The Girl in Maroon Kurta

I was coming home today on 123 (AC Bus) in the evening. I was reading the book, 'Unbearable Lightness of Being' by Milan Kundera, an awesome writer. His writing always inspires me to look at various incidents from different perspectives and also critically examine the most mundane actions.

Thus kunderised, I looked around the bus as my destination neared. I saw a pretty fair girl in of 23-24ish age wearing a maroon kurta get up from her seat and walk in an awkward and delicate gait towards the door. Let me christen her Kalika, beautiful and delicate like a flower bud. Now Kalika's gait was too careful and ungraceful. She did not walk properly to maintain her balance but walked awkwardly because she had braced herself for the eventuality that she may lose her balance. She went near the door and realized that the destination was a minute or two away. So she decided to plant herself in an empty seat nearby. A man was sitting opposite her seat and had spread his legs cozily across the floorboard. Kalika requested him to move his legs so that she may sit. He obliged. Kalika tried very hard to not touch the mans leg with her foot. She tried to maneuver herself into the seat in a very ungainly manner while her behind was continuously brushing against the seat handle. Thus seated she looked out of the window anxiously waiting for the bus to reach her destination.

I had to get down at the same stop as Kalika. On road she was sure footed as a leopard. She wore white cotton socks on her feet most likely to protect her feet from the dirt and dust. They were not the normal cotton socks we buy for wearing with shoes but ones specific to be worn with sandals. In a city like Mumbai, we learn to ignore fellow pedestrians and are only concerned about where we are going unless somebody blocks us. Now Kalika has not learnt this. She observed the direction in which every individual in her vicinity walked so as not to collide into them. She allowed people to cross her or go ahead, always maintaining no contact rule. What amazed me about Kalika was her total aversion to any kind of contact with a stranger.