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.