Thursday, January 25, 2007

A roller coaster ride ...

"Why dont u let the lady sit?"

I opened my eyes and saw a guy my age standing beside me and pointing to a lady in her early 40s who was standing near an occupied "ladies seat" in the bus. She smiled in anticipation of the offer she was going to get. I got up,smiled,and asked her to sit,and gave a big long stare at the guy who did this to me.Why in the heavens world did this guy ask a peacefully sleeping me to surrender my legitimate "general seat" to a lady who looked perfectly healthy and capable of standing for sometime till one of the ladies got up.That i thought was against the ethics of traveling in a bus.The guy smiled back at me and moved ahead to get down the bus ,but i have registered his face in my memory to do the same to him if ever i get an opportunity.

Anyways,i still stood beside the seat which was mine a few minutes back,giving the tacit message to the lady that it still was MY seat."Claiming the seat" is the phrase i would use henceforth for "Standing beside the seat":) . Its now that a twist in the tale occurred.One of the females from the "ladies seats" got up!!!Now there was no other standing female in the bus,one seat was empty next to me (on which no male would want to sit, just in case a female got inside the bus on the next stop),and one lady was sitting on a "general seat"!!! A perfect opportunity for the lady to return my favor , i thought.She could get up from her seat,sit on the seat ahead,and let me sit on MY seat!!!But she dint.

A man in his late 40s was standing next to me,claiming the seat behind the lady's seat.The lady turned her head back and started talking to him,so lets assume he is her husband (!!).Now this made me feel that the lady is not only mean,she is dumb too.She could easily play a strategic move here to make sure that both she and her husband are seated.Either she is traveling in a bus for the first time,or she doesnt care about her husband,or..a hundred such random conclusions later at one such arbit bus stop, a new twist in the tale came in the form of an old lady in her 70s!!!!By this time some other female had occupied the empty "ladies seat".As the old lady moved towards the front of the bus searching for a seat,i sensed my opportunity to take revenge,i stopped her,and asked the lady who was sitting.."why dont u let the old lady sit?".The lady found herself in a situation similar to what i was in some 10 minutes back.Unwillingly she too got up and made way for the old lady to sit.I smiled the most wicked of my smiles at the lady who was now standing,and realized it was time for me to get down the bus!!!

A nail biting battle,i thought.The winner gets to sit!

Saturday, January 6, 2007

"Writing" yet another blog..well..not really..

How much do you write these days? By "write" i mean the most conventional of all "writes",not about "writing code",or "writing to a CD/DVD",but writing with a pen/pencil on a piece of paper (not "scribbling",but making an attempt to put up a decent handwriting) .Well,recently i realized that i hardly do.(It's been six months since i have started working in a software company!!!)

The occasion was filling up my info in my school's Alumni register.My school (Kendriya Vidyalaya INS Hamla , Malad) didn't have an official Alumni Register yet,and although the info will soon go where it actually belongs (in digital format , that is),in order to make a start we used the more conventional means.(As an aside,it was great meeting old teachers after a long gap,glad that almost all of them still remember me!!!).

Coming back to the point,while filling up the form we had this column called 'contact no',as i started penning my cell no down,for a split second my inner voice screamed (!!!!!),"you are HARDCODING your cell no!!!!!Not a great programming practice"(Well..It's been six months since i have started working in a software company!!!;-) ),sanity prevailed soon though and i put down the remaining digits!!!


The world has become simpler!!!