Take my breath away

A bus journey... from Bangalore to Calicut. It takes approx 8 hours to cover the distance.

Time: Around 10:00 PM. The guy walks in. He slumps onto the seat next to me. He is drunk!

"What a luck!" I murmured angrily. The guy was stinking with alcohol. I used to wonder why such 'spirits' drink and travel?! What pleasure they get!? What 'kick' they get by releasing their 'spirit' in an air-tight enclosed bus!?

Sometime back a friend enlightened me that the spirit they drink helps them sleep well. Hence they drink and travel!!! Wah...! What profound social nuisances!

A boiling me cannot sleep. But I have to. I started counting till 100 to calm myself down. I knew my act won't help much. But that was the best bet I had to get a good sleep. Somewhere at the count of 100000000901 I slept.

*****

Time: 3ish in the morning...

A stinking smell of alcohol wakes me up. Half awake, I turn my head to my left-hand side, and slightly lift my eyelid. I see my neighbor's snoring wide-open mouth threatening to eat my nose; his uvula dancing to his snore.

I grin.

In my stupor I lift my palm and smell my breath. Terrible! The chilly chicken (my dinner) had rotten well. With my palm still facing my mouth, I redirect my fingers to my neighbor's nose... and then... BLOW HARD ONTO MY PALM and thereby onto his nose. I repeat the same three or four times.

The snoring stops! The alcohol stink stops! And I go back to my sleep.

*****

When I woke up in the morning I saw the 'drunkard' sitting in some other seat.

*****

Fellow travelers, follow the example I set. ;-)

*****

DISCLAIMER: This post is a work of NON-fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are NOT the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is NOT coincidence. They actually happened

Underprivileged?

Who is an underprivileged kid? A kid who commutes in auto-rickshaw and carries one of the most flashy mobile handsets? The English definition of underprivileged is "Lacking the rights and advantages of other members of society".

My friend is a project manager with around 8 years of experience in IT industry. A few days back I met him at a bus stop. He told me he was waiting for a bus!! He doesn't have a car or a motorbike. He is no miser. I can vouch for that. So then... why bus and not an auto-rickshaw!!?? Because he (and I) think the rickshaw-walas of Bangalore are looters who charge exorbitantly and extort money from their passengers. He said he couldn't afford their charges, which seldom go by the meter. Hence commuting by bus.

My relative has three kids studying in a "privileged" school in Bangalore. None of them carry mobile handsets. They don't have the latest computer and accessories at their home. All they have is an obsolete model that gives them constant trouble.

Why am I bringing up all these?

One of my part time activities is to teach "underprivileged" kids as a volunteer of an NGO. I teach them computer basics. I admit there are a bunch of kids who are truly underprivileged. But when I see some others walking into the classroom with flashy mobile phones, and see them commuting in auto-rickshaws, I wonder why am I spending time here teaching “underprivileged” kids, who appear to be truly privileged!! Had I had to teach privileged kids, I would be teaching my near-and-dear “privileged” kids! That would be far more rewarding! Besides, they truly lack the advantages a mobile phone or a rickshaw can offer!

I'm not ignoring other aspects these "underprivileged" kids might be having, such as, a troubled family. But then, it is also my choice and impression, which I can't ignore. I would prefer working for the upliftment of those kids who do lack mobile handsets and who, like other common people in India, commute by bus!

Perhaps the truly underprivileged are unable to find their way to my class. Perhaps the teacher should go out searching for them...

The Kite Runner

Read "The Kite Runner" of Khaled Hosseini. A good page turner. Khaled knows the art of story telling...

To some extend, The Kite Runner educated me about Afghan people, their culture, and their problems. After reading the novel I had the urge to watch this novel over celluloid. The movie version turned out to be a damp squib. The director and the script-writer could not do justice to the novel.

Given below are a few interesting quotes from the novel.

Baba: You'll never learn anything of value from those bearded idiots - the mullas. Piss on the beards of all those self-righteous monkeys. They do nothing but thumb their prayer beads and recite a book written in a tongue they don't even understand. God help us all if Afghanistan ever falls into their hands.

Baba: No matter what the mullah teaches, there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft.

Amir: That's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.