Strange Are The Ways Of Life...

The bus came to an abrupt stop at the loud scream of an elderly woman.
"I've been robbed...",cried she running her emaciated hand through the lean neck every now and then.
The people in the bus started to murmer and look here and there.
Unfortunately I was the one sitting next to her and the sympathetic eyes that extended up to her fell upon me too suspiciously...
I slowly started to feel a sort of uneasyness.Adding to my perplexity somebody commented ,
"It's very difficult to differenciate between the gentle and the fraud now a days....".
But why should I be nervous like this...?,I asked myself .
After all I should be having only happy thoughts now with my little one tickling inside me...I ran the palm over my throbbing belly...
Is he too feeling my suffocation?yes,why should I be conscious of the eyes around me...
after all I don't look like a pick pocket...do I?
And moreover my large stomache housing the 8 month old should surely bring me sympathy too..

"Don't let anybody get down from the bus..."somebody suggested
The elderly woman was still wailing and mumbling,beating on her head with both the hands.
I watched her through the corner of my eyes.I sweated terribly when I learned that her suspicious look was falling on me at times..
"Take the bus to the next junction,let's seek the help of the highway police..." 't was the conductor.
Everybody agreed to the suggestion.I glanced at the watch.It was the day marking the beginning of the
higher secondary board examination and the watch showed the time already 9.10.I should be at the venue
which was just 5 km away, for invigilation duty, atleast by 9.20.Even if I make a call to the school
it would be difficult for them to find a substitute in this late hour.What should I do?
I decided to ask the police to check me and my belongings first and leave me soon.
A second thought made me sweat and shiver violently.What if the thief had dropped the chain in my bag in this hallaballoo?
All the movies with similer stories flashed past me,where the innocent were caught and insulted before the public.
I was reminded of the recent news story and photograph depicting the pitiable plight of a pregnant lady ,
brutally caned by the public ,accused of picking the pocket of a fellow traveller.I grew more and more weak.
Meanwhile the bus had reached the junction where the police had started checking the passengers and interrogating the lady.
"Grandma,how heavy was your chain?"
"just two sovereign, my son..usually my daughter don't allow me to wear it when I go out alone."
One of the policemen searching inside the bus announced that nothing could be found.
The police looked at the lady once again.She was in rags with a knapsack hanging on the left shoulder.
''Grandma,where did you board the bus from?
I looked at her with a start when she named the bus station .It was from where I had boarded the bus and I remembered that
nobody else had boarded from there except me and I myself had to run behind the bus which had stopped a few yards away from the station.
I wanted to intervene but at a second thought decided to keep silent since it may put me into more troubles and my reaching the venue was far more
important than the issue itself.
"Well grandma,where are you going to?
"err..hmm..to my son's house..it's only a walkable distance from here."
Now,the conductor who had been watching the whole scene fell in declaring that she got in to the bus from another station.
He added that she had collected a ticket to Mananchira but hadn't got down there .Finding her still in the bus ,he was about to enquire her about it when she stouted about the missing chain.The murmer inside the bus turned in to a loud uproar.
At this the lady tried to slip away fom the scene crying aloud like a small kid, mumbling.."to hell with the chain....you all are their people...all are conspirers.."
"The lady ought to be insane.Curse upon those who left her alone in such a condition..",somebody thought aloud.
"Well,grandma,give me your son's address.you can be our guest in the station untill he comes to take you home.
meanwhile let's draft a complaint too.."The police rose to the occasion.

The bus continued it's journey leaving the lady and the policemen behind.It was three quarters past nine.I was wondering whether to present the whole story to the head of the venue and convince her of my reason for being late or rush straight in to the examination hall.Sweating and panting ,I walked across the ground ,the happenings of the day still making me uneasy.
Is she really insane?
After all did she have a chain around her neck when she boarded the bus?
Did she really have a son?
will he go to the station to take her back home?
Strange are the ways of life.isn't it...?

My little one expressed his agreement with a heavy kick inside my womb...