Sad but true!!

Lunatic or Victim... Retarded or shocked beyond belief... Unknown friend or known enemy...

I know what i have written above does not make any sense as such. But something happened last night. And i am DISGUSTED with our society. Or atleast that part of it which was sitting in Coffee Day, Saket Complex on the night of 31st of March, 2007 at around 11 pm. I was there too. I put myself in this HEARTLESS bunch who were there and did nothing. Doing nothing in retrospect seems ok. But this bunch laughed and mocked this lady who did something that caught everyone there by surprise. This post is to tell you about that lady and our 'so called' developing society.

I wrapped up my work like everyday and locked the office. I am the last one out each night. On my way home my regular stop over is the Saket complex. It just helps in reassuring me that i still have a life. Like everyday i parked my bike. Spoke to the parking attendants. Checked if the Bhel Puri waala was doing well. Then i walked into Coffee Day. It was buzzing with people of all ages. There was one little boy running around trying to find something interesting to do. A family of four were sharing light moments which were so loud that the music playing in the cafe semed like a mere background score to their theatrical performance. One long haired college kid was sitting on the table next to mine. We were both facing the main enterance to the cafe.

Before i get into what happened, let me tell you that below this cafe there is a book shop called Teksons. The enterance to it is through the cafe. And its shut whenever i have seen it as it shuts by 7 pm. There is a staircase leading down to the it. A set of steps which look like they are leading to nothing as its usually dark.

I ordered my usual. Irish coffee. Coffee Day has a new glass in which they serve this coffee. Its quite cool. My first sip was the only one i remember. The rest of the coffee disappeared somewhere between what happened next and my thoughts.

One lady dressed quite decently opened the cafe door. She was wearing a black formal outift with a jacket. No one seemed to notice, but this lady stood there for quite sometime. Then finally when she spoke a few heads turned. She screamed right from where she was, asking if the book shop down there was open. One of the waiters walked upto her saying that it was already shut. She wanted to know for sure and didn't seem to believe him. So she asked for the manager. He walked up to her. By now this woman in black had the attention of most of the people sitting there. She definitely had mine. She told the manager that the book shop was not shut. She told him that his cafe was open and anyone could walk down to the book shop and steal the books. The manager tried talking to her. But there was something else that was driving this woman. She seemed unstoppable. She suddenly began talking of how young boys and girls go down there after the book shop is shut and get aids. She asked the manager to show the Chocolate doughnut that they served. She said even their doughnut was spreading aids. And then she began doing these gestures with her hand that showed that she was disghusted with something so bad that it would not come off even if she washed herself a million times. A lady sitting right near the door suddenly interrupted. I think she did that because she realised that the manager was helpless in trying to calm the woman in black. This interruption seemed to intensify her all the more. She turned to the lady and told her even she would get aids if she was in this cafe. She seemed to get more and more violent and aggressive. The manager and the waiter tried their best in tyring to calm her. But it just would not happen. Suddenly... she stopped speaking. The manager had caught her hand. He tried to gently move her out of the cafe. She looked at the manager and then at all the people who were sitting in the cafe. She was asking for something. Yet it seemed like she was trying to tell us something. Her eyes locked with mine for a brief second. Then she broke off her hand from the manager's grip and began saying that he cannot treat her that way. That this was India. And that women were treated with respect here. Then she turned around and left. The manager shut the door. No one moved. Something had hit them so fast they didn't have the time to react. Suddenly the long haired boy sitting on the table next to mine started laughing. And before you know it the family of four, the waiters and the lady near the door joined in. And then out of nowhere there were these comments thrown in to the air making fun of the woman in black, laughing at her, ridiculing her. The boy even mentioned that he would have slapped her if he was in the managers place.

I felt out of place.

Somehow i was still dumbstruck. Too many things had happened and my mind was spinning at the speed of light. I wanted to know where the woman had gone. In that short time that she was standing at the door i was also sure that she was safe. But now that she had walked away i was concerned. I felt responsible for not having done anything to ensure that she was given the necessary treatment. I had not stood up and asked the people around me to shut up. I had not done ANYTHING. I just remained there sipping my coffee. I had watched the incident like it was a scene out of a movie. I knew i would be back home from here and then to office the next day and then back here once again. Nothing would change in my life.

But this incident does not seem to leave me. I want to know what happened to her?? I want to know what had happened that brought her to the state that she was in?? I want to know. But i don't want to do what it takes to know. I want... I want... I want... Is that all i can say?? Isn't there anything that i will ever do to know... But as always, in the present, one always feels that the past can be corrected if repeated. This is how our society is. No one wants to do something in the present. People like to react in two situations. One is if you give them a situation from the past, they will willingly correct it. (Or so they say). The other is the future. People like to react in the future. No one wants to stand up in the present. No one wants to lose out on the present.