New people -new conversations...

I am in a new city… a new place… a new surrounding… and I am all alone…

Some people may classify that as FUN, some may classify that as eternal bliss (whatever that means), some may have branded me as a lucky b*****d….whatever…

I am roaming the streets of this city for the first time.. I don’t know anything I am just checking this place out…

“Excuse me can you tell me where this address is?”

He gives me a head-to-toe look, check me out and ptooeys a mouthful smack (actuyally the sound was something undescribable) in front of my feet. He speaks…

“You new to this place?”

“Actually, kinda…”

“Kinda?”

“Yeah kinda, I have been here before but I seem to have lost my way around. I was wondering if you could help me?”

“If you have been here, you oughtta know this place… Have you really been here? Or…”

“OK OK I am new to this place!”

“There!! That’s more like it!! So what brings you here?”

I push the small slip that holds the key to my escape and wait for him to answer…

“I know, I know !! You are looking for this address… Apart from that, what brings you here?”

There is no escape…

“I just got admission to a post-grad course here and this is where I am gonna stay…”

He gives me another head-to-toe look. Then he takes the slip of paper from my hand and puts on his glasses (the fortyish types)

“Hmmmmm… Now let me see… OK!!”

He seems to be a graphologist I say to myself. He studies the paper slip as if it were someone’s hand.. with those fine lines criss-
crossing… forming meshes and grills as they cross each other’s paths…Then he opens his mouth… seems like he’s about to speak… I thank my stars…not a moment too soon… He sloshes (?) another mouthful of the horrible mixture, this time I am alert enough to evade it… He studies(?) the thing further… Finally…

“So this is where you are staying… What does your father do?”

“Does that have anything to do with your telling me this address?”

“No. I merely wanted to know how you can afford staying here?

“Isn’t that supposed to be my personal problem?”

“Yeah. I guess so.”

No more words….Heaven!

Still no words… Question?

No words yet…Cat got his tongue? Or maybe the tobacco did…

I am exasperated. I decide to open the innings this time…

“So… Are you gonna tell me or what?”

“Tell you what?”

“The address… duhh…”

“Isn’t that supposed to be your personal problem?”

And he went back to his work…just like that… He pretends (?) not to notice me… while I stand there open-mouthed gaping at him…

Life’s like that?

“It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”
– Mark Twain