Smart Family

Yesterday, while traveling back to Pune by train, I had the chance to spend my journey with a very special family. You know the sort which has a lot of money, but almost nothing else. No sense of decency, no sense of propriety, no respect for others spaces or feelings and in most cases, a complete disregard to the fact that others might actually exist! In general, these people are not hard to distinguish. The male of the family will be rather fat with a big tummy, usually speak smartly and appear to be well to do. The woman will also be fat, and dressed in modern clothes, usually a sleeveless top and pants. Both will cling tightly to her body and show unlikely curves because of the fat hanging off her body. And the most icky thing will be the fat hanging off the lower part of her arm. Yiiiiii!!!! Even thinking about it is Yuck!!! The kid/kids will be loudmouthed and spoilt and will generate an inexplicable desire in one to give him/her/them a good hard slap.

If you are traveling by rail, recognizing such people is even simpler. They will have a huge number of bags and baggages and after filling all available storage space, they will ask you to remove your bag from below the seat and put it in the upper sleeping berth. Actually speaking, I am a bit angry, a bit jealous and a bit in awe of such people. Angry, because I am usually at the receiving end of their habits, jealous as I am can never be as unconcerned as they are, no matter how hard I try and awed as I have no idea how to deal with them! I mean, they make unfair requests on one and then look shocked when one refuses, making one feel like the very dregs of humanity! One cant even fight with them, as they have a really loud mouth and ordinary people like such as don't have a chance against them in a verbal exchange. Maybe a few fisticuffs might help, but I haven't tried it. Others are welcome to, if they want.

Anyway, this family had the father, the mother, a rather obnoxious seven year old and a small 6 month old. And a twelvish girl, who probably would be taking care of this kid. Now this girl will probably never go to school and stuff, but I think I am more sorry about her because she has to take care of that kid! She would have been been better off in an asbestos factory!

Well, this whole family dropped in on our heads with about 3 minutes for the train to go off. Then there was this whole fiasco with them fitting about 16 pieces of luggage in every nook and cranny they could find. And then they sat, with the kid taking more space than the other two people on the seat. The mother, father and the baby sat on the other seat with luggage and the maid taking the remaining space on the side seat. Dont ask me where the other 4 people were sitting and how! Two were unequal to the struggle and went on the upper berth and were not seen again till the end of the journey. An uncle and me were left holding the post. Sometime later, both of us left. I to talk to a friend in another coach and he to talk on the phone. By the time I came back, these people had had dinner, obviously on my berth and had spilled food and oil everywhere on the seat! When I asked the lady to clean it up, she told me that I will be putting a sheet on it anyway, so it didn't matter. Let me assure you, I am almost never rendered speechless, but at that moment I was!

Now, if someone is wondering why I called the kid obnoxious, as I haven't mentioned him till now. Thats because the idiot mother let the kid sleep from 6 in the evening till about 10 in the night! Even I know that it is not to be done! Anyway, the kid then refused to sleep till about three in the night. He proceeded to sing tunelessly and loudly and ask inane questions to his dad (How long did it take to make this train! Bloody hell!) and proclaim to all and sundry in a loud voice that he and his dad were having a lot of fun! And yes, sometime in the night, he proceeded to eat potato chips rather noisily about 3 inches from my face! I tell you, I was sorely tempted to turn around and elbow him hard! Only the fact that he would have started crying and making more noise than what he was making stopped me. Eventually, after testing my patience he and his father went to sleep. And then the baby started to cry! I don't want to go into it! It is really amazing that how much noise can come out from such a small thingummy! It cried and cried and cried and cried and cried and cried! It cried like someone was trying to murder it!

Well, finally the baby stopped crying and the train reached Pune. After the usual haggling with the auto drivers, I got home. Then I got to office and started to think about this blog. And then I thought that I keep meeting such people a lot more nowadays. It seems to be a demand of the current society to become selfish, self centered and money proud. And I don't know what is more frightening, that there are more and more people behaving like this, or that even I might eventually end up like this!