Be alert in Pune buses

Today, I was travelling to office from Shivaji Nagar in a PMPNL bus. I happened to be sitting by the window. The typical Pune bus has heacy glass windows which open vertically, and are held in open position by a hook at the top of the window. As the bus turned at the Balgandharva Rana Mandir, the glass window came crashing down. The window was not tethered to the hook, and had somehow been held open. Luckily for me, my hand was not on the window sill - else the glass crashing into my elbows would have created a story of its own. My hand was on the window sill a couple of minutes back, and I had removed it from there after the person sitting behind me warned me that the window was not being held firmly in place.

That's luck and I thanked that man profusely for his timely warning. There are so many such things that can go wrong, in seemingly innocuous things - but they go off well. We can just thank our stars for that :). And be careful in Pune buses!

A tough job indeed

'Yours is a tough job', an elderly uncle remarked in the local train. He was commenting on ticket checker arguing with a passenger. The passenger, who had just boarded the train, was asked by the officer to show her tickets. She retorted asking him to first check other passengers. The officer, already grappling with a person travelling without a ticket, impatiently directed her to produce the ticket. At this the lady burst out at the officer, asking him to lower his voice and talk more politely. Some people's self-righteousness is hurt if they are asked for a ticket, as if they are being held guilty.

The other passenger the ticket checker was grappling with, is an even more interesting case. These days, the ticket checkers are gracious enough to stand at the door of the compartment and declare that this is the first class, and not to get into the compartment. All these warnings just fell on deaf ears, and this gentleman leisurely walked into the compartment without a ticket.

Another incident at another time. This one takes the prize. Mr. X gets into the ladies first class, along with a couple of his friends - both of them females. First, he doesn' t have a first class tickets, and on top of that neither do the ladies. Naturally, the ticket checkers asked for a fine. Mr. X creates a scene there, accusing the TTEs of being indecent to his friends. He claims that money is not an issue for him - but how dare the checkers behave in that way with his friends. Not for a moment did he think that he was the one shouting at the top of his voice, calling names in the ladies compartment - where he had no right to be in the first place.

A tough job indeed, but as the officer said he sees people of all hues in the course of his duties.

Women Power

Here is an interesting anecdote. This happened a couple of weeks back at the railway station. The train was trudging into the station, and I was all set to make a dash into the compartment. Suddenly, behind me I hear noises and see a man running fast with a lady in hot pursuit. The girl, in her twenties, finally caught up with the man and unleashed a flurry of punches. The man tried to defend, but his defenses were too weak for the onslaught. It was like a boxer barging into her opponent. There wasn't any time to figure out what the issue was all about. The train came, I got into it. The girl got into the adjoining compartment, the job being done well. I haven't seen such a display of aggression from a girl.

The incident reminded me of the unsung hero of Indian boxing, MC Mary Kom, the 4 time world champion from Manipur. Kudos to her! Women's boxing as an event at the Olympics would have fetched us a gold :)