Billions Of Billious Blue Blistering Barnacles

I never wake up early in the morning. Today for some reason I did.

I went and just stood in the balcony. It was so wonderful. No noise. Just the birds chirping. The beautiful morning sun. Nice warming sunshine. The cool breeze out of nowhere…..

I forgot everything else and was just lost in the “morning”………

Mindspark over now. Yesterday was the most hectic day for me. At the end of it my legs were paining like hell. Plus the thought of college tomorrow was not very inviting either. Plus the bhaji at the dinner in college was too spicy for me. All in all a very glum situation. As usual I was hunting around for a ride. Thankfully a friend of mine was going home. So I got my lift home. She dropped me home and went off quickly. It was getting late. Around 10:30.

I somehow managed to lumber my way to my room. Just when I was getting ready to sleep a friend called saying he needed stuff and i will have to come downstairs to give it. Again a herculean task. But still, i hadn’t met her in ages so it was okay. Things were improving slightly at least.

I went down to meet her not knowing that she wasn’t alone.

She had her niece with her. A cute little 5 yr old. I have met her sometimes before too.. And she really likes me. So she came up to me and asked why i was looking so ill. I said this was because I was tired and had fever. The poor thing started crying for some reason. I calmed her down somehow. Then just when i was expecting that she would run away from me for making her cry she gave me a peck on the cheek. Then looked at me and smiled. A cute little watery smile.And then hugged me (My waist to be more precise.) and just refused to let go.

All the frustration, anger and tiredness vanished immidiately. Gone.

As most of the people I know. know, that I am not allowed to drive for six months. So yesterday a friend graciously offered me a lift. I had to pick up a report from poona hospital and he had some work on lakshmi road. As everyone knows that area is famous for its ever changing one ways. Unfortunately we happened to go wrong side on one such road. I can swear I didn’t see a board saying one way anywhere. As we came out at the other end we were to be stopped, by who else, but our Venerable Mama. He was actually sitting on his bike waiting for someone to go wrong side. This is our conversation( My friend wishes to remain anonymous so i will just refer to him as You-Know-Who.)

MAMA: ” Thamba!!(Sounding like a trumpet.) Kai re. Dole nahi ahet ka. Disat nahi ka he wrong side ahe.License ani PUC.

My friend obliged.

MAMA:”Hmm…(With a mouthful of gutkha.) . Chala ata 300 rupay fine bhara .

(We didn’t have that much money..actually, Plus I think the actual fine is less.)

So we pleaded our case. And usual the Mama relented and finally came down to 50.

It was literally like buying vegetables from the market. You keep bargaining till you agree on the price.

This made me think.(Something really really wrong. I am thinking too much these days.)

What is the use of Mama sitting at the other end. Shouldn’t he try to prevent rather than punish. I have never seen any traffic policeman shooing people away from a no entry. The whole purpose of punishing is that going wrong side is dangerous. So what do they want to do . Fine people after they have been in a life threatening accident??? How can people who have been given such responsible jobs be so negligent, greedy and corrupt?

I wanted to ask him all these questions. Fight about them. But then I did something that all of us do all the time.

I turned a blind eye towards it and walked away…………………………..