Survival

It was a Saturday evening.   We witnessed the Big B phenomenon in the mall and the crowd was as expected.  Big B was here to promote his film and it happened that we went on the same day, same time to watch another movie in the same multiplex.

Big B was on the third floor and was waving his hands on the enthusiastic crowd of admirers – there were cheer all over.  The escalators were loaded and we were on the on the escalator to third floor and suddenly I realized there was a jam at the end of the escalator.  I could see the risk of a stampede…people are just standing at the end of the escalator and all engrossed to catch a glimpse of their favorite actor.  We were nearing the end and I can see people are falling over one another.  I got aggressive and shouted “ MOVE, MOVE, GO,GO” and physically pushed the guy in front of me with a strong fist (did I give him a punch?, may be!) .  Suddenly, the crowd realized what is happening and started moving and things settled.  We reached the cozy seats in the theatre on time!

Back home, the kids were describing on how I pushed the crowd and made people move.  I told them “listen, it is survival.  There were times were you got to be really aggressive.  I had been in crowds back in hometown during the temple festival.  I use to cry as a kid, but my parents will make sure that I get into the temple through the crowd.  Over a period of time, I learnt to survive in the crowd.  If someone unnecessarily haggles, I ‘pinch’ them.  So, you need to sense when there is danger and also become aggressive to ensure that we avert the danger!!”  Kids were awed by my heroism (!!!)

Gosh, I hope the kids understand and learn these survival techniques – as parents, are we giving them enough opportunity to learn on how to handle these situations in life?  Probably, parents are much more overprotective – time to make sure that we throw them in the water if we want them to learn swimming!!!