Strange(r) acquaintance

"Are you going to the school?", an old woman sitting next to me in a Transfort bus asked.

I was wondering how to answer that question. Its true that I am going to school, but right now I am going to Walmart to buy some groceries. She must have read the confusion on my face for she rephrased her question after a pause,

"Are you studying at CSU?"

"Yes", I replied. 

"Its an excellent school. My daughter graduated from CSU", she said, "in 1985". 

1985! I started my schooling in that year! "What is she doing now?", I wanted to ask. But something told me to listen to the old lady instead of developing a conversation.

"My son, he too went to this school, but graduated from Denver and got a job there", she continued.

I checked my watch and noted that the bus has five more minutes to depart. There were no other passengers in the bus but for us.

She appeared to be in her sixties, her body frail with her face completely wrinkled. A green woolen shawl covered her head and her ears and she protected herself from cold with a leather jacket.

"Its terribly cold outside today", she complained, adjusting her gloves.

"I think the weather will become better tomorrow", I said. Forecasters had earlier predicted the day to be cold and windy with occasional snow near Denver. "Sky is clearing up and will be warmer tomorrow".

"Of course! This is winter", she said. After a contemplative pause, she continued, "There was a blizzard once during Christmas", she recollected the past from her memory.

"My son came home for Christmas, but he wanted to go back to Denver the next day to watch Broncos in action. You know, he was a die hard fan of Broncos"

"The blizzard had hit on Christmas night, and next morning the roads were covered with snow! He could not take his car out! Those days, the snow removal squad did not have technology to remove the snow from the road. It took several weeks to clear them manually"

She pointed out to a couple of buildings opposite to Downtown transit center and said, "those buildings were arsoned that time, so they say". My eyes went towards the direction she pointed out and found two new buildings. "Of course, now there is no hint of it", she commented.

A stream of passengers entered the bus, swiped their passes or inserted a dollar bill and a quarter. A cold wind entered the bus and occupied every seat without buying a ticket. She adjusted her green shawl to make her feel comfortable, and asked me "Which country are you from?"

"India", I replied.

"Its a beautiful country, I have heard of her."

"Route 5 departing from Downtown transit center", the driver made an announcement pulling the bus out from the station.

Silence filled the space between us, which was now occupied by some thoughts. The ease with which she started the conversation and went on as if I am her old friend surprised me.

"Next stop, Walmart", the driver announced, pulling the bus to an edge bringing it to a stop.

"Have a good day", I wished her, thanked the driver for stopping the bus for me and walked in my direction.

5 strangers at a bus stop

Five strangers were waiting for the bus at a bus stop and I am one among them. My name is Sam. I live in an apartment down the road.

"What time does the bus comes?", a stranger was asking another when I reached the stop. His salt and pepper hair told me that he must be in his late fortees or early fiftees. He had a peculiar mannerism of cleaning his teeth with his tongue often.

"In about five minutes", came a reply.

"Five minutes?", he repeated with an accent. "We have an accent here buddy. Where are you from?"

"India", he replied nervously. If he was an atheist before, he wasn't one now for he was praying to all Gods for the bus to arrive and save him from this situation.

"India? You people are smart! My math is not as good as yours", he complimented with sarcasm.

I shifted my gaze to a girl who brought a cigarette to her lips slowly, inhaled it deeply and casually blew out the smoke, glancing at them every now and then as if she was not interested in a conversation, but was curious to know what's going on.

"Starbucks on your right at 200 feet, a Mexican restaurant across the road at 150 feet", someone was passing on the instructions to the fifth stranger at the bus stop. He appeared to be in his early twenties and gave me an impression that he was going to a college. He wore fine trousers, cotton shirt and had a cooler on his eyes. His hands were in his pockets and he was talking to someone over wireless. No! He wasn't talking, but only the person at the other end. After a closer observation, I realized he was blind with a talking GPS in his pocket.

"I've grown old now. I can't do any work", the salt and pepper gentleman lamented.

"Where did you work?"

"I was a carpenter. I am not as smart as you guys are to take up a computer job", he replied.

Silence pervaded the entire space for a minute and disappeared as soon as it came with the salt and pepper gentleman yelling "Go back to your country" on top of his voice.

I looked at the Indian guy who smiled and replied: "I sure will".

When I was expecting a confrontation between the two of them, the bus came to a halt and accepted new passengers to board.

Taken - a short story

Hari stopped his car a few feet away from the entrance, swung the door open, and walked to the gate. The gate was kept opened as if someone rushed out in a hurry and had no time to lock.

He entered the gate, walked cautiously to the patio. His mind alarmed him that something is wrong. The front door was ajar, and there is no sign of life inside. He pushed the door open and went inside.

The hall was a mess. The coffee table was turned upside down with its legs broken, cushions in chairs were shredded as if somebody was searching for some valuables inside. The TV was cut into small pieces. He imagined someone lifted the TV and forced it down with a thud.

The wall clock was misaligned from vertical, the glass broken. Hari found that the clock had stopped at 2:57, an hour ago from now. He cleared all the mess to make himself a path and rushed towards his bedroom. "Where is Meena?" his mind asked him.

"Meena," he cried while rushing towards the bedroom. His mind imagined everything it could imagine. He took a deep breath, cleared his mind, and went inside. Articles and books he had preserved on the racks were shattered and scattered on the floor. The king-size bed was intact, but the bedspread was pulled out from it as if someone had dragged the person sleeping on the bed along with the quilt.

"They have taken Meena!", the thought suddenly dawned on him. His mind scanned the entire area searching for a clue, a clue which will take him closer to where she was taken. A shred of evidence which will help him understand the motive of kidnappers. Was she taken for a ransom? Are they expecting a secret document from me?

He oversaw his steps, trying his best to avoid altering the scene. He was inching closer to bed, examining for a clue when he placed a foot on the silky smooth bedspread and slipped.

"Honey, what happened?"

Hari got up from the floor, supported his sprained hips with his hand, and asked her, "Are you alright? Where did they take you? Did they torture you for something?"

Meena got up from the bed, turned on the lights, and found Hari in a confused and alarmed state.  She reached for him, planted a kiss on his forehead, and said, "Don't watch too many movies hon."

Taken 2 - a review

Watching Skyfall and Taken 2 back to back in that order is certainly not a good idea for James Bond fans. Taken 2 easily qualifies to be a James Bond level movie, for it has a smart hero with good physique, use innovative technologies and devise creative strategies to deceive the villain. Perhaps the only things that are missing from Taken 2 to be called a James Bond movie are the most popular dialogue "My name is Bond" and the theme music.

Does it mean that Taken 2 is a good movie? In my opinion, its a better movie than the recently released Bond movie, Skyfall. But I won't rate Taken 2 as a good movie, for there are some scenes which are quite similar to other movies as well. When the hero and his wife were blindfolded and taken by the father of a villain from Taken, he measures the ticks on his clock, senses the maneuvers, listens to sounds from outside world to find where they were taken to. Fans of Rajnikanth can easily identify this particular scene with one of his movies in which he was taken by a villain's gang blindfold, and he smartly traces back his path to reach the villain's place using the observations he made while he was taken.

There are scenes from Taken 2 which doesn't make sense to me. When the girl comes out of the room from hiding, the security guards were not alarmed. And then, she goes on dropping bombs at different locations to find how close she is to her father, all without alarming the villains or the police, and, well, not even the crowd!

Barring such mistakes which are common to most of the movies in this genre, Taken 2 is a movie which can be watched once.

Movies in Fort Collins

Fort Collins has a good number of cinema theaters screening a range of entertainment media in addition to movies, including opera and ballet performances. I haven't watched a ballet or opera yet, but the following are the movies wife and I had watched since we arrived here.

Breaking Dawn 2:

Though wife had seen all previous twilight movies, this is my first. I liked the powers vampires possess, be it travelling at lightning speed or read other person's mind. I have seen fantasy movies in the past, Lord of the Rings being my favorite. But breaking dawn (Part 2) beats my favorite in the climax scene. Go and watch it in theaters if you haven't  watched it yet.

Life of Pi:

Life of Pi, as the name indicates, is a story about the life of an Indian boy named Pi who was cast away in Pacific and has to share a lifeboat with a royal Bengal Tiger for his survival. If you have read the book before, go and watch the movie for its eye-pleasing actions in 3D.

Skyfall:

"My name is Bond, James Bond", is perhaps the simplest dialogue that no one can ever forget, no matter how many times we hear it from different Bond movies. Add a recurring Bond theme music in the background, people would come and watch the movie even when the movie does not have a compelling story to tell. Skyfall is such a film. I decided to watch this movie for all the hype it has created in the review circles. But the movie failed to amuse me in certain fronts; the theme music was not used properly in this movie, there is no innovative technology gadgets such as camouflage-able car. After watching this movie, I felt its no different from any of the other similar movies I had watched in the past, without the Bond tag. Even the booby traps laid by Bond at his family estate (from where the movie got its name) are novice, considering the traps a school kid laid in Home Alone series! Go and watch the movie only if you are a die-hard fan of Bond movies. For others, I would recommend you to buy any other Bond movies in DVDs, sit back at home and watch in your TV.

Taken 2:

Taken is a story of a CIA operative trying to find kidnappers who had taken his daughter for flesh trade. The crux of the movie lies in intelligent strategies devised by the CIA agent trying to extract information from scarce and limited observation he could make. I am planning to watch the second part of this movie in this weekend.