Two days, a forgetful mind and four trips to and fro the city's blood line in a second class compartment made me realize a whole lot of things. I would've otherwise lived under the impression of my innate natural goodness.
I begin with a premise to clear the air - Am not the nicest person you've, you'll ever meet (irrespective of your perspectives).
1. Apart from the smelly crowd, the compartment feels damp (all the bloody time)!
2. The people like the seats are hard, I do not mean inflexible but hard, in ways that you can feel like it's their second skin.
3. A class does not teach a woman the art of Verbal squalor, the women are just as descriptive, prolific and diverse as anywhere.
4. Long ago (7 years), I too traveled in a second class compartment and had the idea that I could blend in with the tight lipped and the smacky mouths seamlessly. Now, I am wrong.
5. I like the silence (sometimes dead cold) in the 1st class, the no-interference even in a nasty fight or weeping bosoms.
6. The small talk bothered me, I did not want to tell my neighbor why and what I was reading. It was beyond her to understand that people can read without really 'studying for exams'.
7. I lost feeling when another lady in front kept talking to me and I kept reading Vogue. Or when I was urged to take a side in a your leg is touching me fight, and I simply ignored.
8 The grave difference that I found in both the compartments was - the green striped women look for support, agreement and approval - be it if they are shopping for 30 bucks bangles, a verbal banter, an over heard conversation, or a space between the third seat and the passage.
The red and blue stripped women read,listen to music, sleep and never really know who is seated beside them. They rarely talk, if they buy from a visiting vendor, they do so quietly and leave with out a line of insult or gratitude.
Childmom called it the over friendly against the reticent. I felt neither. The green stripped ladies had nothing to ponder about (constructive or not), and did not seek to change it. While the red and blue stripped dammes had interests other than vegetable peeling and jabbering.
I have very gradually belonged to the latter. I have chosen my side. I have sucked in my cheeks and raised my left eye brow unconsciously and have unsurfaced someone who did not care to be pretentiously friendly. I have no reason to be nice or not nice to people who have nothing to do with my skin. It's a hard achieved nuetrality and am comfortable with it.
