Violence

So uncool it is and yet is so omnipresent. There might be many instances in life where you must have felt to wrangle the next soul who irritates you in the most economical way-may be even a friend who is teasing . Probably you would then count, remembering the moral science lessons, one up to ten strictly under your breath. Thats it. The moment is gone. Violence in it's little dose is stored up in the reserve. The next soul gets it even stronger.

The inherent violence these days, especially in the hot weather, finds the most unexpected vents. Few of them include

• Giving a politically correct answer and yet senseless , in an involved discussion.

• Never letting people build their illusionary pleasantness and braking them off into reality
  (only few would survive by counting one Mississippi up to ten Mississippi.)
  

• Going to a sweating shopkeeper and asking him “garam kyan hain?” ( “What's hot?”)

• At a hotel, not providing leg room for the poor soul behind you (in a back to back seating) and making him crouch as if in high gravity conditions.

• Violating traffic rules, calling for a revolutionary change, Vision 2020 , demanding dismissal of a state government, declaring your house as a union territory are a few, but potent symbols of evaporating brains in this torrid heat.

Rx-
Things would be different :

• Had you punched your bench mate ( later your best friend) in kindergarten, when he took your pencil and threw it out.

• Had you punished the idiot box (with a hockey bat of course) for those tele-shoppe ads in the middle of your favorite spiritual program.

• Had you written some poetry concatenating the rhyming words to form some obscure picture out of an already hazy outline.

• Had you argued for Aristotle, that heavier bodies fall. ( “The lighter body” has not yet fallen into place in this sentence)

• Had you asked some question when president came to your school and gave a vision 2020 presentation. ( You stood mum in the audience while the first rank kid asked a question scribbled on a piece of paper that the teacher just gave him)

• Had you purchased that red Che Guevara's shirt from a Gap outlet.

These are a few symptoms and their approximate causes. The real ones are yet to be stumbled upon. You can try “We the people” on NDTV for more stumbling and trampling ( of ideas, facts and even classic skewed arguments).

So folks, there is no stopping here . Go on get 'em and knock 'em down. Violence cannot be postponed.

Bus No.78

It was 8:15 in the morning and the bus had not yet arrived. We started to feel a bit worried about being late to the Biology class. But in some corner of my mind I was happy that I would be missing at least one day of salmonella typhi and his consorts. There was a certain relief in that wait for the bus. I was sure my friends felt the same.

We broke off from the activity (near the house) after 8:15 in the morning and returned only after 3:30 in the afternoon. I used to wonder of what happened during that time. We had no clue. For us it would be single ruled, broad ruled and double ruled during that period. It was a good chance to observe world beyond 8:15 that day.

The bus stop started to get crowded and was soon filled with many office goers. There were not many children. Just us. An old woman with mouthful of betel came tattering with her cane basket to the bus stop. She stopped and asked what time it was. Some one said it was 8:25; Some one else said “No, it is 8:30” and insisted that his watch was set to the Delhi relay on the radio. She just ignored the difference and sat there with her cane basket and frequently wiping the sweat off her brow.

The old woman had sweet meats, pepper mints, lollipops and chocolates in the basket. There was her cash bag ( an old sack like structure with grease marks where she stored her betel and money) hanging to her waist as she counted the money for the ticket. The nickel coins glittered in the morning sun.

Soon, the sun started heating up the air and we started to sweat. There was no shade to hide. We just stood there and wanted the bus to come quickly now. There was a break in the flow of vehicles as we heard a distant horn. These indicated the bus was here at last. As soon as it stopped, we got into the bus and occupied the rear end seats, as always.