Tuesday, February 24, 2009

The Conductor's Conscience

A beautiful college girl entered the bus and stood near a seat, the bus was a little crowded. The Conductor came near her, she showed a 50 rupee note and said, "2 Tambaram Ticket".
The Conductor sternly asked, "change?"
She shook her head, the conductor's face turned red and he shouted, "How do you expect me to give you change for 50 Rupees! Do you've any sense!"
The driver turned back for a second and the whole crowd looked at them and the girl's eyes became moist with tears.
The Conductor continued, "You college girls have all the time to make up and do fashion stuffs but don't have a couple of ten rupee note?"
Couple of guys who were near giggled, the girl hung her head down in embarrassment. The conductor said taking away the 50 rupee note, "Here take this change", he gave back 4 10 rs note and 2 tickets and proceeded to the next passenger. He looked back at the girl and murmured, "These ppl are coming just to irritate me!"
45 mins later the bus was going towards Guduwancheri and the bus was almost empty and the Conductor came near the Driver and sat in a seat near him.
The Driver said without taking his eyes off the road, "You picked on her rite?"
The Conductor asked, "What?"
"That college girl"
"She dint give me the change so I shouted back at her"
"You picked on her"
"What do you mean?", the conductor asked, "Do you mean to say that I deliberately.."
The Driver nodded, he was still seeing the road.
The Conductor asked, "How could you.."
"She looked beautiful and you wanted to embarrass her. Just to make you feel good"
The Conductor remained silent, his face red with anger he wanted to tear the driver to pieces, but he was just waiting for the right words to show his offense.
The Driver said, "Yesterday morning a girl came and showed you a 100 rupee note and asked for a single ticket and you gave it to her without telling a single word"
The Conductor said, "Yep.. I was in a good mood at that time."
"Its not about mood", the driver quipped, "I know how she looked. She looked very ordinary, so you identified her as someone as you, but this girl looks beautiful so you thought that she is superior. And you want to crush her.. so that ppl will know .. that you are great. You embarrassed her b'coz you had inferiority complex"
"You are building castles in air", chuckled the conductor, "You can write stories"
The Driver laughed, the conductor thought that the Driver will do a reply, but the Driver immediately changed his topic.
The Next Day, at almost the same time that girl entered the bus and she nervously looked around and saw the Conductor and immediately buried her face in her friend's shoulder.
The Conductor came near the girl and looked at the men sitting in the ladies seats and said, "Ladies Seat!".
The men stood up and gave way to the 2 college girls. The Conductor took the rupee note from her friend and gave back the change and ticket and looked at the Driver, who was watching this scene through the rear view mirror. The Driver looked at the mirror and smiled, the conductor smiled back.

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