It was one of those Fridays when I woke up and decided – I
wanted to have breakfast out. We do this occasionally, where we just go out for
breakfast even on a weekday morning. It seemed like a good day to have some
masala dosa. We woke the kids up and hurried their milk down with the promise
of a fun trip to eat out.
As I got the car out of the parking, I noticed it was
complete flat. A few minutes’ delay and Suresh ad the spare tire on. And that
was low on air too. To think of the odds of that happening! The Maruthi garage
is close to home and so we drove there. About an hour from the time we decided
we had to have breakfast out, we were at the garage and told that something was
wrong with the axle and it would take at least 2 hours to have it fixed.
As we walked out from the garage with two hyper excited kids
(garage trips are always fun for them, since there is so much to see). Suresh
pulled out his phone and said ‘Lets book a car and go have breakfast and come
back.’
Ziva chimed in ‘Appa let's go by bus’
I remember when I was young I hated going by bus. I think my
sister can fairly vouch that I begged, pleaded and nagged her every evening
after school to take an autorickshaw home. She being the good child always
refused to!
Ziva’s request gave me the giggles – She may look like me but
we are poles apart.
We walked about 500 meters and go into the bus! Two excited
kids and two adults trying to look like we fit in. I think we looked like those
people who have never been on a flight get all excited when the seats recline
back.
Isaac and Ziva took a seat all the way in front and Suresh
and I found a seat close by. The bus was relatively empty. After a few minutes,
Suresh looked around and realized that there were several seats empty around
us, but none of the men were sitting on them.
‘I think I am sitting on a ladies seat’, he whispered a
little amused and a little embarrassed.
He stood up and moved closer to where all the men were
standing and I decided I would move closer to the kids. I picked Ziva and had her sit
on my lap.
Both were curious on why Appa was standing when there was a
so many places to sit at.
I pointed to the sign above that said ‘ LADIES SEAT’. ‘Its
only for ladies to sit on’ I told Isaac.
Isaac looked above his seat and it had the same sign ‘LADIES
SEAT’. Noticing his glance I assured him
. ‘ You are small Isaac. You can sit here. Its OK!’
Isaac: ‘ Will I have to get up when I am 8 years old’
Me : ‘ Maybe it will be OK for you to sit here till you are
10 years old’
I wondered why I put that cap of 10 years! What was I
expecting him to do at 10 years that he was not doing at 7 years.
Me: ‘Or maybe if you
behave yourself you can still sit here. ‘
I went on to tell him why there were separate ladies
seats. ‘ If men learn to behave
themselves, we wont need these separate seats’
When I told Suresh about this explanation he said that the
main reason of LADIES SEATS was because women were considered the ‘weaker sex’.
I disagree. In the Mumbai
where there are tons of women working there are just two compartments (maybe 3
reserved for women). Separate compartments – because men don’t know how to
behave themselves!
On the way back from breakfast, we got into another bus! As
Isaac sat in his spot, he turned up to look if there were was something written
over it!
