I always take the last bus back home after gym. It just lets me sweat out more and continue doing that till i reach home... ha ha ha... nasty joke but its true. The bus stops is usually pretty empty at that time and there is the regular banana vendor there. I think he is there everyday because I hog on them after gym. That evening he wasn't there yet. Must have been one of those off days when he found a better location or just didn't find his stock. Hunger was getting to me and it was 15 minutes for the bus. So I sat there reading all the posters and doing a 'che kandraavi moonji' at many of the heroes there.
I think i was ogling at the Rajnikanth poster when i heard a voice somewhere behind my head.I was startled when i saw a heavily bearded man smiling at me through his rimless specs. 'I need a small help please' he said in a strong north-indian accent.Yup, thats how i divide them. Anyone from the upper half of india is a north-indian. Whether its hindi, parsi or bengali. So he stood there waiting for me to regain my balance and still continued smiling in a scary manner.'What is it?' I asked. He showed me a small paper which looked like Indiana Jones' map from the film. It was a complicated map of t.nagar drawn out on some tissue. He pointed out to a bookstore and said he wanted to get tehre. I told him that he'd ahve to take the same bus as me to get there. Feeling satisfied he sat down beside me and plonked his bag between us.
He was looking at the place around as though he was on a star treck film set tour. I found this boring. So many guys like this come to chennai and gape mouth wide opened that its just lost its charm. I went back to admiring Rajnikanth when he pulled out something from his bag and asked if i wanted to share it with him. It was a banana! It felt god sent but not wanting to be selfish i refused. He insisted, broke it into 2 and gave me the bigger portion.
As i gobbled the half banana i looked at hime and felt a sudden bond growing with him. I stuck out a sweaty palm and said ' Hi, I am Ganesh. Welcome to chennai' ...
No comments:
Post a Comment