http://www.parakhi.com/blogs/2011/11/23/pink-and-yellow-helium-balloons

Pink and Yellow Helium Balloons

My teacher looked at me; kind of surprised and asked “So you do not believe in reservation?” The issue of reservation always invites a lot of heated discussions in classrooms nowadays; especially in the ones who ‘specialize’ in social sciences. 

I cleared by throat, in the hopes of not being stoned to death for such a proclamation because I could tell that my classmates were staring at me as if I have just told them that aliens existed. I said, “Not in the kinds that are red-painted on the white walls of micro-buses.” Some of the classmates started laughing and some kept looking at me with their accusing eyes: my semi-sarcastic, semi-humorous statement did not settle down well in their stomachs.

Clad in her best deep pink party wear, a healthy looking (and by this, I mean a HEALTHY looking) woman tried to squeeze inside an already packed 14 numbered Jumbo micro. Jumbo micros are famous for their holding capacity elasticity: I think the actual capacity is around 20-25 but a regular Kathmandu Jumbo micro will hold around 30-35 plus 4-5 hanging on to the bar attached to the door.

So this lady in pink, believe me or not, had two children clinging on to her:  an around 4 years old looking boy with a pink helium balloon and an infant of around 2 years of age with a yellow helium balloon (the balloons were making all the sense in the world at this particular circumstance). She was sweating, her children were sweating, I was sweating, and the guy beside me was definitely sweating. It was a sweat-carnival. Did I mention that the Jumbo micro had already stretched its holding capacity elasticity?

Now the lady in pink started to look around; and almost like a reflex, I started to look around and noticed, no one was looking around. I was already stuck at the end of the micro, which prevented me from moving my neck! So I offered this lady to hold her baby while, you know, someone has the decency to look at the red paint on the wall beside them that says “mahila tin apanga dui” (Women 3 seats reservation, Disabled 2 seats reservation), stand up and offer the seat to the lady in pink.

The only reason I did not offer the lady my seat was because I could see that she was healthy enough to stand up and the baby was the apparent discomfort and when I offered to carry the baby, my part was done as a civil, micro passenger. And it was up to those, who trumpet affirmative action and look down upon people like me who publicly deny the premise for the need of reservation seats for women, to stand up.

I might sound irrational and contradict a lot of my statements: but that is what affirmative action is. It is a contradiction; especially in the means of transportation like micros. The lady in pink eventually found a seat; settled down with her children; and their pink and yellow helium balloons. But I was left with this sense of discomfort: these are the times I find traveling in micros like hammering on my inner-most consciences.

 

Microphile loves to travel however, since her fantasies of travels into the Egyptian pyramids and Saharian deserts are, well, mere fantasies; she makes do with the hazardous amount of traveling she has to do in micro-buses, aka, micros. She loves to read while traveling in micros. All that traveling has most probably caused some spinal/brain injuries that she is unaware of; while she continues to travel by micros every morning; observing the mundane and writing about them in this blog.

http://www.parakhi.com/blogs/2011/11/23/pink-and-yellow-helium-balloons