That lady on the road....

 

       Did I just see her..? I wasn't sure so I turned back again to confirm. Yes.! It was her. It was the same lady who was wearing the khaki shirt which was so big that it hung past her waist. She was having the same ticket machine with a black thick belt going around her neck and hanging down. She was standing beside her second home, the local bus and she was checking something by pressing the buttons of that ticket machine.

   
     She is a conductor in the local bus in which I travel daily to my office. But it was not a normal day as any other. It was a great day of duty in our state. It was a day of voting which would decide who would be elected as the prime minister of our country. We all had a civic holiday on that day. I went with my family early in the morning and casted my vote so that I would have a whole day left to get my  pending works done  through till night. When in the afternoon I was free, I decided to go to market to buy the household things.

      I was on my vehicle, I had tied a scarf put on the goggles and the helmet. I was passing by the same old place where I board the local buses daily to reach office. But even today I saw them. I saw those bus drivers and conductors working there as everyday they do. I was saddened. It is so unlucky for those people who don't get a holiday. They will work like machines. They don't have any weekends. They will mostly be poor and cannot save much.

    They will have seen lot of hardships in their life and they live in pain day in and day out. Outside in our world, we talk so much about the code of conduct, morality and other appealing things. But morality for them is a thing that will push them more into the destruction. Their hardships have made them harsh and rude. There is lot of frustration which is suppressed in their lives which doesn't allow them to think about moral conduct or the need for sophistication. Life will have taught them so much that they know being nice to people will not help them. Some on them cheat, because their dried eyes and broken hearts have compelled them to do so.

    Sometimes when you see those conductors shouting at you for not bringing the change or the vegetable sellers getting angry on you when you bargain for a few rupees, we are amused why these lower class people speak so loudly and irregularly in public. But the anger and frustration, helplessness of their life will have made them like that. If you pay Rs 20 instead of Rs 25 for half  a Kg of grapes will not make you poor by the end of the day, but for them the same 5 to 10 rupee can make someone sleep food-less in their home.


 "   I don't have any big lessons learnt from this small incident but I would not be harsh on them when the next time they get irritated by me unless it is small or unless it doesn't touch my esteem.  "


- Sindhu