We do talk to ourselves. Don’t we? I am sure nobody hears me when I talk to myself, when I see a bus (Chennai, MTC) go without stopping at the bus stop, especially after waiting for it for several minutes. Perhaps the bus driver doesn’t think that I am a person (and every other I’s there) waiting for the bus, and so he thinks that he can avoid the stop and reduce the trip time.
We don’t only talk to ourselves, we also talk to strangers. Somehow, we get reasons to talk. I can find a person, an elderly person, at least two in a week, who talks to me. Oh, it is the same dialogue: “How do I catch this bus if it stops 100 meters away from the bus stop?”. I feel pity for them. There is no way that they can run, compete and get on the bus. I understand both the bus driver and those waiting for the bus assume a different location from where the bus has to stop.
Adults talk to kids and sometimes talk to them that only the other adult can understand. There are times when kids do understand a few. That is what perhaps learning is. I was sure that mom had been talking to her son (I guess not more than 7 years old), and explaining her struggles with catching a bus. One of her struggles would be about the bus moving before she could get onto the bus completely. I think that that kid understood his mom in this case. The bus was moving in the traffic, and they waved their hands, singling the bus to stop. The bus was not crowded, and the driver stopped the bus for them. The kid got onto the bus very quickly and screaming all the way, “Amma varanga, wait pannunga!” (Please wait, mom is coming!). That situation, those words and the kid’s voice made me feel, for a second, that was the sweetest of feelings I ever felt in my life.
Beyond your imagination
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