The fall

 ** Warning: Beating around the bush**

A very beautiful girl had joined our class for MPhil. She had come after a PG stint in JNU Delhi. Among the things she told me before I embarked for Delhi the next year was: The buses in Delhi dont stop for you. You have to jump out of buses when they slow down.

While studying in IIMC, I didnt have any chance to try this but when I started working after a year, a chance presented itself. I used to take a blue line bus (which had more stops and slightly more decent bus wallahs than the notoriously rash red line buses) from Munirka to Hazrat Nizammuddin ( if my memory serves me right) and from there a bus to Daryaganj Aruna Asaf Ali Marg. Most buses except the red lines had a stop near my office but the red lines stopped a kilometre away inside old Delhi.

On a day I was late for office - the reporting time being 9.30 am with a grace time of 10 min - I had to take the first red line that came my way. I tried to entreat the conductor to stop at the unscheduled stop near my office but he refused. If I had to alight at the next stop it would have meant that I would have to walk back and reach office by 10 am. I stood on the steps and when the bus slowed a bit , I jumped out - and fell plonk on the road. The conductor looked at me lying on the road in surprise while a few people seemed shocked. Anyway, I got up to find my knees smarting from the fall. The salwar was torn at the knees which I had managed to scrape on the road. I remember seeing my junior boss in the lift that day and pretending that nothing had happened.

But  by the next day, the wound got worse. My legs became swollen but I still went to work, I even agreed to deliver a cheque for a freelancer in JNU campus that night. However, taking the bus ride home was an ordeal - I couldnt lift my leg up to board the bus. The next day I took leave and recovered in a day or two without ever going to a doctor.

Now, 25 years later, the fall is beginning to bother my knees more. They are beginning to creak like an old un-oiled door hinge, so I went to an orthopedic to consult him about it as well as a pain on my right thumb from years of texting and browsing (Whatsappitis). He asked me if I had fallen anywhere and found something ball-like loose in the left knee, which is fine as of now. If at anything it becomes unmanageable he can do a key hole surgery to remove it. Exercises for the knees and thumb will do as of now.

Old age problems :)

p.s. Ashwin needs to go on a low fat diet to bring down uric acid. A pain in the feet had made him accompany me to the dr,