What happens when.. PART II

You travel on a bus with a sprained ankle...

This is an experience of a lifetime.... Everyone should try this someday. The recipe is simple. Fall down a flight of stairs and as you hit the ground, twist your ankle. Voila! A spained ankle in the flash! After this, book two interviews at two different ends of the city to keep you busy and decide to continue doing them both even though you can't stand.

This is what happened to me couple of day's back. I limped my way from college to the bus stand (YES, I had a sprained ankle)... my itinary was simple... i had to take a bus from college.. go to another stop.. take another bus from here.. reach a stop half an hour away... take the subway there... and take a share auto to the office where i was interviewing the guy... and things went wrong from the very beginning..

When i reached the bus stand out of college, the bus i wanted never came and i was already running late.. so i took an auto to the other stop.. there the other bus i wanted came.. it was empty and i was happy to find a seat where i could comfortably sit for the next half hour. As luck would have it, the bus broke down two stops later... fine... "bad day", i muttered to myself.. waiting in that stop for another bus.. another one came... it 'looked' empty and i got on it to find myself the ONLY PERSON standing in the entire place... every seat was occupied and i couldn't really sit anywhere.. my ankle was giving me alot of trouble on top of which everytime i looked at the people sitting, i turned green.

I think the driver had taken a shot or two of tequila coz that was kinda apparant in the way he was driving.. the bus swayed left and right, making me sway alot more violently on my bad leg, causing me to yelp in pain every other minute.. not that anyone there cared. To top this irritation off, there was a girl with external speakers attached to her phone, playing LOUD irritating music. Why was is irritating? Cause she was sleeping and the phone was playing away to glory! Even the song wasn't good!

Three stops later, couple of people got on. And as they walked past me, they made it a POINT to step on my WOUNDED leg so as to keep reminding me that it is still injured. I wanted to scream a thousand obscenities at them but of course, i couldn't!

Everyone who has travelled in a Chennai bus must've done social service.. you have to pass tickets and money from one end to the other... and it so happened that a lady's money got lost and I WAS THE LAST PERSON SEEN WITH THE CHANGE. God.. i first thought she had lost hundred rupees or so because she was screaming to that effect. Later i learnt that she had lost 'FIFTY PAISE!'. Oh what a tragedy! I got so tired of being yelled at that i gave her Re. 1 in return, wherein she effectively shut up and never gave me my change! Should've been my turn to shout but i didn't mind losing 'FIFTY PAISE'.

The conductor in the bus was the worst 'irritator' of them all. When he saw me limping on the bus, he asked me "What ma? Have you hurt your leg?"... "Yea", i told him, happy that someone cared to ask. "Ok ma, move little bit to the right. people are coming in no", he smirked, and all the gratitude i initially felt went away and i wanted to wipe that smirk off his face permenantly. And this was not just once.. every other minute he would ask me to move this way or that and watch my painful dance in the most ruthful way! God, i wish i could see him now.. i'd just... i'd just..!!!!

Apart from all this hallaballu, just as i was standing a tad comfortably, two kids kept running up and down.. worst yet, kept running around me too! I wanted to shake them vigorously and say "Can't you see some people can't even stand here? And your running about!" but they were too cute and i had to keept quiet :P

Finally the bus was about to reach my stop.. just as i was feeling relieved, the bus got into a burst of speed and stopped one stop ahead of mine, leaving my with a painfully long walk to the subway! WHAT A DAY!

And yes, it was an experience... you should try it too!