Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Of U.F.O.'s & I.F.O.'s

The other day I was sitting in a window seat in a bus, and was lost in reading and trying to keep my back straight, when suddenly something brushed against my hand. It was only when I looked up that I realized the lady in front of me had just washed her hand from the window and a few droplets came in from my window due to wind. I was thankful that it wasn't the peel from the orange she was eating that had come and landed on me, but I could not wait to go home and wash myself and the clothes I was wearing then...

Yesterday, I was in a hurry to go somewhere, so I just boarded the first bus that came, and I didn't get a window seat. The woman next to me kept chewing something and spitting out of the window every now and then, while her friend in the window seat in the row before us was also chewing something. However, that window was closed, and the lady next to me was trying to open the window for her friend. But the friend didn't (or maybe couldn't) wait that long, with the result that half her spit ended on the window itself. I was nearly puking there, and I had to make a great effort not to think of the spit-laden window.

If it was this bad for me, sitting safe inside the bus, how much worse would it have been for someone on the road next to the bus, if the spit or fruit peels and chocolate wrappers land on them?

I've had the misfortune of sitting in an auto which stopped right next to a bus at a signal. I was just sitting there talking to my mother, and suddenly, there, on my hand was the 'output'* of someone blowing his nose. I almost developed a Macbeth complex that day, but thankfully a few days of washing my hands helped me get back the idea that my hand wasn't 'polluted' any more.
(* - maybe the programming influence... I was actually going to say 'result' or 'product' :P )

I have seen people throwing all sorts of things from bus windows - from water to biscuit wrappers to fruit peels. At times, people puke out of the window (and sometimes, half of it ends up in the bus and on the window), and wash their hands too from there. As if this weren't enough, people also spit regularly, whether or not they chew tobacco.

I could identify only certain possibilities of what could come out of bus windows, but I'm sure there are more U.F.O.'s to fill up the list of what you can expect when you're on the roads...

And I was thinking the other day that road safety seems to involve almost a full body armour-like covering, as just a helmet will not protect you from any of the above mentioned things...

I think I better stop now, before the images I'm seeing in my mind spoil my appetite for dinner.

Good luck, and may you stay safe!


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