Jaywalking

“Hi Samudra” Nishani waved at one of her batchmates, Samudra, and waited for a belated wave back. Then she watched her walking slowly towards her along the pavement.
“Hello Nishani, where are you going?”
“Where else can I go at this time of the day? I am going to work. What about you?”
 “I’m going on a shopping spree,” Samudra sounded excited.


“That’s wonderful, wish I could join you,” Nishani said.
 “Oh! That is fine. We can go another time. By the way, are you going to cross the road?” “Yes, I need to”
“Then let’s cross,” Samudra grabbed Nishani’s hand and hastily ran to the other side.
 “What did you do just now?” yelled Nishani.
 “Why, you said you wanted to cross the road, so we crossed,” Samudra flashed a mischievous smile.
“Is that the way to cross the road? It is pure luck that we are still alive. The dumbest thing you can do is to cross the road at places other than pedestrian crossings,” Nishani was furious and with the outburst, she felt her face blazing
 “What is the big issue? We can cross at any point! It takes time to look for a pedestrian crossing,” argued Samudra.
“It does matter.


Those few minutes you spend to look for a crossing can save your life,”
 “Why is it so important to cross at a pedestrian crossing?” queried Samudra. “Listen! At a pedestrian crossing, drivers do anticipate pedestrians. They slow down and hardly even attempt to overtake. However, in other places they do not. Therefore, the probability of meeting with an accident is high at other places,” explained Nishani.
“What you just did is known as jaywalking,” she said.


“What is jaywalking? This is the first time I heard that term,” she mumbled.
“That is an informal word to explain the action of pedestrians, who cross the road from anywhere other than the pedestrian crossing.”
“Nice word though. How did it come into existence?” suddenly Samudra was curious.


“The part ‘jay’ refers to an inexperienced person and then the part walk. Now you know what it means,” smiled Nishani.
“It seems like jaywalking is a serious and common problem. I wonder how drivers feel about jaywalkers,” said Samudra thoughtfully.
 “You are in luck, I can see Tharindu walking towards us,” said Nishani.


“Hi ladies!” greeted Tharindu, another batchmate.
“You are right on time. Where’s your car?” Nishani asked, while eyeing the key he was meddling with.
“I parked over there,” he pointed towards the public car park. “Anyway, what is the big issue?”
 “We were talking about jaywalking. Do you have any thoughts about it?”
“My god! I have tons of experiences about jaywalkers. Basically, I hate jaywalkers” Nishani looked at Samudra. She blushed as she realised that she was at fault.


“They cross the road when we least expect them. Generally jaywalkers are female shoppers darting across the street from one store to another,” said Tharindu.
 “We agree,” murmured both girls.
“What do you think will happen if 100 pedestrians cross the road at 100 places?” questioned Tharindu, the girls just nodded and remained silent wondering what to expect next.


Tharindu continued talking, since the girls decided to remain silent. “If 100 pedestrians cross at 100 places, we won’t be able to drive at all. We will have to stop and wait until each jaywalker crosses the road. Sometimes they take their own time to move. I have seen people crossing while gossiping with each other. They fail to realise that there are drivers waiting till they get across,” he explained aggressively as if he was almost ready to slap one of the jaywalkers right at that moment.
 “Hmm... I realise the gravity of my mistake. I’m sorry Nishani,” Samudra murmured and Nishani nodded with a smile.


“By the way, how come you two big gossips are talking about jaywalkers all of a sudden?” Tharindu was genuinely surprised.


The girls looked at each other, and both yelled in unison “No. Nothing special at all,” and shared a good laugh. “Hey, I’m getting late,” cried Nishani while looking at her watch.


“I have some assignments to complete before our big boss arrives. See you!” she wormed her way through the crowd and disappeared.

The little boy in the bus...

It was a busy Monday morning. The chaos at home made me late and by the time I came to the halt the rush hour has begun, and had no option other than getting into the first bus which arrived crowded with hardly any space to stand or hold. But, still I managed to stay close to the door as I didn't want to sweat early in the morning. This was a one door bus, a type of a bus I always thought it looked like a loaf of bread. So, no wonder it had no space.

Despite all the crowd, one tiny little boy who was sitting in the front seat caught my attention. Next to him was a lady whom I thought was his mother. However, after two halts he was busy looking around the bus with an expression "oh! my destination has arrived, can I get down?". When I looked at the direction where he was looking, I saw a face with features very much similar to this boy, and she was gesturing "ya get down till I come". I realized that was his mother. Through the crowd he got down and stood up near the pavement. Keeping his hands on his hip, he was waiting for his mother. I'm sure he must have been thinking 'oh my god what makes her late'. He acted as if he is a grown up. However, He was a darling little one. He was really small, and was wearing a school uniform with a little tie. He was not fair or lovely. But, he was cute and attractive. I guessed he must be five or six years.

Few days later, on a rainy day again he was there in the bus I got onto. He was sitting on his mother's lap. As I settled on a seat somewhere close to his, he kept on looking at me and then got busy looking outside. After a halt, the lady who was sitting there went away. Then he pushed his mother to the empty side and sat like a king at the other end. He fascinated me. I thought I'll write about him. While I got busy constructing this story, I heard little music and saw all the passengers looking around. To see, it was this boy singing. As the bus was less crowded and quieter, everyone heard it louder. Soon, our destination arrived. I was still busy with the story and I forgot that I need to hold my long skirt while getting down. The moment I remembered the skirt, it was too late. Someone was already stepping on it. I looked back to scold. On top of the steps on the edge of my skirt was this cute boy standing thinking what to do. I gently pulled it and kept quiet!