Sunday, March 23, 2008

The French Women and T-Shirt concerns

Let me embark on with a confession; not a nefarious one, instead a very benign one. I am the proud owner of a very bad habit. I wake up at 6 a.m every day irrespective of Sunday or Monday. I get up and take a stroll in the deserted park in front of my flat just envying all those souls who sleep peacefully and I think.."Just look at em..so oblivious...so boring..etc..etc.." That's the succinct...

Coming back...Today also the same happened..inevitable...I woke up at 6:05 a.m. I went to church and provided some food for my subconscious. By the time I got out of church it was around 9:30 a.m. I drove mi car as fast as possible, guess for what ? I wanted to have a coffee and I usually prefer it from Cafe coffee Day. The quantity of coffee they offer is simply a largesse for me. I parked mi car with great difficulty and hoped into the CCD. Oh My God! Couples...and Couples everywhere. Quite obviously it reminded me that I am single. Perfect time for a great revelation. I noticed so many eyes staring at me ( Of course you know the reason :-) ). Ergo, I managed to find an empty table as rest all were occupied. I ordered and sat back listening to some of mi favorite Ghazals when I was disturbed by a very dire voice, placing a handbag in front. A French Women. Can I? she asked . Come on, how cud I say NO. I sat back again listening Music bidding audieu to my defensive mode body language.

She took out a french novel. Nevertheless never showed any interest reading it. Was just scrolling pages i suppose. So I though that I should initiate a conversation. I disconnected and asked, "Bonjour. Comment etes-vous ? "( How are you?.its french) She suddenly noticed my I-Pod and asked "Whats the storage capacity?" I said " 2 GB" She nodded and said " pretty gud space" I said " Well. not exactly. My Ghazal collection itself wud come at around 6 GB in my Laptop. She interrupted and said "I am Marciel and I can speak good English." I understood the implication. It meant that I didnt have to struggle speaking some French. I am disgustingly pathetic with mi french language skills. The testimonial for the same was confirmed with the artificial wrinkles that appeared on her forehead when I asked her "Bonjour. Comment etes-vous ? "

As our conversation progressed we talked about many things, our profession, interests, hobbies etc..etc... Her conversations were pretty pellucid and that meant tat i didn't have to make any wrinkles on mi forehead as well. All through our conversation, I noticed the writings on her T-Shirt. It read " Married...Divorced...Single and Happy now.." I inquired about this as I no longer could contain my innate curiosity. She said.."Oh I have never married..Its just a writing and It does not mean much to me." We both laughed at this. All of a sudden 4 punjabi Lads entered the scene creating lots of noise..blabbering in punjabi..highly capricious and uncivilized. Intriguingly all four of them were wearing a black T-Shirt written F.B.I over it. Marciel said " wow..nice T-shirt" to which I confirmed acknowledgment. As they moved past us, the back side of the T-Shirt explained the abbreviation of F.B.I. No points for Guessing. Ok. You got it wrong either ways. It read FEMALE BODY INSPECTORS ..F.B.I. Ha ha.. I started laughing at this..and Marciel joined me after a second. The french are slow to follow up jokes in English.

My point is that those kids were barely 12-13 years old...not more than that. And they were driving a Skoda and loads of cash..other tan the illustrious T-Shirt message. Marciel said..."they are sure havin fun." Yes..I am sure they are..I am not commenting on anything about the entire episode. There are so many things in this world that I do not understand. Some things lies beyond my choice. Today's kids, youth; they lack direction and I doubt how efficient their parents are in showing them the right path. I just cannot comprehend the youth today. Dexterous for sure they are. But are they an insolent to our culture..? vis-a-vis my generation.

Its been over an hour in the CCD and I had to move to the Italian Embassy to get some files ( I work there). I felt the sense of urgency to reach the embassy before 12 noon as I had lunch scheduled with an old friend at 1 sharp. I bid good bye to Marciel and plugged music back into my ears..Moved out..Marciel came running towards mi car.." Oh.. I almost forgot.. Sanal..Can i have your Business card?" I gave her one and moved drove out of the parking lane slowly as she stood watching. She became clear view in mi rear view glass...soon the image faded..faded and faded....as I concentrated back to driving...through busy roads of Delhi.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice post.
As U have noticed,Frechies put on T shirts without knowing the meaning of the phrase printed on it. There are even spelling mistakes on some, b'coz they are printed frm China. Any way I enjoyed ur posting. Keep it up!

Sanal - Maverick unleashed... said...

Thank you so much Aarathi..
SMJ

Manju Yadav said...

I hate reading novels n all...
bt Sanal dis Chocolate story ws tooooo gud!! I really njoyed reading it...n i swear i hv nvr read such beautiful xplanation!!

Manju

Anonymous said...

Hey Sanal,
I hate reading novels n typo stories!!
Bt i swear i realy liked a lot ur Chocolate waali story.. Its too gud...mmm...short n interesting...gud!
Plz do rite sum mor stories if u hv! i ll luv to read dm..
Manju

Sanal - Maverick unleashed... said...

Tnks Manju...BTW its a real life experience..tan a story..

SMJ

Kamal Gupta said...

the story is very nice and cool.i really enjoyed this.