Degeneration

Alec's latest post triggered a certain slightly repulsive memory which I had thought to share earlier but had forgotten.

I was at the airport (all my posts seem to revolve around airports nowadays) and was juggling some coffee and some other assorted pieces of luggage. In came galloping a 7-year old and I pointedly took my coffee and kept it out of the reach of his prancing feet. But he decided to come rushing in from behind in such a way that the coffee got spilled and some of it, over his foot. He raised hell and high water and his mother started screaming at me, calling me an Idiot and what not. People all around rushed to administer gallon after gallon of water on his foot, ice, whatever they could find while he kept howling and she intermittently screaming at me.

Now, I would have been extremely sympathetic and apologetic and all that in the normal course of events. In this case however, because of being shouted at, I found myself unable to sympathize and hung around purely due to a sense of responsibility to see that the kid was fine, which he was, considering he had been wearing proper shoes and socks anyway.

I thought about this some more. We tend to be very careless with our speech, and constraint has no nobility anymore. I say this for myself also. When an auto driver mistakenly takes me to Vile-Parle early in the morning, when I had said Bandra to him, and as a consequence of which I miss the bus to that godforsaken Belapur, I lose it too. Annoyance is definitely warranted and maybe a certain degree of admonishing will induce him to be more careful from next time. But not a full-blown abuse session, no Sir, that is a bit much, even if what he did leads you to be at the receiving end of your Boss' ire.

We are fast becoming a group of people with zero tolerance levels and no respect for basic human courtesy and dignity. Our problems are the dire-est, our time the precious-est and the injustices meted out to us - the most unjust.

Aurang-ajeeb

Aurangabad airport feels like home. It is as small as, okay not anybody's home that I have ever visited, but enough to feel cozy. I know the staff, they know me. In fact, some of the women who frisk me are on rather intimate terms, having posed a variety of questions to me, ranging from where I work to whether I am married and suggesting good naturedly (or so I choose to believe) that I should now find a good boy and tie the knot. It does feel good to come to this airport after a long day of being in the hot sun which threatens to beats me into a sweaty, pulpy mass of headache and dehydration. It does feel good to know that I am soon going to board a cute little ATR and zoom off to what is really really home.

It is a small airport, but it has international flights. It also has a good percentage of foreign passengers, what with the caves at Ajanta-Ellora being some sort of firang magnet. And that explains the availability of Diet Coke and Pepsi. I would know, being somewhat of a pro on small-town-ism that Diet drinks being available is a sure sign of the place having arrived.

But amongst all the contradictions that this airport presents me with, what really smites me between the eyes is this - Karlsburg, the International brand for men's clothing and accessories!

This airport does not have a restaurant and consequently perhaps, even working flushes, but it has a Karlsburg showroom! The sole upholder of consumerism in this kindergarten of airports! The brave lone Columbus discovering new lands, albeit a little barren but having the potential perhaps to turn into an America! Hats off to the guys who own the label in India. They have clearly been paying attention to the Diet Coke Index.

Rant

It is one of those days when I just don't know which way to turn. And writing it out for the whole world to know is not the best thing to do, I know.

If you want something bad and the whole world apparently conspires for you to have it, what if the world does not like you too much? Then it could easily conspire for you not to have it, what? Go actively out of its way to ensure every attempt of yours is thwarted, nipped-in-the-bud.

A pretty little optimist I am not. The world is to blame, yeah.