May I have a seat?

I got in to the bus yesterday morning and usually it’s a little empty, but yesterday it was quite full. So I had to look at some faces, and figure out which one looks less grumpy early morning at 6:05am. So let’s see who do we have here…oh, a college student, nah…this early with a bad hairdo, looks like he hasn’t taken a bath…next…oh, a desi let’s…wait a minute, did he just give me a wide smile…this early…nah, will talk too much and I won’t be able to check out the news…next…American guy, well dressed and in his mid 50’s with a gray hairline reading a novel…so I ask “Excuse me! May I have a seat?” and suddenly the medium build guy who was sitting kind of laid back on one and a half seat and had his bag on the other half of the seat, straightens up looks at me, and gives me a dull, boring and basically disgusting look and just pulls his bag to himself. I feel a little uncomfortable and look around, but I’m basically in the end anyway, so I take a chance and take the seat.

The next 20 minute ride was the worst since I moved to this new locality about 9 months ago. The jerk, literally gave me a taste of racism against Indians…of course according to me that is. I’m pretty sure he is a nasty character in general. So, a few minutes in to the ride, I take out my iPhone and put my headphones on to see last night’s AC360 podcast. As soon as I start the podcast, he moves around in his place pushes his bag on me a little and sets himself comfortably on his seat disrupting me the whole time, and not once saying “sorry”. I give him a leeway (my mistake, I should have given him a piece of my mind instantly) assuming that maybe he had a bad start to the day. Next, he turns on the light above my seat and tries to pull it so it shines on his book. So let me get this, all this time when you were sitting alone, the light was bright enough, and now all of a sudden it has gotten so dark that you want to switch on my side of the light and turn it on your side? This is when I get it that he’s just trying to make my ride miserable, but I hold on and try not to puch him in the face…think Gandhi…think non-violence…but I just watched The Godfather series, and I really “want to make him an offer that he can’t refuse” but I control myself.

About 15 minutes in to the ride, the guy gets so frustrated with god knows what that he closes his book with a thud, loud enough to jolt me and make a few other guys on seats around look at our seat. And now I really feel a little humiliated and surprised that “what the F did I do?” Thankfully the bus comes to a halt at a stop and a guy sitting two seats in front of me all alone on his seat gets up to get off. I blurt out “Oh, Thank god!” and run to the seat that he left empty.

Today morning, I got on the bus, and found a few seats empty. So I go to one of the seats and see the same jerk sitting behind my seat. I see that he’s not reading any book today..aaha, I have Newsweek with me. I take a chance and sit on the seat in front of him and push my seat all the way back well aware that he is going to be uncomfortable. I hear him tussling and turning uncomfortably on his seat. I give it a few minutes, and then I switch on both the lights on my seats and turn it all the way back on me. I take out my Newsweek and iPhone. I then listen to songs on my iPhone while reading the magazine and all along making sure that I change positions constantly so the dickhead behind me is burning and irritated. After a few more minutes of silence and reading Fareed Zakaria’s article, I bang the Newsweek on my bag in a loud manner, which I hope jolted the guy and gave him a taste of his nonsensical and racist behavior from the day before. Take that you moron! The dialogue from the movie Troy plays in my head…(Achilles to Agamemnon) ”Before my time is done, I will look down on your corpse and smile!”. But after all of this revenge, all I felt was annoyed and miserable about my own behavior. How could someone be so rude to anyone, and start of his/her day like this?