An Inconsequential Evening

It has been 1 long year since I left my 2nd home Kolkata (or Calcutta which ever you prefer) to work in Hyderabad. 1 year filled with incidents which as my room-mate says by quantity equals to the previous 20 some years in my life. I could have argued with him but truly the last 12 months have had so many incidents that I cant refute his claim easily.
But this post is not about the one year that just zipped by.
That summation was done by Marc Evans, my current "On-Shore Contact". Marc being typically the administrative guy that he is, summed up all the major incidents in my work sphere today evening, at a video conference set-up on my insistence. He was clearly at a loss of what to say. But again that is something else.
To celebrate I had planned to have an evening out. Sadly yesterday (the actual anniversary) morning was not among the best mornings & as an after-effect the evening was spent doing nothing important. Actually doing nothing atall
Today right after the conference I escaped from the modern day prison & landed up home. I did not enter & called up my flat-mate to join me in the restaurant right on the main-road. We planned the best for next week & had some delicious food. It tasted better because it is cheap. & considering it is the fag end of the month.....

Next we pushed off to the closest movie hall to watch the latest Shyam Benegal movie Welcome to Sajjanpur. A nice movie. The basic plot was fresh & the cemetography was great. But lately I have been expecting a lot from every-one & I left the hall thinking about what would have made it WOW.
I would have actually expected Munni-Bai to be dead in the end like the Compounder Ramkumar & his love. I would have expected a much stronger message from the movie. But I must give accolades & be happy with some other points.
The very concept of a letter-writer prespective was lovely. & very well enacted by Shreyas Talpade.
I must give kudos of presenting a transvite as a politician. They are pushed away from society & we must start accepting them as humans & our equals.
The fact that often someone helps us & we never end up saying thank-you to him/her was also shown.
And often people forget for their own petty narrow gains that they may be harming some-one else
The song "Desh Bhi Azad Hain" has fantastic lyrics & though I had visualized it some-what differently had pretty good picture-i-zation
The song "Abh Munni ki aayi bari" was perfect.

Keeping up with the latest fad of saying completely random stuff in some conversation I would shift to the brisk walk that me & my room-mate took post the movie.
Right near our home we came across a drunk. He was walking all across the road. He must have tripped some-where & was bleeding from his arm. My room-mate & I crossed him discussing what help we could have done to him. Whether we have medicines at home for him or could we take him to his home? What is the difference between a poor drunk labourer & a rich drunk brat? Sadly(!!!????) Shockingly(?????!!!!!!!) we just passed him & got back home.
He might still be roaming around at the dead of the night now. He might not have a home to go. He actually might not be drunk but have escaped an accident. Who knows? Who cares?
I once proudly claimed to some Londoners that Indians are perhaps the best host & the most helpful people. People would rush at a blast site to help those affected & take them to hospitals.
Today I feel ashamed to say that I behaved as a hypocrite. I would rather take side of a car-driver when he has crashed into an cyclist & argue with the crowed that has gathered than actually try & learn the local language to try & understand what my maid wants to tell me.

Where am I going wrong? Do you have an answer?