The Guy at the Bus Stand
May 2004. New Delhi. I was waiting for my bus to the New Delhi railway station from Janakpuri. This was the time when metro route was still under construction. At the Bus stand I Spotted a guy, looking much tensed, He was looking at his wrist watch every now and then. He was dressed at his best, the white shirt might be his best one, and so, today was defiantly a big day for him.
After waiting for some time, he inquired about bus route from a guy next to him, and being at the distance of around 3 to 4 meters, I could only figure out that he (the other guy) showed him the other side of the road, and he just rushed to the other side of the road, the only mistake he did was, he did not notice the Blue line bus coming from the other direction.
I and other people standing on the Bus Stand assumed that he crossed the road, but, when the Bus moved from there, I saw him lying on the road, fainted completely, there was no blood, but a big and noticeable soiling on his forehead, the Bus might have hit him but no one noticed, I with other two guys ran quickly to him, his bag was there on the road, files were out, and a hundred rupees note was also there.
The two other guys carried him to the Bus stand and I picked up all the papers, money and the Resume, which has his name, Ravi Kumar and his qualifications, Btech from some university in Punjab. And career objective, to work in a competitive atmosphere and ready to work in any flexible shift. And there was one other page which has an address of a BPO Company based in Gurgaon.
This tells the whole story, he was dressed well because he had an interview to face today, and he was waiting for a bus for Gurgaon. This was another Engineer who was ready to work in a BPO, because BPO Companies pay more than others, there are more than 2000 BPOs in Delhi and NCR, which means easily available jobs, they provide free meals and free cabs and the biggest reason, no Company want engineers from Any XYZ College.
The one hundred rupees note tells me that it might be his last hundred rupee note and he might have promised himself that he will definitely get hired today, but I suppose, it was not his lucky day, but to be more on the positive side, he was lucky enough that he wasn’t killed by the deadly Blueline Bus.
