train of thought

today morning i went to book some railway tickets. I had quite a few to book, 6 to be precise (which i like to be :P) I entered the reservation centre within Koramangala BDA complex, went straight to the counter, got hold of a small stack of reservation forms and took my place in the queue. The sitting queues here are a welcome respite from those in allahabad (where i did my engg.), where one has to gamble on a particular queue and stand till his/her turn in blistering heat or numbing cold, the only options in allahabad. Lets not get into the more sordid details. Here in B'lore, however,u can sit down comfortably in a row of chairs and drag u'r arse (literally) to the next seat as the queue progresses. So that automatcally takes care of the cleaning. (:P) I reckon there were about 15 people ahead of me, which, i calculated, would give me enough time to fill up all the forms by the time it was my turn. Unfortunately ( Ironically), the guys behind the counter were pretty fast today and i stood facing a reservation clerk with one form fully filled, one almost filled and the remaining untouched. I gave him the finsished one and completed the other in the nick of time. I noticed some irritation but didn't think much of it and thought he wouldn't think much of the fact that i din't think much of it( he he...i know!!). Alas, he did and started blasting me for not having my forms filled up before pressing my sorry face against the perspex separating us. ahem! i still didn't think as much, nevertheless, said sorry and attempted to give him a barely completed third form. Nothin doing, he makes clear and i trudge back to the end of the queue ( very small luckily). I fill it up quickly and replay the incident in my mind while periodically sweeping the seat with thee arse towards the front of the queue. I could have been angry/rude to him then, which is what most people do. I didn't and opted to placate him. Obviously it didn't work. Now i can be rude when i face him again, coz technically he's got nothing to complain this time round. That was what my instinct had decided for me. I proposed to my mind to think more spiritually.

Ultimately my turn came and i went up to him, stuck my nose on the perspex, slipped in the remaining forms and said,

"sorry Sir, twas my mistake"

I looked upwards from the corner of my eye after saying so, at an imaginary thought bubble in which i could see ice breaking and his smiling face emerging into the foreground. It remained a virtuality. (mean bastard!!) He just took the forms and booked the tickets, maybe with a teeny (bordering on my imagination's tricks and reality) weeny bit of gentleness. Oh well! i thought, paid him and left the scene. while walking towards the parking lot, i chuckled at my new train of thought. My imagination had cooked up another possibility. While he was going about booking my tickets the second time, seeing that he's not pleased even by my submissive apology,i'd subtly ask him, "having a bad day at work?" he'd stop typing on the keyboard, stare at me for a second and burst out crying, "my wife left me y'day night for my neighbour"

:P