Episode: 1
Place: A
major road junction in Calcutta
Time: Mid
morning on a weekday
I am on my way to deliver a lecture as a guest faculty. The venue is the
training college of a large Calcutta-based bank.
I get off the underground Metro rail, climb up the stairs to
bright sunshine, and move towards the line of auto rickshaws near the road
junction. I locate the share-auto stand and the particular auto that is about
to leave for my destination. It is nearly full. Just ahead of me a gentleman
gets into the auto. He occupies a seat that happens to be the last one vacant.
He sits down and looks up. Our eyes meet in mutual signs of recognition.
He is
the programme coordinator and also the person who has invited me to deliver the
talk at his training college.
As his auto moves off, he nods to me and signals to the next
vehicle in the queue. I find a seat in the auto that follows, get off at my
destination, and walk up to the first floor of the training college. I meet him
there, already at his desk, with a cup of tea in hand. All the way to the
training centre, I wondered whether he should have acted differently.
Since I was his guest and a visiting faculty at his institute,
should he have offered me the lone vacant seat in the auto and himself taken
the next auto instead, or given up that seat to travel together in the next
auto? Had I been in his place, I would have done either of them – but definitely
not what he did. Was I wrong in being a bit pissed off with his behaviour? Was
I expecting too much? I don’t know.
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