It was a typical sunday back in 2010. I was studying in K.G College of Nursing, Coimbatore, Tamil nadu. It was the second year of my BSc.Nursing programme. As usual, I along with my roommate Jithina went to the syrian marthoma church to attend the mass. We went to the church on our college bus which happens to pass through the way every morning.
That day the service went long and we missed the college bus. We thought it wise to rely the public bus back to our hostel. Soon a TNSRTC (Tamil nadu State Road Transport Corporation) bus came to our aid. As we can’t read Tamil, we checked the route number displayed on the bus board to confirm its route. We boarded the bus as it passes through our intended stop too. The bus was thickly packed with people. Soon we saw the conductor collecting fares. Jithina was about to take the tickets when I reprimanded her, thanks to my cunning thoughts to evade the conductor. After some stations, we both got seated too. There was only 3 more stops to reach our hostel.
Suddenly the conductor came to us and demanded to show our tickets. Jithina gazed at me with her tense eyes. My eyes just blankly met the angry conductor’s eyes. Never again in my life I have felt like the end of the world except for that day. He roared,”Enthiri!”. We got up and stood aside. He started to pour his fuming words at us. Thank God! It was in Tamil. So we didn’t understand most of the things he said. By watching us he understood we were Keralites and mocked that we showed the true nature of malayalees. Everyone in the bus stared at us. We were humiliated to the core. Both of us gave Rs.10 to the conductor. But he refused to give us tickets and even the change since it was just six to our stop. When the bus stopped the next station, we quickly climbed out of the bus though our real stop was only approaching. Back on our ways, we didnt say a word to each other and held our heads low in shame. To this day we regret our behaviour in the bus and the way it created a bad impression of our state on them. Now whenever I board a bus I see to it that i get the tickets as soon as possible!!