Kebab mein Haddi

'Pooja vezhai-la karadi' in Tamil, literally means the bear that broke into a Shiva pooja, causing havoc to the peace and tranquility.

'Kebab mein haddi' in Hindi, is much more a common phrase - the bone that almost broke your teeth when you were happily chewing a juicy piece of meat.

Y'day's travel to office put me in one of those embarrassing situations, where I unwillingly became the haddi. I was in the bus stop at the correct time, but the bus seemed to have been too very punctual to leave earlier. So a bunch of us who had missed it, tried to catch it in NGEF junction (we sometimes do it, when we miss the bus). So, took an auto there, and waited for an eternity in vain, inhaling all those obnoxious exhaust fumes. Finally, we decided to take autos to office. We were 5. So 3 took one, and I and another friend of mine took another.

The road we take to office (old Madras Road) is notorious for its traffic jams and we were as usual stuck in one. There was a car just ahead of us and we could spot our company's sticker in the rear window. We decided that it should be some guy from office and on a close look, we found to our luck (?!) that it's one of my team mates. There was a girl with him in the front - we thought it should be some other friend of his. So we decided to cut the auto there and take a lift - free of dust & grime, and of course free of cost… he..he..he.

So my friend got to pay the auto guy, while I ran to the car quickly amidst all the traffic, lest it should not start moving. When I reached the car, I saw quite a fantastic picture. The girl (who happened to be his wife) was feeding him breakfast, while the guy was happily eating. At such a lovely, picture-perfect moment, I tapped on their front window. I was horrified at my own action, given the scene inside, but my brain had already planned the action of banging his doors and wasn't quick enough to decipher the scene and take a different action.

The poor guy had to open the door and let me in. I can't forget the bewildered expression on his wife's face. She managed to conceal the tiffin box somewhere. And my colleague should have received the shock of his life, when my friend rushed inside, after paying the auto guy. I was too too embarrassed to speak or even apologize to him. I was just looking for some place to hide my face - all I could do was to keep intensely staring outside. All the while the FM station, all ready for Valentine’s day, was churning out romantic numbers one after the another – ‘Jaanam Dekhlo.. mit gayi dhooriyan….’ How ironic! Pass hokke bhi dhoor (Near, but yet far!). I can’t imagine what would have gone inside the couple’s minds.

My colleague dropped his wife in her office. Did I hear her bang the door or no?! Later on, I apologized to the guy profusely. He was cool, but still I felt so bad for having disturbed their breakfast routine.

I'm sure the guy didn't have breakfast - and when we came to office, we said 'Hey, you carry on! We'll just have our breakfast and come.' Hah! I'm sure he'd have wished to knock us down!

P.S. But I made up for the blotch today. I bought a box of sweets as a symbol of truce. Moreover, I was worried that the same thing might happen someday to me. So thought I’d do my prayachitta!

And wish you all a very happy Valentine’s!