i guess i'm ticked off... at everyone...

today in the train i herd voices at the other entrance... a woman ranting in marathi... loudly..

she was LouD.. abusive and crass to put it lightly.

i couldn't see her but i saw the expressions on everyone's expressions change from bland boredom to exasperation and eventually contempt.. for that ranting woman... the other women started coming towards our side. 

i decided to stick onto my side but eventually curiosity got the better off me and towards the end of my train journey i went over to the other side.

and sitting at the foot of the train was a blind old woman with her blind husband. they were both poor and she wasn't ranting to the world.. she was ranting to him. he was silent all the time listening to her and keeping his head low.

no one was interested in what she had to say but she was angry and she was venting. she had  right to vent. to be mad. for whatever reasons of her own. if people had a problem with it maybe they should've asked her what the real problem was. but everyone shirked away, walking away as if she was an untouchable. as if she dint have a right to exist. one fat woman even had the gall to ask me if they were really blind. personally i think the fat woman was the real blind one in the train today.

there was a teacher in the group who seemed disgusted by them. aren't they supposed to teach us what's right?.. practise what you preach?.. and so what if she was loud.. aren't we all?.. when we're angry we rant to. in public or in the privacy of our houses.. i mean no one has a right to talk sobriety unless they practice it meticulously. cut her some slack. give her some space. she's not encroaching on yours.

i asked her to stop talking and asked her where she wanted to go. this question stunned her it seems because for a minute she was silent. 

then she wept... SoftlY

it broke my heart. i hadn't done anything and yet she wept for me. and not one person on the train today had bothered to talk to her.. except in a manner to shun her.

now it was my turn to be silent.i waited and she told me Andheri. when i helped her up, suddenly other women decided they were worth helping as they started coming forward to help. once we got off... they asked me to guide them to platform number one. i thought i'd walk them there but the woman said she and her husband would find their way. 

they smiled into the air and left.

.

.

.

and i wondered... how much effort did that take?