A flash back :
My awful but amusing experience on the train ride back home
If you have been a dedicated follower of my tweets and FB status, then you would come to know that I am an strong advocate of "Give up your eat for those who need it".
It is in my nature to get worked up at young people who do not offer their seats in public transport to elderly people / pregnant women / handicaps or families with babies. I find it such a self-fish act to not give up the seat to those who need it. Sometimes, I ask them to offer the seat. Other times i just make a harsh and rude tweet about them. Fearing defamation suits, I do not click a picture of such ugly people and post it along with my tweet.
Today, someone officially and loudly labelled me "one of such immoral self fish ugly person" (those were not the words the person used. exaggeration added for dramatic expression).
I was standing in the train, on my way home, when the man seated at the reserved seat just right infront of me got up to alight. I was so glad he did. My back was absolutely hurting me and i was beginning to lose balance these days. I took the seat.
A lady who was standing, infront of me, (Lady Kind) asked another lady, pointing to my seat, (who was about in her late 40s or early 50s) if she wanted to sit. The lady looked at me and refused with a smile. She was clearly hinting that "the seat has been taken.". Lady Kind suddenly became annoyed with me. She said out loud, "This is reserved seat laey. Some people do not know meaning of reserved. Suppose to be for old people", with a mission to embarrass me. Mission accomplished. It certainly was embarrassing, because everyone around me looked me like I just murdered someone. (*exaggerating*)
I just pretended that the message was not heard and I continued reading. Well, she was not talking directly to me to respond with eye contact or explanation. :).
I could have told her politely: "Yes. It is reserved seat Mam and I believe it is reserved for pregnant ladies too". Then I was tempted to point to the icon above the reserved seat and say "And, I am sorry that I do not look pregnant like in the picture". But I chose not to defend.
What can I do if I do not look pregnant at my 5th month?! And, what can she do if she does not see a big bulging tummy that resembles that pregnant icon above the reserved seat?
I thought that the least I can do is to respect her intention to create awareness about the reserved seat, so i had to take the bullet of embarrassment for that 20 minutes of train ride. After all, she was not asking the seat for herself. Yes, it was awfully embarrassing to be looked at in such negative way. But what would be my loss at the innocent judgment of these people? Absolutely nothing.
The incident also made me wonder about my negative judgement on some people who never gave up their seat. Who knows what problems they had? The reserved seat is a benefit not an entitlement to claim, so I suppose this incident lighted a bulb over my narrow thoughts. Next time before I tweet about "ignorant young people who do not give up seat", I would recollect this incident and hold back a quick judgement. After all, who knows - they could be pregnant, but not looking pregnant. :)
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