One cold evening, my professor decided to let us go early. I wanted to go back home soon and sleep and started walking towards the door to the bus stop from my school. As I walked out I realized I had at least 5-10 mins left for the bus. It was around 30 degrees outside and I did not feel like being in the cold for long. I walked back inside. I was not sure when exactly the bus would come and was certainly sure I did not want to miss it. As I walked around contemplating in my head what I should do and was wondering where I could get the bus schedule from without actually walking out of my school (we could get one from the library). As the thoughts traveled in my mind, I let myself take a tour around my school. Just then an old man, with white hair and white beard, a bag on his shoulder, a scarf around his neck, a thick jacket covering his torso and an umbrella in his hand was walking past me. He looked at me nodded and gave me a smile. I smiled back and suddenly realized he takes the same bus as me. I have seen him a couple of times waiting for the 4.29 bus, in the stop opposite my school every evening. I turned back and said, “Hey…” and smiled and waited fro some sort of a reply from him. He looked puzzled, forced a smile back through his beard and looked me. I asked him, ”Are you taking the bus now? The bus number 530?” He smiled and said, “Yes I am…” I enquired the bus timing and he said it should be there in 3-4 minutes and said it is better to go early than wait another hour for the next us and it made sense to me. We walked together to the bus stop and started talking. He initiated the conversation and asked me what I study at Syracuse University; I explained to him that I am a grad student, major in Advertising. So we started talking about the advancements in advertising and how it can make/break a Brand. He explained he was a web developer and I started probing further on his field of work. I was specifically curious about the types of codes he uses and how the graphic designers play an important role in web development. Many criteria including browser compatibility, fonts, graphics as such, choosing the right code, using cascading style sheets against the old school of web designing are some of the concerns for a web developer. He explained that he has been in this field for really long and has grown along with the advancements in technology, but also added that he quite often sticks to the old school of development. As we drifted topics slowly tot the weather, the snow, how bad the winter would be and slowly moved towards talking about the place – Syracuse. Having been here for 30years, and having grown up and attended school and college in New York City, he has seen two extreme cities (If Syracuse can be called a city!). He said that having lived in NYC, he believes he can never be intimidated by any other city, yet says that he has got so much accustomed to Syracuse that he prefer this type of a quiet environment. We spoke about India, the food and compared the spice levels of Thai and Indian food and moved on to how colorful and fun the Indian weddings are and how much of culture and tradition affects the various types of weddings. I remember him mentioning about a road in NYC where Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi restaurants were all located nearby. I smiled to myself to think that in Asia all three countries cannot be said together, but in an alien country, we are all Desi’s! As we drifted to a closure of a conversation with my stop coming closer, he said, “You will be getting off here right?” I nodded and got ready to face the winter wind. He put forth his hand and said, “I am Jeff” and gave me a warm smile. I shook his hand and introduced myself teaching him how to pronounce my name. He made my day and said, “Pooja, It was really nice chatting with you. Considering that we would be seeing each other a lot since we take the same bus.” I smiled at him and returned the compliment.
People are how you perceive them to be. Till a second before 3.20 p.m this evening he was a total stranger whom I would not have even smiled at. In hardly 20mins of waiting for the bus and reaching my house, we grew to discuss an array of topics even without exchanging each other’s names. Without realizing I even invited him to India and ensured him I would call him for my wedding in the future where he would witness true Madras Tam Bram wedding (Not that he understood much, but still).
I was pretty happy to have chatted with someone…felt like home suddenly where you just start talking to random people and feel nice because of the conversation. He would probably be older than my father and I may not even chat with him this much the next time. Yet, this conversation made my day.
Strange it is, how strangers turn to be known in no time! An event to remember, my encounter with a stranger!
