The Moment Of Truth

Never has Neel blogged an event within an hour of the event happening. But today is a different day.
I have often felt guilty for not intervening at the right time. When a taxi caught fire opppsite Portuguese Church and people gheraoed the taxi driver and were almost going to rough him for no fault of his, I remained a mute spectator. Not only had the poor cabbie lost his taxi to the flames but now he was being roughed up by the trigger happy people. Another incident which comes to my mind happened opposite Borivili station at a softy joint during my engineering days. The softywalla gave a lady a biscuit cone which he had just dropped on the floor a few minutes ago. In this case however I blasted the softywala after the lady had gone. But the damage was already done.
I did not remain a silent spectator today though. The incident occured when I was about to board the 1030 am bus to Infy. Infy bus(contracted) driver sharply cut lanes and stopped at the bus stop. A moped dirver had to brake in order to prevent an accident. It was Infy bus driver's fault. The moped driver parked his vehicle in front of the bus. Something was about to happen and I knew I would be in no position to decode the conversation since it would happen in the local language, Kannada. But I do understand the language of the world (influenced by The Alchemist). The mopedwala shouted something at the driver which I am sure were the dirtiest of expletives in Kannada. And that was not all. He marched towards the door of the bus. I knew if I remained a mute spectator to this event, I would further be trampled under the mountain of guilt. This was the moment of truth. Just then the indignant mopedwala picked up a brick lying on the pavement. I held him and tried to calm him down. I pleaded on behalf of the bus driver and told him to let the matter go. Well I confess that I couldnt calm him down completely. But he atleast did not hurl the brick at the windshield and I would like to take the credit for that. He went ahead and started arguing with the driver and I knew that my job had been done. I now was walking to board the bus. And now some bike driver says to me " maar khana hai kya.... bus main jaake beth jao"(do you want to get thrashed.... get into the bus). I gave him the stare of his life. It is the eyes which speak your strength(The Alchemist again). I did not want to get engaged in a brawl. The rest of the people were mute spectators. Not one came ahead to help the bus driver. I got into the bus. Then I heard a feeble brick bang against the tin of the bus. That was necessary to satisy the ego of the moped driver. The windshield was saved. No one was hurt. And I am sure there was no damage to the bus. I could see the bike driver(not the moped driver)laugh and drive away. He had seen one tamasha and was happy with that. The bus driver was happy because he was not thrashed. People in the bus were happy because they could now go to office. And I was happy because I got a story to blog.