The story of my Friday (Part 1)

Here's the account: I was on my way to town to try an amp but there's this old man sitting beside me who nodded off to sleep. He bumped onto my shoulder several times. What was I doing? I was surfing the net, reading the specs of this amp, was slouching so I decided to sit up & I inadvertently hit the old chap so he woke up, did some wushu hand movements (what was that for?) & stood up in front of me. It was too close for comfort so I asked him if I could help him with anything. He asked me why I pushed him while he was sleeping but I asked him how many hands did I use to do that? He could not answer, stuttered & trembled in anger I presume. I duly told him he didn't see what happened & had no case because he had his eyes closed all the while. I told him not to doze off on people's shoulder. Here's the ridiculous bit- he said he didn't sleep but took a nap (OMG!). Regardless, I told him to be mindful of others in the train.

So the verbal exchange went on, he fought his case by saying he did not doze off accidentally. I made him say that one more time so that the other passengers could hear him. The conclusion to this of course was, if he didn't do it by accident, then it was intentional (correct me if my understanding of this was flawed). He went on & on about my pushing him while I took a photo of him (the pic above) & that made him furious. He asked me what that was for & my reason for doing so was simple- should something happen, maybe he decided to tell the whole world I hit him or something to that extent, I have proof that he left the scene unscathed (physically, at least). He challenged me to hit it out & settle the matter but I told him I don't fight the elderly, I wanted to respect him but I reminded him that whatever he had said to me had diminish my efforts to do so. He walked away & some of the passengers asked me if I knew him. I didn't, of course, if I did, it wouldn't turn out like that.

But that wasn't the end. He reappeared a few minutes late & an American guy sitting at the corner seat asked him, "Dude, you came back- are you serious?" He aimed him camera phone this time at me & I duly obliged by posing with my face covered with my bag & flashed a victory sign. I even told him to hold his camera higher to avoid the glare at the rear window, some of the passengers were trying hard to suppress laughter. He was trembling badly with his phone & asked me what that victory sign was for? He then screamed, "My ba**s to you!" But I told him to keep those to himself, because the the last person who said that to me died- he was a prostrate cancer patient. I didn't want to create a scene, really but things just happened. I'm not the type who would mum it away, that's not my style.

He told me to be careful, not to tread his neighbourhood, otherwise, he would instruct his men to bash me after showing them my photo. I told him that couldn't happen because nobody goes round covering their faces with a bag & flashing a victory sign all the time. Sometimes, we unconsciously provoke others. Some old folks just can't accept the fact that they did something undesirable & had younger people correcting their manners. We SHOULD respect the elderly but we need to tell them off if they think they are above their wrongdoing.

Stay tuned for Part 2...