2 rupees please!

Hello random reader,

I was standing at a bus stop this other day, waiting for my bus. I saw a drunken-looking guy approach a person standing next to me and ask something. This is what he asked :

“Saar my purse…pick-pocket stole…need to go to tambaram…can you give me 5 rupees..”

This simple question triggered in me a series of memories…FLASHBACK.

If I remember right I was studying in 5th standard, which implies that at the time time of this story, I was about 10 years old. I used to go to school in my school bus and the same school bus used to drop me back in the evenings. At that time, as my friends saw it, you had to be a sissy to travel by school bus if you were 10 years old. So I was subjected to a lot of ridiculing and teasing.

I tried convincing my parents that their 10-year-old son was man enough to undertake traveling by the city bus. I told them that I could easily wrestle with 10 people at least 10 times my size every time I had to board or get down from the bus. They initially refused. But after throwing some tantrums and a few other things we arrived at a compromise.

In the mornings, I would go to school by the school bus while in the evenings, I could come in the PTC (as the city buses were known in the days of the yore). I was completely satisfied with this arrangement for in reality, I was a bit scared to board the city bus during mornings. Mad rush and madder people I tell you. So my life settled into this rhythm…until one fateful day that is.

I did not have a bus-pass (a free pass for ticket-less travel) and I spent my daily allowance of 5 rupees (2 for the ticket and 3 for various other indulgences) on a plate of paani-poori, thinking that I had the other 20 rupees which my mom gave me one fine day as “emergency money” (now I am wondering what I would have done with 20 rupees in case of an emergency!). As fate would have it or rather as fate wouldn’t have it, my 20 rupees was missing and none of my friends had any spare cash (2 rupees).

It was at this point of time that one of my friends told me to ask some passerby for 2 rupees. Though initially reluctant, I agreed and asked a guy. It was then that I realized nobody could deny a cherubic 10-year-old who looked like an angel. He gladly parted with the money and also asked me to be more careful in the future.

This gradually became a habit. I would spend all my money on some thing or the other and ask some random person for bus fare. I was quite pleased with myself and was reveling in the success of my activities. But one day, I guess I took it too far.

I had asked one guy, gotten the money and decided I would ask four more people and get more money. The first 3 people were a piece of cake. The fourth guy, after I tell him my sorry tale of how I was chased by a dog and all my money fell down into the drain while running (yes I came up with innovative stuff) and asking for money, asks:

Un peru enna? (Whats your name?)

Ganesh…(I lied.)

Veedu enga? (where is your house?)

Villivalkam (again I lied…though by this point, I began feeling a bit scared.)

Naan unna konja neramaavae paathut irukane…(I have been observing you for a while…)

Now to this, I give a blank expression though some voice in my mind began chanting : “You’re fucked…you’re fucked…)

Indha vayasulaye indha maadhiri pannuriyae…unga appa pera sollu..endha schoolu?(You have the guts to do these things at this age itself…tell me your father’s name and which school are you from?) Here, he looks at my uniform and I think he recognised my school.

Edhukku uncle? enna sollurinagnae puriyala! (Why uncle? I don’t understand what you are trying to say.)

See, I was still trying to be a smart ass.

That guy lost it. He scolded me severely and told me he saw me asking money from two other people before and I lost it too. I began sobbing. I was scared shitless and I go :

Uncill…sniff…inimae sathyamaa ippadi panna maatane…sniff…sorry…sniff…sniff (Uncle…hereafter I won’t ever do this ever again…I swear…sorry).

No! It was not working. That guy was hell-bent on finding out details about me and letting my parents know. It was at this point of time that one of my friend’s father, who was walking that way, sees me and asks me what happened.

I poured my heart out to him. I sang. He told the other guy he would take care of things and I was now trying to persuade him not to tell my parents. Finally he agreed after extracting a promise from me that I never repeat it again. He also told me he would ask his son (my friend and classmate), to keep an eye on me.

The irony of the whole story is, his son, the one who was supposed to keep an eye on me, was the one who gave me the idea in the first place. I was suddenly brought back to reality by the drunken-looking guy.

“Saar my purse…pick-pocket stole…need to go to tambaram…can you give me 5 rupees..”

I gave him the 5 rupees he asked for though I have no clue what he did with it.

So till I write again…ciao ciao.