If you have noticed, I don't like writing about reality. That is probably because I don't like reality. I am a romantic kind of chap (Not necessarily Mills and Boon romantic, but Don Quixote Romantic). I like to write about Poetry, beauty, romance...But the problem in living in a world of your own is that when reality hits you in the face (it hit someone else in the face, as it were) it hurts real hard. Something like what happened to Siddhartha when he chanced outside the palace. (Today, probably more than ever before, the world is split into class-societies - upper class, middle class, lower class and there is increasingly less interaction between them. So when once in a while there is an intersection, it is a jarring experience)

On Republic day I decided to go to Magestic by Bus and not by bike. If some TV crew had caught me and asked me why, I would have replied that using Public Transport was a Republic Day Gesture to the nation. The real reason was that it had been a long time since I went by Bus and I wanted to walk around Majestic looking for Second hand book stalls and a bike would have been a botheration more than anything else.

So I got onto a bus alright, but it was crowded. Ok. I don't mind standing. I don't have to do it everyday.

After some time in the crowd I came face to face with this college kind of guy. He looked straight at me with some kind of look I can't explain. I often engage in stare competitions with total strangers. But today, some sixth sense told me to avert his eys and pretend to look past him. He was wearing tight trousers and big ugly rubber boots.

Then he called out to his friend to 'come here'. 'Come here. I'll tell you why' he said in Kannada. 'Barstini nodu' he said to his friend which in Kannada is equivalent to the Hindi 'Bajata hun dekh'. I was wary. I sensed trouble. I slowly nudged my way into the crowd, away from them.

Nothing happened for a long time, and I was looking out the nearest window when there was this sudden noise. This college guy was hitting, slapping, punching on the face this another man all the while accusing the second man of trying to steal a third person's mobile. The second man made a feeble protest saying he didnt do anything. I heard myself say in Kannada, as did others, 'Hey what are you doing. Don't do it' The college guy was continuously shouting and scolding at the second man and making threatening gestures. And as we watched the college guy took the second man by the collar and pushed him out of the bus. The bus was going slowly and the second man landed on his feet. He made a complaining gesture towards the bus.

The college guy continued shouting on top of his voice for a long time, in conversation with his friend. 'I usually carry a razor. I would have killed the fellow' he said. 'I have been watching him; he was trying to steal the mobile for a long time.'

If you ask me, the college guy just pulled the whole thing for kicks. I don't think that guy was trying to steal mobile phones. That he wasnt allowed to speak and thrown off the bus in a hurry only makes me believe even more that he was innocent. What really pains me is, if this is so then the college guy was just being a sadist. And what scares me is that he seemed to have picked up a random person from the bus.

A feeling of impotence, sadness, depression filled me. It was the Republic Day, besides. If only someone had stopped the savagery; broken the college guy's hand or something... Suddenly the appeal of Superman and Spiderman becomes explainable.

The problem is I need a reasonable stand towards the harsh (not necessarily harsh for me) realities of life. I have tried several, but they all seem inadequate after some time. I still need to be reconciled with the world.