Pens and Pages

As expected, it was raining heavily in the cold October evening. I ran towards a bus while the wind flew my umbrella away. It was dark and I got totally drenched in the rain- not a comfortable situation for a 14-year old returning from her tuition classes, who was now searching for a seat in a city bus crowded with drunken men. Luckily enough, I found a seat with only one passenger sitting on it. I went up to him and asked “Shall I sit here?” He was a man in his mid-fifty’s wearing a grey shirt and what looked like a carelessly worn bleached white dhoti. The man politely nodded and uttered a ‘yes’ but to my surprise he did not give me way to sit near the window nor had he left enough space that I could sit near him letting him sit by the window; he was sitting right in the middle of the seat made for two. Miffed by this indecent behavior of his, I told him harshly to move to either of the two sides of the seat. He moved to occupy the aisle-seat entirely while telling me to take t...

“Madam, your fare?” the bus-conductor asked the lady sitting beside me in the bus I took from Jalukbari to Panbazar yesterday. The woman handed out a ten-rupee note and got back a couple of coins.  I had a fifty-rupee note clutched between my fingers to give to the conductor. Although, the fare is only seven rupees, I did not have any other notes of less value with me that day. To my surprise, the conductor moved on to the next seat to ask for fare without taking mine. Perhaps, he confounded that I had given my fare already.  Undoubtedly, I was delighted by the fact that I had my seven bucks saved and I could spend it on a candy bar. But, deep within me, there was guilt that I was doing something unjust.On one hand I was euphoric that I had deft enough not to let anyone know that the reason of the smile on my face was that I was travelling without a ticket. On the other hand it made me feel debauched as I was entirely aware that the conductor forgot to ask me. Considering my ...

Well, this may be the effect of watching the movie “Mujhse Fraandship (not sure how many R’s and A’s are there) Karoge” but I do think that there are some people who are “Chat karo to koi aur hai milo to koi aur hai, it’s almost like he is not the same person”. There was this guy in my Economics tuition. He would never talk to me during the classes. Whenever I told him anything, he would reply with a nod of his head or, sometimes, could manage to make a “hmn” sound. That was the time when we all were new to social networking sites and would spend almost half the free time we get, on the internet (as if it ain’t true now). So, there was his profile amongst one of those whose friend requests I got. Since I knew him from tuition (and actually this made me sure that he knows me too), I accepted his request. Now here comes his chat: “Hey gurlie!”. :-o. For a guy who could barely talk to me even if I start the conversation, this was never expected. Immediately I shoved the feel...

Attempt # 1 So, my resolution for the year 2011 was this easy – lose eating high cholesterol food, lose weight. And I celebrated the first day of the new year with cakes, chocolates and burgers (u may LOL, but this implies failure and failure actually hurts). Attempt # 2 So, on the second day of the year, I decided that the resolution was not easy to stick to and a new resolution is required (you may ask why, simple, it’s because everybody else has one). So, my new new-year resolution was to exercise daily, lose weight. Now, it was just a day ago that I broke a resolution so this time I had to stick to whatever I had declared to myself. But of course, I am not someone to begin the hard work from the very first day. Hence, “from tomorrow it is” I affirmed to myself. On the third day of the year, it was not until midnight that it occurred to me that I forgot to “inaugurate” my exercise routine that day. So, “from tomorrow it sure will be”. On the fourth day of the year I actu...