18.7.07

Smarty pants!

I havent posted in a long long time and it makes me guilty. Guilty, because it means that I have probably gotten into a rut, am not observing enough and am letting dust settle on the knack of seeing big things in small and vice versa. Scary thought! As always, inspiration struck when I was least expecting it!

And as usual it was a Lothian Bus to the rescue!!

The night before last, I was on bus no.11 going back home with my subconcious working hard to alert me when my bus stop came. My conscious was snoozing away in abandon, when suddenly from the corner of my eye I saw a man run at full speed towards the bus from the opposite side of the road. It was almost 9.30 pm and the poor fellow, just like me, was probably wanting to get the heck back home and didnt want to miss this bus. He braved speeding cars and angry honks and throttled full speed towards the bus.

As I was observing the sprinter, I noticed that I wasnt the only one. Just outside my window was a little boy, about 10 years old, chubby cheeks, dimpled chin and an innocent smile doing the same! As our super sonic runner approached the bus, huffing and puffing, with his windblown Ipod headphones, this little boy held out his hand and I lip read - "would you like my day ticket?" And I thought, awww..how sweet!

Now, traveling in a public transport is not cheap at all (oh how I miss the share autos!) Every trip I take in a bus costs £1 and if I need to get a day ticket, it costs £2.50, and even for natives, this is quite an expensive price to pay for travelling in a bus. So usually some nice souls after using their day tickets just pass it on to other folks to save them a buck or two. And this little child giving his ticket up was such a sweet sight! The grateful man held out his hand to accept the ticket(still panting away thanks to his surrreal sprint!).

Since I was still feeling all warm inside about the good souls that still exist 'out there', the transformation was a bit of a shock! The little boys' chubby cheeks dimpled into a mischevious grin and those innocent eyes sparkled bright and he turned from an innocent angel to an impish gnome (yep, Harry Potter effect!) right before my eyes and as quickly as he had held it out to be taken, he pulled the ticket back and said,"Go buy your own, mister!"

Oh the look on the man's face!! He was torn between ( I would assume!) twisting the lads' ears and getting into the bus that was ready to depart! I think sheer desperation drove him into the bus, while the little fella stood outside guffawing and doubling up with laughter! Though my sympathies lay with the deceived man, I couldnt help but secretly laugh at the little boys' prank! I am thinking - s'boring being grown up, maybe a prank or two would lighten life up!!

5 comments:

Vadapoche said...

Finally a post from you!!!!!!!!!! Talking abt buses, just got bk from the City of Joy (horrible misnomer) Kolkota surviving so many near death collisions with the unruly private bus drivers who make our MTC drivers angelic!
I'll post it too.

Divia said...

Talk of pranksters they are the ones who make life jolly good, tho' its played on some one!
Anywayzz my sympathies are with the sprinter of sorts as he is tired after a whole days work!

Ashika said...

@ jolly
haha, i know, long time! read ur post, hilarious!

@trinity
totally agree with you!

Incrediblyirrational said...

boy,that's a looooong gap.
I wonder too, too often these days, how when and why life has changed so much. the old man would have been distressed but hten i would have loved it.

Aarthi said...

this lil brat..hmm ..

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