It was a crowded bus. It was past 12 PM on a very hot Bangalore day. And there I was, in this bus….standing, cramped for space.
In the front of the bus there were few seats vacant but none of us men standing dared to occupy them; as it was “reserved” for the ladies.
As the bus trudged from one stop to the other in the notorious traffic, I saw an aged man get into the bus. He was visibly very tired, as much due to his old age as the hot day.
Finding a seat empty in the crowded bus would have been his wish if he had got a magic lamp…and behold he finds these seats in the front empty and he goes there and sits…
You could actually see the relief on his face; his body too.
Couple of stops later 3 ladies got into the bus, they were about 40 something year olds. They scan the whole bus, as if it was a crime for the others on the bus to be there…they see 2 empty seats and 2 of them occupy those, while the 3rd finds the old man and starts shouting at him….and quickly it turns abusive and the lady states “u r so old and still look at what your wishes are….don’t you have women at your home??”…. “look this is ladies seat just get up from there….its my seat”. The man feebly protests and says to adjust as he is very much tired and pleads for understanding. The lady would have none of this and also calls the conductor to get the man out o the seat….and the conductor duly obliges.
The whole scene was pathetic….once the trio occupied the seat with their useless weight, they begin chatting and laughing and gossiping around…..
Yes, life is beautiful………as of the old man…who cares for him???
On a different day, which was partly cloudy and blustery ….on my way to the office I was in much luck…as I had landed myself on a very rare bus…. A bus that was. ....... not crowded !!!!
But on closer observation…I see that the women folks up front were in bigger number and there were ample seats empty at the back (the so called male area)……….
I was sitting in a cubicle type seating arrangement where 2 seats were placed facing each other. (A person traveling by BMTC would very well know this…. A total capacity of 4 people..2 each facing each other)… I was sitting on one of the seats alone and a young man around 30 year old sitting opposite me. He was wearing a soiled shirt, obvious from a crow bar he was carrying I knew that he was a laborer.
Then I see a middle aged lady coming towards us and sitting next to the laborer…in couple of seconds the lady starts behaving like she owned the place and started looking condescendingly at the labourer, and demanded him to get up from there and go somewhere else…It wasn’t a request …it was a thundering order… I was shocked at the way this lady was behaving…. I watched on inquisitively to see what the poor man would do…. Nothing surprising happened; he just stood up and sat next to me without a murmur….
mmm…so you would be thinking why was I recollecting these incidents??? Why not these are the minor incidents that clearly show how a noble idea can be exploited…how a directive from the government can be manipulative and used in the most inhumane fashion….yes… it is nothing but the idea of “RESERVATION”…
In the above case what you saw was the reservation given to the female traveler on the BMTC buses…even though the whole bus is empty…you a MALE is not allowed to take a female seat. Even if there is an old man or a sick/disabled man on the bus…he must always get up and salute the female passenger and wipe the seat and ask her to have a seat….no matter what happens….just because there is no so called “RESERVED” seats for men on the bus…a woman can have a seat any where on the bus…why to speak more… you have these pink coloured BMTC buses specially crafted for the women folks… which go empty and there you have a have normal bus where men are hanging on to their dear life on the crowded bus….these women show no respect and have no empathy towards others and are just carrying their dirty body mass around….
(When I refer to women/females in general in my post. I am pointing to the ones whom I illustrated in my above observations. Please do not take offence misunderstanding my generalization )
Is it against law to give a ladies-seat to an old man??? Is it correct if a female is sitting in a men’s seat with his boyfriend…and you have a tired/old person standing and feeling tortured???
When you make a rule, of course it may not be fool proof..but then putting in a bit of thinking behind these would never hurt as well….
As, I started off with the issue of “RESERVATION”, I think I will continue in my next blog about the QUOTA system for SC/ST/Minorities/OBCs……….
Till then make sure that you do…….not what the law and rule brought up by senseless politicians requires… but what your conscience and law of humanity and kindness would want.
At the same time above were the extreme cases of rudeness and it is not true that men are always meek and the women are always as heartless. But the worrying matter is that these incidents are becoming more common and an everyday happening!!
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