#1 Fellow Passengers

Every Thing Around Me Is Funny!

(Except Me of Course)

Fellow Passengers

It is inevitable! Wherever I travel, there are other passengers with me there! Being an Indian, we have an inclination towards traveling in public transports like Bus, Train, Shared Taxi etc. and these are the places where you find your own set of fellow passengers!

Although India is known as a diverse country, we also have few very deep-rooted stereo types which can be seen everywhere!

Just to begin with, the all known phrase… “Save a seat!” and its cousin brother “This seat is taken!” If only I’ve got a coin every time I heard these I would have been seriously thinking about changing my hobby to Coin Collecting!!

But here’s the catch, my fellow passengers never seem to get tired of making fun of themselves! Never! They always tend to think that when I approach a seat, I am planning to take over it and throw them out!! And hence the phrase.

I once heard a guy claiming that a seat that he was sitting was waiting for 7 persons to return!! When clearly it was a 3 seater!! So I bent towards him and said…

“Do you need someone to help you hold down the fort?”

You see, the seat is one’s comfort zone, I totally understand that! But it cracks me up to see how far a person would go to reserve it, all of it!

So one day I just got up in a bus and a person was keeping his briefcase beside him on the seat. And when I asked him to give me my fair share of the seat, he literally gave me 3 inches of seat to sit! So I placed my bag there and said to it

“Glad you got a seat! They are pretty scarce around here!”

My fellow passengers always have the most weird and incredible body postures when I approach their seat! Some of them look like they are suffering from brittle bone disease and their whole body will just fall apart if they don’t sit (or rather spread over) that way!! While some of them maintains their dignity by sitting up majestically folding their legs over! That is until I remind them that it is a general compartment and they don’t belong there!

All great persons have stated in the history that a human soul is to be put in front of all the materials in this world! My fellow co-passengers are the living examples of each of those statements! They always put their comfort in front of any material (read luggage). I was once travelling in a train where I suddenly saw a strangely familiar bag rolling down over the floor in front of me! It took me some time to realize that it is the same bag which I put over the luggage space above me when I boarded the train! When I gazed up I was surprised to see that one of my fellow passengers had taken its place and was in a peaceful sleep. And yes, these people will sleep anywhere! Under any possible condition just to show you that they can still have a good time while you can go along with your sufferings!

And god they can get comfortable in ways you’ve never would’ve imagine! They pull out flasks, change in to just a towel, take a bath, have a candle lit dinner…

I once saw a person use his bed sheet to tie a hammock just above my seat and go to sleep! So while he was swinging and sleeping all night, I was scared sleepless below just imagining what will happen if his little arrangement collapses with him over me!

So there they all are… my fellow passengers, squeaking, screaming, stretching & capturing spaces all around me everywhere I go! They come in all shapes and sizes, coming around from all over the country, showing one true spirit of unity

“We won’t let the fort fall down!!”