…you know the rest 🙂
Kind of apt for a situation I encountered recently.
One thing I abhor about Pune is the tendency of consuming tobacco. I see kids as young as 10-12 years old chomping on it. Travelling in the city’s public transport is hell not only because of the stench emanating from the jaws of more than half the bus crowd, but also because you need to prevent yourself from the splatter when the chewers decide that its time for them to spit out the goop from their mouths. Yuck!!
Its worse when you are an innocent pedestrian walking happily along and someone in the bus decides to spit right at you. By the time you come out of the shock, the bus is already far away and as it is, you have no idea who the culprit was!
The spitters are not relegated to the buses alone. They can be found in all shapes and sizes and in all types of transport. People spit from their bikes, bicycles, cars and rickshaws.
Just yesterday, I was heading towards home when a car overtook me. It was a Skoda Octavia. As I was admiring the car, the rear-window rolled down, a lady peeped out , saw me (who was almost besides her window) and spat noisily.
I had a minor accident trying to control my bike as I tried to avoid the splatter. By the time I could gain control and yell back, the car had sped away. I was fuming and besides myself with rage. Just then, a bike passed by with three guys astride. They looked like construction labourers, going by the yellow hats in their hands and the cement coated boots.
A short distance ahead, the guy driving the bike, turned his head and spat out loudly. I almost drove into the goop !! Braking hard, I saved myself in time. By this time, I was ready to scream at that guy.
But there was surprise in store for me. The bike-guy stopped his bike, asked his friends to get off and came to me and said, “Sorry, haan!”
That one gesture was enough to dissolve my anger.
I must have raved about bad manners and how the uneducated lot is the worst and all that jazz. But I was wrong. Manners have nothing to do with education. Sometimes, even the college topper will not shy away from throwing an empty chips packet on the road or stubbing out a cigarette butt with his feet and leaving it there.
But a gesture of polite apology from a labourer was the last thing I expected 🙂
I guess it just takes all kinds to make this world.
A pity there are so few of the better ones 😦
I agree
Very true…many a times its the educated and so called middle / upper class people who are worst behaved. Nice post.
That’s true S!
SO true.. somehow an apology makes things immensely better more so when it’s unexpected.
Yeah…and in this case, it was totally unexpected. I didn’t even have the courtesy to say, “its ok”. I was that shocked!!
😀
Noor glad to read this incident.
Huh?!!
😐
I did not mean that the incident that you were spit on was a glad one 🙂
Glad you clarified Sriahri 😀
🙂