The idea of Justice

Just the other day, I had to take the local train to my office. The trains are not that frequent, you know, even during peak hours. However, within a 25 minutes slot between 9:04 to 9:29, there were three scheduled trains.

I was in a hurry to reach my office that day and I was targeting the 9:04 train. I reached the station around 8.55 and found a large queue waiting to get tickets. The poor harried ticket clerk was trying his best to issue the tickets as quickly as possible. In fact, he was trying to issue tickets so fast that he was standing and issuing the tickets instead of sitting in his chair. Poor chap.

Still my queue moved like an earthworm. The reason???

There is a large notice in the glass pane of the counter that very clearly says "NO SEPARATE QUEUE FOR LADIES". But still lots of working women - who I am sure is not short on their education and can certainly read English - were going directly to the counter and getting their tickets. There was absolutely no queue for ladies. They simply walked up to the counter and got their tickets and got going.

 I was looking at my watch and the queue before me, every few seconds. I heard a train whistle and the 9:04 rolled into the platform and left. All those lovely educated ladies  got into the train and went wherever they go.

The queue still moved very slowly, as more and more ladies were pouring in and got their tickets. The clock was ticking. Another train whistle and the 9.14 came and went in a hurry.

I was cursing myself for choosing to go in a train, instead of using other private modes of transport. My blood pressure was certainly building up as the queue was moving very slowly. More and more ladies were walking directly to the counter - in spite of the notice - made me all the more tense. I guess I must have looked like a steam train myself. The clock showed 9.29 and still there were 4 persons in front of me. I was afraid of hearing the train whistle any second now. I was even tempted to abandon the queue and get into the train without a ticket, if I had heard a whistle then.

My turn came up and I got the ticket. The train came in at 9.32 and I heaved a sigh of relief. Thank god for trains that run late.

Anyone for equal rights for Women? You have my vote!!!!

The other day, after this queue incident, I visited the Laserium for the show. My mom and wife had left their handbags in the baggage counter, in view of the security measures. After the show, we were leaving in a hurry to catch our cab and I had the job of collecting the bags from the counter. There was a huge queue for collecting the bags and I thought I was finished.

I was thinking that why these ladies have to carry those damned handbags and I wondered what they had in those, apart from the obvious things they may need suddenly during those certain days of the month? I was cursing under my breath and joined the queue.

I was the only guy in the queue which had about 60-70 ladies and I was towards the end of the queue. All the different deo smells around me, made me dizzy. A security guard walked up to to me and said that I should not stand in this queue and there is a separate queue for Gentlemen and I should stand in that.

I thought what the hell. We are not going to the loo, to have to be in separate queues!!! Controlling my anger, I asked him politely, where is the Gentlemen's queue. He pointed to one side and said "over there". I went "over there" and found that there was no Gentlemen's queue.

That was because, I was the only guy there, to collect the bags. My long wait at the station a few days before flashed through my head. Happily I collected the bags and left within a few seconds, gleefully looking at the long queue of ladies waiting to collect their bags. The feeling I had at that moment was incredible. I felt that I had beaten those ladies in their own game and it was such a great feeling.

Thank god for all the ladies who carry handbags and for the guys, who think it is not a cool thing to be seen holding a ladies handbag.

I could recall Tom Hanks' response in the movie Philadelphia, when asked about what he loved being a lawyer. " It's that every now and again - not often, but occasionally - you get to be a part of justice being done. That really is quite a thrill when that happens."

I had my share of Justice.

(C) Vijayaganesh Sampthkumar 2010. All Rights Reserved.