Religious fervour can often appear ridiculous as devotees choose various means to show their faith. An acquaintance narrated how he was shocked at the extent people can go in the name of religion. A free-lancer, doing copy-editing and proof-reading for a few organisations, the person regularly delivered the final proofs to a young lady employee of one such company at a Metro station.

Last week, after calling up the lady, our friend waited for over half-an-hour for her to collect the papers. To repeated phone calls she responded that she was on her way. When the lady finally turned up, he noticed that she was walking slowly, almost limping. He then saw she was bare-footed. At his concern, she responded that this was part of her fasting during the Navratras and that she would not wear any footwear for all the nine days!

Sheer innocence!

There’s nothing more blissful than a child’s sheer innocence. We often tend to overlook it and are always bent upon bringing them up as disciplined and obedient children. However, a colleague narrated a recent incident, wherein the mother asked her four-year-old daughter to fetch a broom from the balcony so that she could sweep the floor. The kid, however, was afraid of the dark and was resisting to go outside.

The mother tried to cheer up the kid and asked her not to worry as there’s nothing in the dark to be afraid of and that god is there with her. To which, the kid spontaneously replied, “If god is there outside, ask him to fetch the broom for you!” The mother had no answer to the innocent response but could not help but appreciate the child’s quick thinking.

(Un)safe ride

With numerous reports of cab and auto-rickshaw drivers misbehaving with and even mugging their passengers, one needs to remain alert when hiring one of these transport modes. A colleague narrated how she had a narrow escape when she took an auto-rickshaw after an evening assignment. Returning home after an event at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium at around 7.30 p.m., our colleague was unable to locate any conveyance to the nearest Metro station. Just as she was about to book a cab, an auto-rickshaw arrived and she boarded it. She also agreed to share the drive with another girl, who wanted to go to Malviya Nagar.

As the two girls got in, our colleague felt uncomfortable when another man sat next to the driver. When questioned the driver said his shift would get over in a while and the other man would take over. The two girls began chatting as the auto sped on. Soon the other man got off after whispering something to the driver. That somehow sent alarm bells ringing for our colleague. She quickly checked the Google map on her phone and realised they were riding well away from their destination.

She quickly asked the driver to stop and got off. She tried her best to convince the other girl to get off as well but in vain. She took another auto to the nearest Metro station and reached home safely. However, she was unable to stop worrying about the other girl, hoping she too reached home safe and sound.

Tailpiece

An exasperated commuter commented, the best way to get into a traffic jam is to take a flyover!

Contributed by: Rakesh Kumar, R V Smith, D S Velu, Nivedita R, Hasrat Sandhu and Asha Ramachandran