Nageshappa was a good man. Most people who knew him vouched for the fact that he was a decent man. No one ever seemed to have any complaints against him. His wife was content. He was not the best provider…but he was mild mannered and nice with kids. Even his in-laws couldn’t find much fault with him. He was just a shy, ordinary man.
He worked in a small travel agency.He was not their best employee…but he did his work promptly and rarely called in sick. In a crowd…you would never notice him. His life was mundane-going to his office…and coming home from office. In short, he was just one among the mass…nothing unique or special.
He caught a bus everyday to his work and returned the same way home. His wife worried about him.Traveling in crowded buses day in and day out…is very tiring. But with the rising petrol prices and the traffic, they had no option. But Nageshappa never seemed to mind. He went on living his life and taking buses to wherever it was he had to go.
The ladies of the bus route 2,2a and 2b didn’t have such a nice opinion about him though. Nageshappa always managed to offend one lady or another. He leaned towards the lady in front of him; his hands would “accidentally” touch the lady standing beside him. He always managed to get near the middle of the bus…where once the bus got crowded he would have a lot of women to pick from. When the ladies complained he always countered that the bus was too crowded or it wasn’t intentional. One spunky college girl had even slapped him. All the curses and vile words…only seemed to egg him on. Complaints to the conductors went unheeded. Some times the conductor would ask him to go back towards the men’s section but that was it. Next day, Nageshappa would be back to his travel time hobby.
Most women avoided him like the plague. They called him a pervert and cursed his ancestors. But there was always some newbie who would naively go and stand beside him…only getting wise after being pinched, rubbed against or leaned on.
One day…while trying to get into a bus, Nageshappa slipped and fell. He was run over by a bus. Ironically it was a “ladies only” bus.
His wife mourned. People who knew him said that such a mild mannered man shouldn’t have met such a sad end.
But for the ladies who took routes -2,2a and 2b, his gruesome death under a “ladies only” bus seemed apt. There was something like poetic justice in this world after all.
Nageshappa…what a name
)
It becomes so tough for the victims when the “Nageshappas” have a very good image otherwise. The victims’ complaints will be met with utter disbelief.
For serving poetic justice, you have taken too much of a literary liberty I suppose…pushing him into an accident seemed too filmy to me. A perfect ending according to me would have been for Nageshappa to lose both his hands in the accident and he would travel by the same bus, seeing the disgust in the eyes of the women passengers and his inability to take his future in his own “hands”
- V
In the real world, perverts go scot free.But at least in my own story..I have complete liberty to kill him off and I exercised it.It may not sound real…it may be too drastic…but then..
Your ending would not be feasible as Nageshappa would be home if he lost both his hands.So he will have no reason to take bus rides.
Perfect ending would have been- he having to go a gender change operation for some weird reason..and then being harassed like that in the same buses which were his fav haunts
hmmm–poetic justice—wish it could really happen.
yeah…I wish they would invent some electric suit for women which would electrocute men who cant keep their hands to themselves!
The incident described may for all I know be happening in some buses. So, no qualms in killing him. But the label made me feel sad “Men Bashing”??
I haven’t come across any “Women bashing” anywhere.
It is up to you and I respect your right to use labels all the same.
May be I should change the name…will definitely give it a thought…