Guest blog

P was inspired to blog recently, but doesn't think she will blog regularly enough to warrant its own home. So, I have been kind enough to provide some space to encourage her creative efforts :)

Brown through and through

One of the advantages of living in metropolitan city is that you are not crippled by lack of personal transport. You can use the ‘public’ means of transport, but would have to ‘share’ the space with hoards of other people. 8 million people, if you live in London.

Generally, I don’t mind sharing the breathing-space with my fellow commuters, but with flu season around the corner, the situation has changed ‘germ’amatically. On one of the journeys, I happened to sit perpendicularly opposite a woman in her twenties giving finishing touches to her make-up on her way to work. With her stylish pin-striped suit, blow-dried hair, manicured hands, colour-coordinated stockings and stilitoes...she was a picture of beauty. And then it happened. As I was looking at her from the corner of the eye, she started sneezing and coughing uncontrollably spewing germs all over the carriage. And not once through her fit of coughing, did she try masking her mouth or excuse herself. She continued painting her eye-shadow to match her lipstick, as if nothing had happened. Don’t people have a sense of moral/ social responsibility towards the fellow passengers? Shouldn’t they progress from being metrosexual to being ‘metro'-sensible?

While I am not socio-phobic, I am definitely misophobic. Instead of crying hoarse over the split germs, I have developed my own defense against this offense. Every time, I see a person coughing, I immediately cover my nose to prevent the germs getting in to my respiratory system, not caring what the other people around me think. Is offense the only way to counter offense?

Mr.A thinks I am paranoid, but he who suffers, knoweth. He counts this amongst my other queer tube-habits. For ex. whenever, Mr.A and I travel by tube, I liking sitting opposite Mr.A and not next to him, which he finds very weird. Well, the explanation is bleeding obvious, if I sit opposite him, I can keep an eye on him and keep his wandering eye under check.

He also has nicknamed me coconut, as I am brown (almond beige complexion, to be precise) but white inside. Well, looks like I am brown through and through on this one!