Ode To A Stranger

When you travel by an Indian bus you meet a variety of people. There are some incidents, some funny events, which happen on the bus, stay in the memory forever.

I was traveling on the government bus at night. As usual, the bus was in a pitiful state. On top of it, the driver was driving recklessly. Now and then the driver would make entire passengers jump, he would not even put a brake on the hump. I was sitting beside an old man, who was coughing all over the journey and was taking my sleep away.

On one such hump, the bus driver did not even bother to put the breaks and he made every sleeping passenger jump about 2 feet in the air. Suddenly, a man dressed in the traditional attire got up. He looked at the driver like he is going to hit him, but for the surprise, he said in a poetic tone

"Oh, driver the great, this bus will decide our destination's fate;

When you encounter any hump, please put a proper brake."

In all the trouble on the bus, I found some entertainment and I thought if I change my seat, away from this old man there is a greater possibility that I get the sound sleep. 

I tried my luck and said ...

"Oh, poet the great, I have a small request to make";

"My seat is more comfortable; Why don't you come here and take";

The old man who could not sleep due to coughing and was now scared by my proposal. Thinking that the poet beside him will make his journey hell, he told two lines, which ended all the possibilities and shocked all the others on the bus. He too said poetically,

"Oh, you guys, Please end this poetry for the god's sake"

"I am not carrying any Crocin or Anacin and you guys are giving me a headache"