Thursday 4 October 2012

Bandwidth.

Does anyone remember my old post about my experience with my fellow traveler on a train trip?
Well, yesterday saw history repeat itself, but with a mild twist. Read on..

It was my nth trip back from Bangalore to Chennai in the 6 a.m. train, and in all those journeys, I had realized that the probability of a good looking chick sitting next to you was as big as that of a T-rex inviting you for tea and cakes. Therefore, I found myself laughing at me for even entertaining that thought while boarding the train.

Looking for 'Seat no. 16.- Window seat', I quickly found to my dismay that it in fact was the 'Middle Seat' and the discomforting image of me fighting a proxy war with my co-passenger for the arm rests, instantly flashed in the back of my mind. While looking for luggage space I saw that there was just this lady sitting in the window seat, with the aisle seat unoccupied. I couldn't look at her face as she was reading 'The Time Traveler's Wife' and her hair was covering her face. I thought to myself, "Hmmm...could it possibly be that this lady here is in fact a C.H.I.C.K ? No way!", and quickly occupied my seat, lest the person in the aisle seat were to turn up and claim my dearest arm-rest. Upon successfully claiming the disputed territory and with mild irritation, due to the lack of information about my seat mate's face, I decided to plug myself into Led Zeppelin world. While I sat there connecting the end of earphones into my phone, I caught a glance of the lady's left arm adorned with a 'Fossil' watch, with her face still hidden, and I thought to myself.."Well...Rich? - Check. Good looking? - Insufficient data". From there on, due to my extreme force of habit, my eyes directly shot down at her feet. I saw feet looking like those of a lady belonging to the North, with slightly chipped nail paint and two toe rings one on each foot, wearing those big purple floaters with rounded white edges that made the footwear look very comfortable.

With all the right signs and the train starting to chug along, I finally decided to probe a little further to get a glimpse of the lady's face, and to my EXTREME PLEASURE...she turned out to be BEAUTIFUL!
"JACKPOT!", a happy man yelled in my head. She was beautiful, with her rimless specs making her look sophisticated and her tiny nose ring accentuating her lips. But just as soon as I celebrated my pleasant surprise, I was faced with the daunting task of initiating a conversation with a complete, and beautiful stranger from the opposite sex. I kept sampling, ice breakers like.. "Hey that's a nice watch!"...."naah...that works with Tattoos...not watches"...."how about........Hey, are you going to Chennai?"....."NO FUCKTARD, THIS TRAIN GOES TO MARS!!......eeeeugh....lame.". Meanwhile the train attendants came along distributing news papers. I got a lame newspaper and read it in 30 seconds and went back to the drawing board to figure out a decent ice breaker. After a couple of minutes, I saw her fold her paper very neatly and something instantly clicked..I asked her if I could borrow her newspaper as mine was all about celebrities, and she managed to breathe a silent "Sure". I said to myself "Contact ESTABLISHED! "

After 5 min when I mustered up enough courage to try again, I asked her "So...you travel to Chennai often?" and her tone was encouraging enough for me to continue pursuing. Thereon, past the perfunctory introductions, the conversation went on towards work, where she told me that she was working for an Indian MNC and how she was an IT Consultant and was traveling to Chennai for just a few days for a workshop. I asked how long had she been in Bangalore and where she was from. To my little dismay, the reply I got was "Well...my husband and I..*blank* Lucknow...*blank*" and the rest of the sentence was a big blank. Quickly back to reality I asked her if that was the reason why she was wearing toe rings and promptly she confirmed. Deep inside my head, once the world's happiest man groaned, "There goes my plan to go ask the lady out for a drink/dinner/coffee".

Like all my casual conversations, this one landed up on random topics like 'Life', 'Philosophy' and lame stuff like that. I was reminded of my old conversation with the mother of a 15 year old, so hoping to find this young lady, who looked in mid-to late 20's, to be like her, I asked her about her drinking. And not surprisingly she turned out to be a teetotaler who had 'tried liquor' . A little disappointed, I asked her what she liked doing in her free time and again to my dismay she said "Reading and Stitching". She seemed like a boxed up, career oriented and highly ambitious person, who kept lists of everything that was needed to 'execute' the day. We endlessly talked about Liquor and it's 'philosophical' dealings ( 'blades' to some ;D )
and how one must to be 'multi-dimensional' and stuff, whatever that meant. She was clearly a woman of her own making and I got a feeling that her image of me would be that of a donkey with a french beard.

At one point, I asked her if she was fond of writing and if she ever wrote anything. She said that she loved writing and it was her dream to write a novel. I asked her what was stopping her and to my amazement came the reply.."It's my retirement plan, currently I don't get the Bandwidth to do all that.".  It was as if my nuts were kicked into my throat. "Bandwidth??? Seriously??? Man!", was all I could say.

It's funny how different, people are. One- a mother, who used the 'f' word, smoked up, talked about introducing her child to alcohol and kicked some serious ass. and the Other- a young woman in mid-late 20's, liked to read and stitch. WEIRD DUDE!

I finally turned to look at my other seat and it still was unoccupied. After a couple of hours silence, I asked her where she was going in Chennai, and to my surprise, her destination was a few kilometers away from where I had to go and I told her that. To my extreme surprised she offered me a lift, as her office was going to book her a taxi and she didn't know the language or the directions. I gladly accepted but on the condition that "only if she didn't mind!", just to not be imposing, and she didn't. I said to myself.."Alright! On any other occasion this would have been some awesome progress, with an unmarried chick! Dammit! LUCK..I will get you for this!".

GOD I WROTE SO MUCH........I'M BORED......YOU FOLKS OBVIOUSLY MUST BE TOO.

OK OK.
Breathe Easy. \/
- Askios

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