Graffiti

It was just yesterday on my way home that I embarked on a journey on a bus plying on Route Number 511. It was a Euro III (MUTP) bus (to look at these fundoo buses click here http://www.bestundertaking.com/trans_engg.asp) . In anycase, it was around 3:00 pm on a hot, muggy day and it certainly did not help that I was sitting in the last row of seats, what with little ventilation thanks to the morons sitting next to the windows and the burning sun not yeilding to cloud cover.

One of the first things that caught my eye was what appeared to be garbled letters on the back of the seat right ahead. The latest message for assembling at Azad Maidan to gain Azadi from some obscure cause? Was it the government implementing fanciful methods for spreading the message of Contraception? Not quite. Turned out to be some guy (Let's call him XY) declaring his "love" for some girl (Let's call her XX). It read something like this...

Dear XX,

I love you. I miss you every night [note to reader: night was written with the mirror image of "g"] because I krazy for you. Tu hi meri shub hai, subah hai, afternoon hai, raat hai, mid-night hai, mid-day hai. Please call me. I kiss you everynight in my dreams, XX from Ramjinagar.

XY

[Note: There was, rather incongrously, no heart with an arrow as is often the case.]

This open declaration of love is of course something one is used to seeing in India. Public spaces and monuments from our illustrous history serve an important function - of providing graffiti space. Despite this, I do not know whom to feel sorry for- XX, XY or the bus.