Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Life in a small town - 2

The Dude

The scene is this - the private bus stand of my town; a fruit shop 10 ft from the road; a drunkard sparwled in a large puddle of murky water in front of the fruit shop (referred to as 'The Dude' from here on) , and two cops towering over him (both the cops are standing on some sort of a wooden plank connecting the fruit shop to the road).

Cop1: You!! .. get up!.. YOU!!..GET UP!! (all this in malayalam, of course)

The Dude: (the Dude hardly moved)

Cop2: You!!


The Dude: Huh.. (he slowly lifts his head to see what all the commotion is about)


Cop1: You!!.. Get up (The cops, I noticed at this point, were hardly angry at the Dude; they were more matter-of-fact about the whole situation)


The Dude: (by now had lifted his body a bit, from waist up, and was looking at the cops with a slight swagger) Salaam Saab.. (our man manages to cop out a smart salute to go with the call of 'Sir'>


Cop1&2: (Amused by the whole situation, and grinning by now).. Aah.. you can continue sleeping there (they dismiss the drunkard with a wave of the hand, and a chuckle, and take a few steps toward the road)


The Dude: Ok Sir! (He brings the episode to its rightful end and gets back to his sleep, back in the puddle ofcourse!)