Saturday, November 03, 2012

Colour DOES matter


I have been recently working from the UK, where I was once there for my post-graduation. Things haven’t changed in six years and everything remains the same. It is like the time is stood still, but the only difference is that I now stay on the other end of London, called Kent. It is lovely typical British town. People are generally friendly and I use public transport to commute to work. It is one of those instances where the colour of skin does really matter. IT was a typical bus journey with people of all sorts travelling. Two buggies and one wheel chair user were also in the bus. The first half of the bus were mostly elderly people and the second half were mix of all age groups, including me.

A group of three boys got onto the bus and two of them showed their passes (Oyster cards) to the machine and walked in. One Caucasian and one of African origin and the third one was also of African origin. It was obvious by their behaviour that all the boys were teenagers and were all born and brought up in the UK. The driver asked for the pass of the third boy to check on something and did not return and ask the boy the leave the bus. The boy argued as to what was the problem. The driver explained and asked him to leave, but he did not return the card. There was a heated argument between the driver and the young African boy delaying the journey. People in the bus were getting restless and at that instance, one Caucasian woman, a mother of one of the babies in the buggy, screamed abusively and asked the boy to leave the bus immediately. He said, ask the driver to return his card as he would leave. The driver did not budge and the argument grew between the boy and the lady. Out of the blue, the lady said, ‘you niggers, why do you come and trouble us? Why don’t you go back to Nigeria and live there’. The young boy was furious and became abusive saying, ‘don’t be racist, I am a British and I have a British passport. I am born here’… the argument continued for 15 minutes stalling the bus and calling all the undue attention, and ultimately the boy had to give up and get out of the bus. There were talks about all sorts. One of the elderly gentleman said, ‘I know the law, the driver is right in doing what he did’.

It just crossed my mind that this happened to the young boy today, it may happen to me tomorrow. We are after all people of different colour and definitely ‘COLOUR DOES MATTER’. It is sad to learn such things happen even now as it is more of human nature and cannot be completely eradicated. Would I have behaved in a different way than the mother in the bus, if I were to be her, was the question that was going on in my mind? There were all talks about what happened and what each of the person could have done till the end of the journey.

I guess, I have gotten to used to the shouts and taunts you get on the streets, for your appearance and for your way of talking and have learnt to be okay with it. I am amazed at the strength of human mind to be okay 

S'he' - Part 2


On the way back home, ‘he’  was thinking of the last few sentences what ‘The Man’-the would be father in law had said, “Sir, I won’t tell her anything, I will play innocent and introduce you in our daily conversations and understand what she feels about you”. ‘He’ was all smiling, imagining in his mind, how the conversations would start and how would ‘she’ react to those conversations.

The next day (26th April 2012), ‘he’ pinged ‘she’ on gtalk and asked her, if she can meet him anywhere outside work. ‘She’ sensing something, hesitatingly agreed as ‘he’ is the boss of the company. She said yes and we discussed for a while on where to meet up. ‘She’ had left the office early and both of them decided to meet at a joint 10 minutes away from the office. ‘He’ was not sure of the joint and ‘she’ was already there. ‘He’ called ‘she’ and asked for directions. They both met up and went inside to joint. ‘he’ looked for a quieter corner and found one, which was not a corner but was still quiet. He pointed the seats to she and both sat across the table. ‘he’ was all smiling and ‘she’ was also quite comfortable with him.

He……. ‘What do you want to have?’

She….. ‘Nothing’

He…. ‘Please have something. I will have an ice cream. It won’t be nice that I eat something and you nothing’

She….’Nothing, please”, slight frown on her face

He….. ‘I insist’

She….’okay, I will have a chocolate milk shake’

He ordered them and as the waiter moved away from the table,

He said to her ‘You know why you are here right?’

She…. ‘Kind of, but not sure’

He….. ‘come on, don’t tell me, you don’t know’

She…. ‘seriously, I do not know’

He….. ‘Okay, the reason why I called you to meet me today ……pause……is to tell you what I think of you’

She… Quiet…

He continues.. ‘I am sure you know about it. I am not sure why, but it is for sure, that I have started to like you and want to marry you!!! what do you think of it?’

She….still calm and not very surprised.. ‘How can you think of me like that knowing me. I have come here only because you’re the boss and I did not want to say no’

He….. ‘Come on! Don’t tell me you were not aware of it! You knew it all and ahhh yes! What have you told your parents about you being here?’

She … ‘I told them that I am coming to meet up with you and they are okay with it’

He… ‘Who did you say it to?’

She.. ‘My mom’

He …. ‘What did she say?’

She… ‘Nothing.. I tell her everything and she is okay with it. I have told her that you have asked me to meet up in a restaurant near office at half seven’
The waiter got the ice cream and chocolate milk shake. We were quiet till he left and ‘she’ was looking at ‘he’s’ hands for a while

He…. ‘Please taste the ice cream, before I start it’

She… smiled and frowned at the same time and said ‘No, I don’t want to’
He… ‘Please, it’s okay to taste it, I love ice cream and I will still eat it, I am asking you to only taste it’

She… now angry put her spoon into the cup and took the smallest scoop ‘okay?’

He.. Smiled and said….’thanks’ and continued ‘don’t tell me, that you did not know, you always knew I liked you and you always knew that we are not just friends at work’

She.. ‘No, I did not’

He… ‘Don’t lie, I understand what a person thinks of me, in fact I know what everyone thinks of me at work’

She …’then knowing me and my situation, you really should not be asking me, should you? How can you?’.. and a pause

He… ‘There are few things which I have liked and I always have worked towards getting it and it is not easy for me to get it, because I am not lucky enough to get it. Now, I think, we can be a good match. Both of us have similar upbringing, similar lifestyles and ideas. I am not sure how much you know about me, but I know your family and my family will be great together and things would be perfect, if we get married’

She… all frowning now ‘no, I cannot and more than that, I do not want anything now’

He…. ‘Listen up, I only have a request, I do not want you to say yes to me right away. I want you to think and understand all the pros and cons and then make a decision. If you would reject without even thinking about us, I would come back to you and ask. If you think over it and then let me know the logical reasons why you think, we cannot get married, I would not bother you again. Also, please don’t think, that if you say no, I would commit suicide or go mental and act crazy. I would still be normal and okay and probably will get married to someone else, might not be whole heartedly, but yes, time will make it all good. I want you to think about it and think hard. Let me know how much time you want 10 days? 15 days?. What I will do, I will give you sometime, you have my number and you can call me or I will call you after a few days. Okay?’

She… ‘No, I still would say no to you, I cannot imagine that you are asking me to get married even after I say no’

He…. ‘I know, you would say ‘No’ because you haven’t thought about it. Think about it genuinely and then tell me a ‘no’ with logical reasoning and I would be okay with it. You cannot say no without even thinking about it. You can call me and let me know about it’

She…’okay, I shall try to think about it’

He….’see, in the office it is business as usual. We don’t know each other and we wouldn’t talk about it at all’

She…’did you even think, I would do it?’

The waiter came over and said, ‘Sir, do you mind shifting to this table (pointing at another table). There is a family waiting’ and ‘He’ realised, it is too late and he has to drop ‘she’ off to her home. 

Both left the hotel and in the bike stand, he said, ‘Thank you for coming and I know you would ‘. 

She smiled and said ‘its okay’

Both got on their bikes and ‘he’ followed the bike of ‘she’.