Maama my hero!

         Off late, I have been viewing a number of petty crimes in our locality. Last year, the economic crisis could have been held responsible for such crimes. But, it is surprising to see them happen now. Or probably, I could be observing more of them these days. Few days back, on afternoon I saw 3 police cars near our apartment complex, and four to five cops were interrogating two people. This reminded me of something that happened last month when on a bright sunny day in the last week of August, I was all set to attend the orientation at my graduate school.

           We were four of us who had decided to meet at the bus-stop near my apartment. I happened to be at the bus-stop 20 minutes ahead of other girls. I am used to waiting for the buses on the otherwise busy, lively, safe El Camino Real (which I have previously referred to as Gandhi-Bazaar in one of my posts). Well, I saw two buses arrive and depart. At some point, I was the only one waiting for a bus. I have had such experiences in the past where I have stood alone waiting for a bus without any fear. But on that day, suddenly a short-lean guy wearing a red T-shirt, and carrying bag-pack, came to the bus-stop. He looked drunk from every angle. Seeing me waiting alone, he tried to begin a conversation. "Hey youuuuuu, are u going by bus?"... "I am going by a bus"... "Coming with me??"... etc...

           I didn't panic unlike how I had when I had taken my in-laws to visit my grad school at San Jose downtown. On that day, a well built, drunk guy almost attacked us. My little-cute mother-in-law's fair face had almost gone tomatoes on seeing him. I had even dialed 911 to report. The connection failed though :(.

          It wasn't the scenario in this case. It was more like an Indian film hero trying to save the heroine. Now, I don't mean, my husband came on a bike like a hero to save me from the red-shirt attacker. I started walking towards the other end of the road, immediately when I saw a maama appearing in front of me from nowhere in his bike.

           He had already slowed down his bike. Well, now, I panicked a bit. He saw me. I saw mama, the red-shirt guy and stopped in front of him. He parked his bike, started questioning the drunk guy. It looked like, he was behind the guy for some reason and he just found him and everything happened in front of me... In two minutes, there were 2 more police-cars and the interrogation became intense. My batchmates slowly arrived and I had to narrate the entire story to three of them one after the other. In the next two minutes, one of the cops kept his bag in the trunk of the car and the guy was handcuffed at his back, our bus arrived, we entered the bus, the guy entered the police-car and all of us left the scene.

          A weird incident on the day I was to embark my graduate studies. A day to remember indeed :-)