A Forgotten Incident (?)

I think it was fall of 2003 and I was a fresh graduate who started her first job. My work place was relatively far from my house. I neither had car, nor did I know how to drive. So, I used to take Daewoo for covering half of the distance and my father was used to pick me up from there. If you have any experience of traveling in Daewoo then you know that a wide variety of people travel through Daewoo, this includes housekeeping staff, young students, working women and even house wives. Female section of the bus was designed to have a lot of standing space for passengers.

So, at my office stop, Daewoo used to be almost empty, most of the passenger used to board from this Bazaar near Lahore Cantonment. So, when bus was stopped at that bazaar stop and all of the seats were filled; a middle aged woman boarded the bus and I left my seat for her. As soon that lady sat next to this student-looking young girl, she sprang out of her seat angrily and also mumbled something. Some of the women in bus asked her to sit on the seat as there was still space for one person. She angrily mumbled again ending with a relatively loud “hunh!”. The lady who sat on my seat felt embarrassed and stood up again and asked the girl to take her seat again. So, this was the first time when I spoke to the lady and said, “Aap please beth jayen, driver ko bus chalane dain”. The lady sat on her seat again. Some women started talking about the misbehavior of the girl but I didn’t indulge in it. By the time bus reached at my stop, I had completely forgotten this small incidence (if it was one). It was a crossroad at Main Boulevard and I had to cross few roads to reach the parking where my father was waiting for me.

I was walking towards pedestrian crossing when I felt someone is walking very closely behind me. I stopped for a second to look back and the same very girl was walking behind me; another girl that I saw in bus was with her as well. I didn’t know that this second girl is with her as they were not sitting together in the bus and second girl was very indifferent to whole seat-episode. I said nothing and started walking again. Now they came so close to me that their feet touched mine a couple of times. She also started saying something angrily that I don’t remember now. Then they started walking parallel to me as if we are walking together and continued her ranting. I tried increasing and decreasing my pace but they just kept walking with me.

I stopped and said, “Are you talking to me?”
She very angrily said on top of her voice, “No, you are talking to me”

I started walking again and she continued her walk with me as well as ranting

I stopped again and said, “Are you Crazy?”
She dropped her bag from her shoulder to her arm and said very angrily,

“Should I deck you?”

She repeated it 4 or 5 times and I just looked at her, not knowing what to say. I looked at her friends she was looking at sky with plain face, as if nothing is happening. Honestly speaking I was a little frightened as I didn’t want to create a scene at road. It was 8 in the night, it was relatively dark place and there was no one around. I was just thinking what to say, what to do when another group of girls got off from another bus and started walking towards us. This is when the second girl said something to first one and they turned back towards the bus stop. I saw them reaching back to bus stop, it seemed they are waiting for next bus.

She didn't have courage to fight the women who were discussing about her misbehavior and also she quickly got frightened when she saw few girls coming but she had all the courage to fight me. She specially got off the bus to vent her anger on me, who didn't do anything bad to her.

I felt pity for them and their parents and crossed the roads to reach my father. My father was disappointed to hear that I was frightened to fight. He told me a Punjabi saying meaning “one should not pick a fight with a weak-looking person but one should not fear fighting a strong-looking person as well”.