The bus was just about to leave from Arc De Triomphe, situated in the middle of the elegant, royal, fashion capital of the world- Paris. The crowded bus’s engine had just started when the bus came to an immediate halt. The red bus was largely filled with middle class tourists who were getting agitated by the minute due to the delay in their travel itinerary and were being given no answer by the bus conductor for their repetitive question, “Will you give us a refund if we get late for the evening slot at Louvre or for the Eiffel Tower night walk, which we have heard is very beautiful and don’t want to miss it cause of your unexplained delay?”.
While the bus conductor kept mum on the refund part , the frustrated tourists finally got, rather saw their answer and boy oh boy it was one stylish answer. The doors of the bus whooshed open and in came a woman, rather a lady, dressed in a pink Chanel suit, with the most stylish Gucci shoes and a Louis Vuitton hat out of which her blonde bangs so elegantly stuck out, she was wearing the most pretty diamond rings and sparkling earrings that complimented her outfit so well. She was wearing dark shades that complimented the colour of her matte black Rolls Royce that by the look of it had run out of fuel or had broken down, why else would such an evidently rich lady travel by a public bus?
Behind her was a heavily built up man dressed in a formal suit and who appeared to be a bodyguard. He seemed burdened. His chauffeur hat seemed to block his vision as he shakily climbed up the stairs holding in one hand a Prada bag for the lady and whatever he was holding in the other hand wasn’t clearly visible to the tourists but it seemed like a stick of sorts. The bodyguard seemed to interact with a man of roughly 40 years sitting alone in the front row and to the tourists it appeared as if he was waving the stick in front of the man , their suspicion grew stronger as the man got up and walked to the vacant seat in the cramped up last row, the bodyguard too went and stood there, respectfully making the lady take her seat and keeping the stick on the seat next to her.
The two nosy tourists sitting a couple of rows behind the lady stopped the bodyguard on his way through the aisle and asked him who the lady was and why was she being given such importance. “Madame is a marchioness, she is getting late for a meeting and the car broke down, thus I made a call to the conductor of this bus as I knew our destination is on the way of this bus’s route.”
The intrusive duo immediately started to analyse the situation and began their much-wanted analysis of the marchioness.
“Rich people are like this only, they think the world revolves around them, only if they could buy respect with euros.”
“I swear, did you see how her bodyguard waved that stick like a baton, according to me, to threaten that poor local to go sit behind.”
“One thin woman, but needs two seats, the poor bodyguard’s cap was covering his eyes, he couldn’t even see ahead of him. This woman dresses so elegantly but has no elegance in actions, she treats her bodyguard so badly, he had to pamper her by making her take her seat and keep that unnecessary stick on the seat next to her and she didn’t even let him sit next to her and sent him to the cramped up last row where he is standing.”
“Oh what people have to do for a salary, it hurts me to see such rude behaviour all around me.”
“Same here, I don’t want to see people of ‘social importance’ misuse their authority to such an extent.”
“Egoistic brat.”
While the two women were staring at the marchioness they noticed that the phone so gently placed in her lap was ringing, but was on mute and the ‘royalty’ seemed to pay no attention to it.
“Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, she thinks so highly of herself that she doesn’t even need to answer people’s calls.”
“I hate such ignorant people,” replied the second woman as she passed a sandwich to the first…while paying no heed to the ‘eating is prohibited in the bus’ sign.
“It’s as if she owns the world, all such people do is talk and judge others and find faults in others to assert their own superiority and righteousness.”
The bus then hit a rather jerky speed breaker and the marchioness’s phone slipped off her lap onto the metallic floor of the bus and her bodyguard came running from behind to hand it back to her.
“I wish such people didn’t have so much power cause all they do is stereotype everyone below them as ‘inferior’. I personally don’t see the need to wear those sunglasses in a bus, it’s almost as if she wants to make no eye contact with locals like us because of her superiority complex.”
The bus came to its half-way stop and the man who had given up his seat earlier scrambled down the aisle, only to be stopped by the women who asked him, “Why would you give up your seat for that arrogant lady?”
The man seemed to be in a hurry and replied, “That was just me being a human.” He then scrambled out.
“Oh these men who think it is being human to give up your seat to arrogant women and thus promoting casual sexism.”
“Don’t blame him, it was her who probably played the ‘woman card’ and maybe he didn’t want to get involved with her in a discussion of how equality actually works.”
“Possibly, she doesn’t look like the type of person who can see anyone in the world other than herself.”
However, before the women could continue their detailed character assassination of the lady they noticed that the bodyguard was once again holding all her luggage in one hand.
Before the women could feel sorry for him, they felt ashamed of themselves as they saw the lady gently get up from her seat with the bodyguard’s support, the lady picked up the baton looking thing next to her and opened it, placing one end of the walking stick on the ground for support and with the other hand she adjusted her dark glasses.
Paris
~Krish Chandnani: Batch of 2020-21
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