Tuesday, January 6, 2009

show off times

“Happy new year to you too”, I replied back to the person sitting beside me. “You going to Hyderabad? “, I expected him to ask me, so that I could reply him saying, “Ya Hyderabad and from there to Delhi. I work there for a software company”, but instead he said,” I am going to a friend in Hyderabad”. It was followed by an eternal silence. He unzipped his bag making sure that I read the tag of IBM on it and he took a book out to read or may be re-read it.
My co-passengers were all trying to show that all of them were actually going for something beyond and better than Hyderabad. Everybody’s eyes were trying to show something off. Some took out their mobile phones more often than required. Some laughed their lungs out talking over mobile. Some took out novels, the cover of which I thought could appropriately have been titled- I am read only in buses to show off that I am read in home too. Few even closed their eyes to show off that they actually sleep at this time of the day or to show off that everybody else is trying to show too much off and I am not interested in doing it that way, but by being awake my own way. There were many who wished to take out their laptops and showoff for once and for all. Few lucky once got to show off their latest iPod. I could see they were blissfully listening to everybody else with their earphones in ears.
Some were trying to show off by hiding their worn out shoes or worn out bags or the looks which said,’ this is not the first time I am going to a big city. God promise!’

The urge to speak to a friend on mobile is very common in places like these, so that we could loudly say them,” Ya my flight is at 2:00 P.M from Delhi via Amsterdam to New York. You are coming to Delhi airport to see me off right”. But to my dismay my cell phone didn’t ring at all. I could have called too but that could not have been convincing enough.

Bus is really a strange place.

9 comments:

Jahnabi Roy said...

hehe... i swear...its such a turn off when people show off...esp with books... the most illiterate looming people would carry around stuff like the alchemist and the secret....god!!!

BlanyAshwin said...

hahahahahaha.....showoffs everywhere....But u did not show off der... weird.... scarce gals in der I believe.....

Prianca said...

the eyes do not see what the mind does not know

maybe, ita ol about perception. ppl going about their business- either reading a book, chatting, trying to catch some sleep or music. this is normally wat ppl do when travelling. so, wats d show off in it? no offences. but we only tend to view things s we want to. perception matters.

kunal said...

@everything
@blany
@prianca

I just tried to bring out lighter sides of the people in bus.
If the idea of bus doesn't exactly make sense to some people then they can just think of pizza huts or a mc donald(atleast here in india)

Lena said...

fair points here but you know sometimes we take things wrong... so maybe some really read the books and really were sleeping or trying to.. thats what i usually do in buses :D

swati said...

people flaunt their things every chance they get..its human tendency..these things are done by people who crave for attention..bt not always sme of them are really genuine..
good post..:)

~vagabond~ said...

Dont know if they all do it to show off. I always read in the bus because there is nothing else to do, and I'd rather lose myself in a book than have to talk to the stranger sitting next to me. And once in a while when I have a particular nosy chatty person sitting next to me that wants to talk and talk and dissect my personal life, I plug in my ipod and zone them out. Nothing show-offy in there. :P

jaz said...

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Best,
Jennifer

sur said...

Its really nice one, and i cant agre more with your thoughts.

i think nowdays, show off has become such a habit that people do it whitout actually realizing that they are showing off!!