Thursday, June 05, 2008

What? Is it like "Meet the creep" month or somethin??

Close to the experience I mentioned in the last post, I had a brush with another weirdo while travelling in Mumbai. (Mental note to self: Must check on my "weirdo attractor".)

I had been doing store visits on the central railway line in Mumbai. Finally ended a long day, travelling all the way from Malad to Thane. Was walking towards the platform, when one guy ( Middle aged, well dressed, with a briefcase in hand, well spoken) walking next to me asked me "Excuse me madam, do you know where XYZ college is?"
I nodded, "No, I have no clue." He added, "Oh, ok. What about college ABC?" I said, "I do not belong to this area. I dont know anything."

Weird Guy (WG): Oh ok. You see, I take interviews for campus recruitments, and I wanted to visit these colleges for the same.
Me: ok.
WG: Waise are you working or a student?
Me: I am working.
WG: ok. I thought you were a student, That's why I asked you. Where do you work?
Me: I work with Airtel.
WG: Ok. Are you an MBA??
ME: Yeah
WG: from where?
Me: from IIMA.
WG: oh that's great. Even I will be going to IIMCal for interviews.
Me: (with mock enthu) Great!
(Although the guy looks decent, his chipku behaviour is pissing me off. All this while I am trying to walk away as fast as possible, but the crowd around me does not let me lose this guy. He keeps up and continues).
WG: So how much experience do you have?
Me: 1 year with Airtel.
WG: And before that?
Me: Nothin substatial before it.
WG: By the way my name is so-n-so, I work for XYZ company. We are into blah blah blah...."
(I was not even listening to him, I dont remember what he said, I was not even looking at him. But you think that made him stop?)
WG: So what is your name?
Me: I am Aditi. (It just did not strike me to give a random name.)
WG: ok Aditi. So what did you do before MBA?
ME: I did Business Economics from Delhi University.
(By that time we had reached teh platform.)
WG: So you wanna sit and talk for a while?
(Now this is where I became very uncomfortable. I somehow managed to say...)
Me: No I am in a hurry to get back home, it's getting late. I've to go.
(Phew! there! Its over now! Go!)
WG: Where are you going?
Me: Im going to sion station. (Should I have lied?)
WG: Where do you live?
Me: Bandra. (I should have lied!!)
WG: Ok I live in santacruz. Seems like we are taking the same train. How about we sit together and discuss.
Me: (Exasperated, but still not aggressive/rude enough): I am sorry but I will be travelling by the ladies coach. So I am going that side now. Bye.
(Take that you creep... thank god you cannot follow me to the ladies compartment!!)
WG: (crestfallen) Ok, then let us meet at Sion station, we will catch up there for a few minutes and then we can leave.
Me: Sure. Bye.

And with that, without bothering to get a reply, or looking back, I turned and walked towards the ladies compartment area. I boarded the train, kept worrying about meeting up that guy at Sion station. Sure it was possible to lose him in all teh crowd... maybe I would be lucky to be able to miss bumping into him. But what if .... Forget it, I am never lucky!!

And so I got down at one station before Bandra. Sure it took me a little longer (and more money) to get back home, I was relieved I did not have to meet that guy again. I just did not have the courage to tell hime off. Not being able to be rude to someone like this, not being able to lie and ending up revealing real facts about myself... a big weakness I have to work upon.

Mental reminder to mind: Get rid of the Weirdo Attractor.. whatever it is!!

2 comments:

Yashika Totlani Khanna said...

get rid of the weirdo attractor... whatever it is!! gosh mumbai is getting nastier by the day... whats worse, other cities are fast catching up! did the right thing by getting off at a station before bandra... next time try giving them a straight face, a nasty look of the eyes. shud work :)

Sugar & Spice said...

@yashiks... i hope so... i have to start getting over this compelling need to be nice to everyone, sometimes at the cost of my sanity or security!!