E-Paper
The Hot Seat
'She virtually grabbed the seat meant for that old lady. I protested but not enough.' Read on...What would you have done?
Ever travelled in a tram? It’s a leisurely trundle worth grabbing the little extra time for. There’s something steady in its pace, something assuring in this world of mercurial changes, apart from the thought that you’re taking a less ecologically damaging mode of transport.
While we hurtle through the week in faster modes of transport, it’s fun to hop into a tram on Sunday. This morning, I jumped into one and found myself a seat. A couple of stops later, a couple, not much older than me and dressed in their Sunday best, got in. From their conversation, we could make out that they were headed for a place of worship.
Some more stops later, and far from my destination, a dignified, elderly woman got in. She was, by far, the eldest in the crowd of passengers, most of them seated. More unstable on her feet, presumably. More tired than most of us, presumably, too.
That simple thought, more than all that we’ve been taught about respecting age, prompted me to tap her on the arm to catch her attention, and stand up for her. As she made to sit down, there was a nudge from behind me. It was the lady on her way to worship. "I’m not getting off for a long while. I stood up for this lady," I explained, sure that she had overlooked the aged lady.
"That doesn’t matter," she said brusquely, brushing past me and into the seat with amazing speed.
The old lady smiled at me, trying to calm me down. "Where are you going?" she asked and at my answer, she looked upset. "That’s a long way away!"
"I stood up for you, and even explained so to this lady," I said, loud enough for the seated woman to hear. Perhaps good sense would prevail. The old lady smiled gently.
Within minutes, a major intersection arrived, and the tram half emptied out, and both of us were comfortably seated.
But the incident ate into what could have been such a pleasant journey. The old lady and I chatted amicably. Then, a young girl to my left picked up a conversation with me: that’s Kolkata, basically a friendly city. Then, why do some people go out of their way to be otherwise?
The tram rolled along while all these questions troubled me. The lady who had grabbed her seat, turned half-way back right through the 25-minute journey, to look out of the window behind her, rather than sit straight so that she could look out ahead, which would have been far more comfortable for her. But not once did she sit straight, since that would have forced her to look at us.
Then, the stop outside the place of worship she was going to, arrived. Still making sure she didn’t have to look at those sitting four feet from her, she got up and out. But her thoughtlessness and something else continued to bother me: my own inaction. If this lady was rude to push me and insist on sitting where the old lady ought to have, should I not have stood my ground and NOT allowed her to bulldoze her way through? Was it enough for me to say, I was too taken aback to react? For one, I’ll certainly be more cautious the next time.
