Dont start a riot
Her name was neeraja. She was attractive and healthy. She spoke tamil, that is, until she began talking in malayalam to the girl sitting next to me. It seems she was born in India and shifted to Singapore and then did her masters in the UK. Now married to an accountant in Oz, she was taking the flight to melbourne. She was seated next to me. Yup. I was seated in the middle of two young women on a 8 hour flight to Melbourne from Singapore...
"Irundhutaalumm..."
I remembered my friend quip when I last told him about the time I had a hot babe sitting next to me on a flight. The literal translation to english would be something like.. "Even if that happened.." but the real purport of the word/phrase is.. even if what you are saying had truly happened, it was of no use because you are not going to do much or get much out of the situation.
Which is true.. I am never really going to be able to get out of the brahmin conservative mindset that I was brought up with. That is the primary reason I have not been able to get myself a girlfriend or spend a night at the local brothel. But yes.. I am working on it.. I am sure I will end up on the lap of some girl who is willing to screw a middle aged man just for the novelty of it. Lets see...
Quite talkative and not having anything else to do anyway, Neeraja and I started talking. The flight was delayed from take off due to a passenger being ill and the flight having to return to the bay.
Eventually as the flight took off almost 2 hours late, we had had quite a talk and did not have much to say to each other. I turned to the other girl on my left and asked her what her name was. She said Chandni. It seems she was also travelling from India to Melbourne to meet her family who were already there. she had just passed out of college and had been working in a software firm for only a year. Easy to smile shyly, she responded to most of the questions I asked her. But then I too was tired and decided to sleep a bit. I woke about 4 hours into the flight and saw that both the girls were bored. There was no in-flight entertainment on scoot you see. After a bit of chit chat, I went back to sleep.
As I woke up again, the air hostess was announcing that they were approaching melbourne and we need to keep our seat belts on. I could sense neeraja's relief after sitting doing nothing for more than 10 hours. Chandni was just bent over leaning into the seat in front. She too must have been really tired from the abnormally long flight. And thats when it struck me..
Why not try a social engineering experiment..?
So.
I started another conversation with neeraja and told her that I was going to share the truth about myself to her and would like to know her true reaction. I noted that since we were not obviously going to see each other after the flight.. It should not be a problem to either of us to be 100 percent truthful. And I told her the gist of my story in the next 8-10 mins.. schizophrenia, hospitals, engagement cancelled, excellent work experience, my book and finally.. Assam.
I told her that since I knew that my life was going no where, I wanted to start acting like the protagonists of the indian movies of the mid 90's.. These movies usually depicted the story of a straight forward, simpleton who undergoes traumatic events and becomes a rowdy much like a sword etched by fire and goes after all the badies in the world.
I told her I was going to get myself a menial 8 hour job in Melbourne and spend atleast a week in India every month where I will file legal cases against all the dirty politicians, baddies and you know.. the rest.. I also told her about the 50 million case against Bosch that I had already filed to enunciate the fact that I was being very serious.
Her eyes widened slightly. She asked " Do you really think you will get money from Bosch?" . "No." I said. I dont think I will get any money at all from the court case. But I just wanted a judgement that clearly went against me. I would then use that judgement and present the emails with Bosch to the Australian courts. This would prove that Bosch was open to using unethical and anti-labour activities when and wherever this was possible. I would aver that they would do the same in Australia if they could and thus needed to be stopped from operating anywhere. Nope. It would not result in anything. But it would create a ripple. At least a few would turn around. Maybe someone will notice the poor labour conditions in India.
Maybe something will change.
I was willing to bet on the small 'Maybe' in the above sentence. I also wanted to try and question dirty politicians legally in court. If everyone had thought that nothing could be done about our earlier CM Jayalalitha, she would never have seen jail. Somebody did not think so. And thus today is happening.
Similarly I want to be the somebody who questions things. You do realize that someone has to do it. And I actually qualify for the position.. with no real life, no future, no family, just single old me.
Just for the bravado.. let me add the following..
Saying that someone robbed you is just a normal affair, anyone would do it. Going out and catching the thief is what a real man should do.
To be hundred percent truthful and grounded in reality, this should end up something like in the movie "Evano Oruvan" with me dieing in some unknown location trying to go back home and the poor police officer forever regreting that it was he who had to pull the trigger...
Trailer of Evano Oruvan...
Evano Oruvan was the remake of the original Dombivli fast in 2005.
After listening to everything, she said, I think you should concentrate on trying to make a difference in the life of the one person who said she will be by your side, Assam. Yes, by going after badies, bosch and all you might make a difference (or may not) in many lives. That we are not sure about. But what we are sure about is that you can really make a difference in Assam's life because she says she will be with you.
I retorted that Assam is always saying that she will leave me and that we are getting into fights every other day or so. But she just said.."She did not leave you, did she?"
Neeraja had this to say to sum it up.
It is all good and nice to see that you are willing to go around beating baddies with a stick. But it does not really happen in real life. And it is my request to you that even if you are really going to go after wrong-doers, try to do it in a realistic and sane manner. Dont start a riot.
Its a different matter that Assam has now left following the irreconciliable argument that started between us on the very same day as this flight. She had been angry that I had boarded this flight to melbourne even after we had specifically agreed that we would spend 6-8 months in India after marriage. She was also angry about how I could take my brother to court, with him being my family. This made her to stop all communication with me.
Now that I really dont have anything in life..
Dont start a riot... She said.. hmm..