There are some nights when everything goes wrong. It was off
from the beginning. Her flight was delayed by a good hour. And then of course,
the traffic. We couldn’t cancel the plans; for old times sake. It had been far too
long since we had done this. And the future was far too uncertain; no one to
say if this could be done again.
All in all, it was about 11 when we sat down to dinner. Catching
up and reminiscing followed. So by the time we were done with the food, we were
faced with the prospect of walking back home at an unseemly hour.
When it comes to safety, there are two rules I adhere to
quite religiously. When alone, don’t stay out too late. And never venture into
isolated spots.
We weren’t exactly breaking either of these rules here. I wasn’t
alone and we had to walk past a famous public park, which while not exactly teeming
with people at this time of the night, didn’t qualify as a lonely spot either. Plus
we’d walked back from this very place scads of times. Not at this hour, but
still - scads.
Now I don’t know if all these thoughts running around my
head that set my teeth on the edge. Or if it was the sight of that man jerking
off. Right besides a busy road. He was standing, hand busy at his groin, half turned
toward the dark foliage. He saw me see him. And he turned towards what is a
fairly busy road, keeping his eyes on me and my friend. There were other people
around a little ahead. But no one saw him. Not even my friend. Like the coward
that I am, I hustled her along and he thankfully melted into the darkness.
We kept up the pace for a while, crossing the park, and
walking along the same road, past small by lanes. While crossing one such
by-lane, we saw approaching from the other side a homeless person. He was
dirty, or rather – filthy, and had the definite stagger of an extremely drunken
man. Between us was a board announcing the name of the street. He looked as if
he would cross it on one side, both of us instinctively took the other. Then
suddenly he stopped and changed directions. So, we did the same. Then he did it
again. Now angry, both of us stopped this game of peeka boo and stood right at
the center. He did the same. Then he said, “ Arre, ja na. roka hai kya kisi ne.”
we crossed quickly, while he stood where he was. My friend whispered to me, “he’s
just drunk.” At this, he turned around, and said with a look of utmost contempt
“Drunk bolti hai.” Then he walked off.
We must not have walked a hundred feet, when we saw another
person just like him. This guy deliberately bumped into a man who was walking
about 15 – 20 feet ahead of us and tried to pick a fight. At this point I groaned,
“what is it today?” and my friend agreed – “Mumbai was never like this.” So then
we steeled ourselves and sucked our breaths in and walked past this guy, right
at the edge of the pavement. He walked past us. Just like that. Not even a
glance towards us, nor a hint of trouble. Leaving us looking foolishly at each
other.
There are some nights when everything goes wrong. This was
not that sort of night. It was off at the beginning, but it ended with a lesson
for me. That night, I judged two men because of their class, their state(read-
drunk) and most shamefully, because of the actions of another. Decency isn’t
the inheritance of the rich/middle class family men with regular access to
female companionship. There are decent guys everywhere, just like there are
indecent ones. Unfortunately, even today, if I see someone like that fallen by
the side of the road, I won’t check on them to see if they are ok just out of
the fear that one of them will pounce on me. But then hopefully, when I write
something more public than this blog, like I don’t know, a newspaper column, I hope
I don’t judge the feral men too harshly. :|
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