The face resembled so much to the worn out faces I see everyday, of men in lungi,sweating hard,stinking bad,in share-rickshaws and railway stations.He was a short,lean,dark man and he came walking,swaying all along.He seemed to enjoy some unheard music that apparently was playing only for him.The huge government buses rattled beside him,the rickshaws,the share autos,the innumerable tvs50s that cover he largest percent of Chennai's suburban kacchapukka roads,daddies in cars driving carefully along,men on bicycles,walking children,shopkeepers drawing down their shutters to go home for an early dinner,,,,,ladies selling flowers on the roadside,,,,,dust all over,smoke all over...noise all over..there was nothing unusual today as I got down the cab and waited for the traffic to subside so that I could cross da road......As I advanced further, I could see him walking along the road towards me.I stepped back, allowing him to pass through....He was drunk..completely..da smell could actually kill an infant.Before I could realise that he wasn't walking anymore and had stopped and was staring me...It came flying onto my clothes...The cream coloured kurta that I wore to office today was smeared on the borders with sticky red spit..He spat on me!!!I was struck with silence,,a spell of all loud thunders.But there was more to come..He walked a little ahead, picked up some mud,shouted something and threw at me.I didn't want to run away.I stood like there like an innocent convict questioning his crime.He was totally drunk,upto the brim of this tiny slim throat which had layers of skin hanging out..He was wrinkled...he was old and he looked tired......That he was drunk proved lucky for me,he missed his target.The mud flew over my face,blurring my eyes....n even in the smoke of the dust,I could see him laughing.........laughing and singing...He realised his moment had come n just as any ecstatic hero falls on to the ground and kisses the battlefield,he stumbled and fell down....n there he lay ,the smile still showing on his lips and the song still coming out.The watchmen of the society came running,people stopped,sum to comprehend what actually happened and some just to use their muscles to kick an old drunkard lying on the road who was seen"eve teasing"...The victim "me" was given some sympathetic glances.The men offerred to kick the life out of the poor hero lying on the ground but the presence of a police station exactly opposite kinda obstructed their flow of chivalry..
The drama went on for five minutes.My 'assaulter' lay happily unconscious.The watchman told me he was a regular sight there,worked as a labourer in a construction nearby.I wasn't angry with me.I wasn't even scared .I didn't want people to hit him.But I was shaken!He made me think of the numerous selvis,pushpas and lakshmis(domestic workers in my building) who need to put up with such people as their husbands,not for running their houses, but just for social and security reasons.
The traffic resumed,the dust,noise and the smoke too came back...I walked back home thinking about.... everything.... Suddenly everything seemed to have a solution, an answer that in turn posed another question.I get choked wen I write this..I have always felt for the under-privileged women of the Indian society more than anything else..This time it's a lot more..As I wash my kurta today and try to brush off the stains of his saliva,I know many a stain on the society that we live in will take ages to get removed.Our life styles,migration and dislocation of ppl to cities and their empty bargains with their own destinies,disparities in the stratas of the same society,social evils,ground breaking truths
and unnerving realities......The cloud gets denser and denser..Today would be a long night for me............
much better :)
ReplyDelete