Floating in the air

What are the hilarious and touching incidents you came across as a reporter, asked my colleague.

Hilarious? Hmm. I already mentioned this. I remember how I was going to the canteen in my Mumbai newspaper office and a lawyer friend Gopal Punjabi rang up to say abruptly, “I am on the 2^nd floor of a building at Girgaum. I cannot get down from 2^nd floor.”

“What do you mean. Any fire?” I asked.

“No. There’s no staircase.”

What?

It was then I learnt that the landlord had a dispute with tenants and had hired workers to cart away the wooden staircase to harass them. The tenants were literally left hanging in the air.  

Touching incident? Don’t ask me plz. I was travelling from Belapur to Vashi after interviewing a civic official. I entered a State Transport bus which is usually dirty. I managed to enter the bus despite the crowd and was followed by a little boy, who was in rags. He had no shirt and carried a soiled bag. As he stood on the first step, the conductor looked at the boy and said “heyy.” The boy got scared and jumped from the bus which had picked up speed.

The image still floats in my eye of the way he went rolling behind. I shut my eyes and did not know what to do.

They refused to stop the bus despite my screaming. That’s Mumbai.

Is he alive? I dunno.

Whatever, my prayers are ever for you, dear felo.