I woke up.. a Pirate!

Early morning, the koyal singing its tunes wakes me up. With only 1 eye open, I tear apart the morning scene around me ... The sun is already up the surroundings bright and happy. The palms in front of me sway with the wind. Birds chirp. Its a bright beautiful morning. Then i turn around to see myself in front of me ... in the mirror .. ahh alas i woke up to face the reality ... I was in my room n my right eye was swollen n stuck up due to heat ... There goes adventure for a toss!

Poor lil flying creature

I was traveling to office in a regular 2nd class ladies compartment of the Mumbai local. Happy to have got a comfortable seat I opened up my novel and started reading it. In a while, I noticed sum ‘hulchul’ in the compartment. Wat do I see… The women near the door were all looking down at the floor of the compartment. Somebody must have dropped something. But their focal point kept shifting as if something was moving. And no1 wanted to reach for it. Instead they were all moving away! There were hush and heys all over. I realized in a while there was a biiig bug in the compartment. Must have flown in through the door and landed on the floor. It started walkin in seeing that there is quiet some place in the compartment this morning. Probably was looking for a window seat as in continued its trail inside… Ladies started makin way for the creature, being cautious that it does not land on them or they don’t land on it … Thankfully no 1 yet had tried to kill it or stamp it. As it neared me, I saw it was walkin at ease not hurrying through the compartment, as if not wanting to make any1 conscious. It was similar to a cockroach, though much bigger in size… say 3 to 4 inches in addition to its 1 –2 inches long antennae. Wat struck me the most is that the creature had 2 wings in 2 different colors! 1 was a shade of gray. The other had beautiful patterns in green-blue. May be it was injured or sumthing… how else can u explain 2 wings so very different?? This might be just the reason why it came in to rest. It was not even flying. Just walking peacefully… hmmm. While all these things were going on in my mind, the bug continued its tour of the compartment; unaware to the scare it had spread to its co-passengers… There were girls that gave up their seat so that the uninvited guest does not harm them. I just kept my feet up staying put at my seat. Among all the ladies, then came this smart young Samaritan. She asked others to calm down and pleaded not to kill the unusual commuter. She got a paper she had in her bag to try pick up the bug so she can put it out. But alas the paper was too small n light. Lookin at that another woman was carrying a wedding invitation. She promptly gave the thick envelop to the lady. As she stood there calculating her next move, another aunty came in, took the envelop and opened it up to hold it near the bug such that it could just walk into the cover. The bug, when it saw this big white bright corner in front of it, initially hesitated. It just put 1 foot inside to check on the cover. All of its senses mighta been in action to assess whether it should walk in or not. It then found it safe and happily walked in without any push or external force. The envelp was big enough to keep the bug in safely. All of this was goin on in the last corner of the compartment. By this time many women had moved to the door to avoid any interaction wid the bug. Aunty then carried the cover towards the door and again the women there were going helter skelter to avoid contact now even with the aunty … Fear - it makes otherwise sane people behave in such wonderous ways… Aunty just poured the bug out of the envelope, out of the train and returned the envelope back to the owner. Wonder if she hung on to it or threw it out right at that moment. This brought back peace in the compartment. And people then resumed their journey. Aunty got a place to sit and was definitely thanking the bug as only it had emptied the seats. I hope the bug had found a safe place to land. Hope it didn’t hurt itself further. Hope its now healing and off to a healthy life ahead. I wonder if it were a female bug to get into the ladies compartment in broad daylight :) hehe Happy journey everyone.
- May 2008

Wat can I say ... I came across another similar incident today ... 2 years after the initial incident. This time i was armed with my cell cam to capture what had made the otherwise calm ladies in the compartment go helter-skelter - a praying mantis. Looks like these bug(gers) can get the same reactions out of ladies every single time :D Take a look at the star of the journey today :)
- July 2010