Stupidity,Priceless Humour and Unselling ear-buds..

I travel to college boarding the college bus everyday.Our college is situated almost 70 kilometers away from where I live,so the transport the college provides is most convenient compared to the long never ending journey in the city buses.The bus stop is around 4 kms away from where I live so I keep travelling all day...home to bus stop,bus stop to college,college to bus stop,bus stop to back home.Every evening when we get down the bus,there is a throng of vendors selling almost anything.There is this particular vendor,around 60 years old,who piqued my and my friends' interests because of the peculiar and rhythmic way he sold ear-buds."Maaaaay-dum!maaaaay-dum!(Madam!Madam!) Onlllly phai rupiss!".Neither did anyone pay attention to him,nor did they buy his ear-buds.I would always wonder if he never got bored standing there and selling things which hardly got sold.I felt sorry for him.But the first time we heard him,we couldn't help but laugh.He sounds acutely funny.He noticed this,and thought he had amused us.So he started saying "Maaaaay-dum" even more loudly from the next day on.After a few days,our gang had stopped laughing realizing that it would be rude and started ignoring his presence(though his maaaaay-dum would make us titter a little).Little did we know how much he was enjoying our attention.The funniest part was,he had started to fancy my friend Nupur!

We actually realized that when one day,we normally got down,and completely ignored him,he gave a nice bold flying kiss to Nupur.This time everybody laughed except me(you see,I didn't want to provoke his interest and fascination for my friend further),but looking at them,a little later even I burst out laughing.Nupur also laughed,since she didn't know what else to do.

A few days passed and the man had started to get annoying.This time he had come up with new witty one-liners to amuse us.He once looked at Nupur and actually said"arre,yeh to meri Radha hai!!'(she is my Radha!),for which all of us had a "wtf?!" expression on our faces.We found it very hilarious,but we made sure not to laugh in front of him.He tried this a few times.Then,he started using other cheeky words.He didn't seem to give up on Nupur at all.He started calling her "jaanam"(beloved).Every time she passed by him,he would call out to her,"jaaanammm!".

Everybody in our bus got to know about Nupur and her oldest fan,and she had become the butt of all our jokes.These days,our bus stops way ahead of our bus stop because of certain traffic and security problems,so the old man hardly gets to see Nupur,as she goes home taking another road.We saw him every day though,and his search for his Radha is endless.I told others in our gang to make sure not to laugh in front of him.Laughing will only make him act more smart.It would be like a hint for him to continue his stupidity.

Its difficult to comprehend a street vendor's life.Maybe this old man is bored with his life,and is just having some fun.But one thing I appreciate about him is that he never gave up on his ear-buds.I don't know how much money he makes everyday,but he still comes there on the same spot and tries selling them all.He atleast has some dedication,even if it was we who stabled it a little more for a while;).We haven't seen him for a long time,but still hear his loud"Maaaaay-dum!" every evening.