Destiny and Choices

An encounter with an angry drunkard was my destiny but staying calm and walking away even though I was hit was my choice. I was tired and was searching for BSNL service centre when an angry looking man was charging at me as his friend was trying to stop him. I was still walking unconscious that the man (I presume drunk and highly stressed) was shouting at me. Within a short while however he managed to grab my attention by giving me a blow on my left arm- ouch! It hurt that was only initial impact, the complete effect of which is not felt at that instance, but aggravated within few minutes. That’s when I realised how much powerful that hit was and how weak I am. So this fellow was being kept in control by his friend and that fellow also tried to apologise when I was walking past without giving any heed to any of them when another hit from nowhere landed on me this time by some other highly stressed pressure vessel. It wasn’t that hard, it missed me but I still managed to walk like a zombie past this commotion. I just remembered the belongingness fundaes from the advance course and asked myself ‘can you love a person this bad? ’. The answer made it easier for me to accept the situation and take the best action.

They didn’t pursue me any further but a little while after that people around stated asking about what had happened and sympathising. Not sure of what to make of this incident I just smiled all the way. This is not the first time I had dealt with a drunkard, and the first time I realised that these people just can’t be persuaded by reason. This time I Just walked away in silence and nothing much happened, but in a similar encounter few months ago I was all set to show that guy a few of my martial arts tricks which of course were only a by-product of my interest in TV and movies. I was panicking and angry and had received a slap on my face, thanks to me acting cool thinking that I could enlighten him of the exact situation. He had his friend and we were three of us so I thought, this is going to be easy even If he looked much more powerful and mad than me. Things turned out differently than I thought, and my friends began persuading him of our meek situation (that we are just college student etc.), during which he managed to hit my cycle with his bike he was on and I managed to kick the silencer of his bike and made him angrier. In the end I realised that these people are just plain stupid they just can’t be persuaded.

One very important thing I realised was it’s not a good idea to get involved in a brawl if you don’t understand what the other person is speaking. A similar thing happened long time ago when I was new to Chennai and was sitting in ladies seat day dreaming in an MTC bus and this lady is shouting at the top of her voice, me however not noticing for a long while that it was me she was addressing to - ladies here especially the one who look like vendors can really be rough and stupid. They really have no idea about what politeness is though their whole business depends on it.

I learned that I have become stronger and realised the clarity that walking in this path has brought to me. I also learned I have become stronger physically too. For that I could start of by going home in vacation and having a proper diet for sometime at least. Comment if you’ve had a similar experience, what you did and what you think is best.

JGD