Adam by S. Hareesh

Author:S. Hareesh [Hareesh, S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789354921605
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
Published: 2021-11-29T00:00:00+00:00

alone

Ahaha! How sad to think there is, in this world,

Nothing more wretched than human existence

—Kumaranasan, Karuna

‘Aren’t you getting off?’

Desperately hanging on to the ticket rack with his left hand, the conductor, who looked neither young nor old, asked him. ‘The place you bought the ticket for is far behind us.’

‘Yes! Stop the bus!’ he said, waking up suddenly and looking anxiously into the night. Whether the conductor rang the bell or not or the driver stopped the bus or not, he found himself in the darkness outside as the bus sped away towards its destination.

Later, he would re-examine those unclear moments several times in his mind. Were there other passengers in the bus? And were they, except, perhaps, for a handful, asleep, swinging like damaged pendulums? Did a couple of them wake up at the sound of the conductor’s voice and look at him with interest? Perhaps a child had laughed. He thought the conductor had grabbed his shoulder and shaken him awake. The leftover pain in his shoulder must be from the conductor’s fingers. Or did he bang it against something when he scrambled up? He tried to imagine that the conductor had, with the help of some passengers, pushed him out of the bus. In the end, he decided that, in the anxiety of having missed his stop, he had got out by himself.

The congealed darkness knocked against his leg and hurt him. In the silence, the sound of the bus engine still reverberated in his ears. As his sleep-addled mind cleared and the feeling of anxiety left him, he began to doubt whether he had even been in a bus. All he was sure of was the fact that he was here, on this road, in the dark. He shook off such muddled thoughts with a smile.

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he realized the place was completely deserted. He had acted foolishly. He should have bought another ticket and remained in the bus until he could get off at a proper stop with at least a couple of shops. Reluctant to believe his complete isolation, he looked around in the hope of seeing a faraway light from a house yet to retire for the night. But there was nothing except for a light breeze.

As always, the four of them—Kunjumon, Devasia, Punnan and Soman—had got on the bus and sat together in the long back seat. He was never alone in the bus because he was not the one who got out last. They would sit together chatting and laughing, his jokes always drawing the most laughs. He was known for his jokes at their workplace too. He would make up salacious stories about Beena, who had big breasts and a round behind, and Soman, stories that sounded almost real and sent everyone into a cacophony of laughter. And when his stories threatened to completely cross the boundary of decency, Soman would scold him, but his reluctant use of swear words would make them laugh even more.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.