then after that. I didn’t have that guts to speak with her. Bus was about to reach my destination. The 10 rupees started to speak. I was informed about the destination point. Before getting down, I turned to see her. She was looking at me without turning back. Things started to roll in my mind. “I should have talked to her. May be I should have sat next to her. I should have given her my contact number. I should have ......................................................................”