I was standing at the bus-stop waiting for my bus that day. It was 9:34 AM and the weather was very pleasant but my mind was not at much peace. The other people present at the bus-stop were not in a good mood after the loss of Team India in the semi-final the previous day. I had the same kind of mood that day. Everybody was discussing the lost game there, but I was not doing the same as I was trying to move on from the game and the sadness it had caused me, but the people around me were not letting me to do the same by discussing it.

After some time, a guy came on his bike and dropped a Senior Citizen (who was sitting behind him on the bike), at the bus-stop. He (the senior citizen) was holding a newspaper in his hand. Very soon, he started reading the newspaper. He was not talking about the game with anyone, he was just reading the newspaper. When he moved towards the last pages of the newspaper which are usually about sports news, I thought he would start discussing the game with the people around him like everyone was doing there but he did not and the bus arrived. Seeing the bus, everybody rushed towards the bus, I too did the same. After getting into the bus, I grabbed a seat for myself and
put my bag on the seat beside me for the guy (the senior citizen) as I thought by observing his behavior at the bus-stop that he was also trying to move on from the previous day’s game.

When the guy entered the bus and was passing by me, I stopped him.

Me: Excuse me, sir. There is a seat here, you may have it.

Guy (The Senior Citizen): Thanks, young man.

The guy sat beside me. I started talking to the guy when I got disturbed by the conversations people were having about the game in the bus.

Me (in a complaining tone): Everybody is talking about yesterday’s match as if they have nothing else to talk about.

The Guy: Why are you getting bothered by them? Don’t you like cricket?

Me (getting a little emotional): I love cricket. That is the reason I am very sad and feeling very bad about the loss of our team yesterday. This year it seemed like they are the best team among the other ones and they had also made a great comeback in the match…… I am trying to move on from this sadness but the people talking about the same are only increasing my pain.

The Guy: Didn’t you feel bad when we were knocked out very early in the 2007 50-over World Cup and then after that, didn’t you feel great when we won the inaugural T20 World Championship, The first series in Australia, 2011 50-over World Cup, 2013 Champions Trophy, first Test series in Australia. Look back at the history, after a huge or very disappointing loss, we have always made a great comeback. It feels like the bad days are not going to get over but time heals everything.

Me: You are damn right sir. So, you are a great cricket fan too.

The guy’s phone rang and somehow the speaker of the phone got turned on. The person at the other end of the phone-call was an Employee of the guy. He (the employee) was informing about some loss which happened in his (The Guy) work.

The Guy (to the employee): If you would have worked more efficiently in the previous month, then, this loss would not have happened.

Employee (being disappointed by the guy’s behavior): But sir, I did what you had said to me and you were very happy with my work last month…..

The Guy (to the employee, in anger and a louder tone): Don’t argue with me, you idiot. I know you must have messed up something.

Then, the guy cut the phone-call.

Me: Calm down sir, It’s not healthy at all to be this much angry, it may affect your blood pressure. Please have some water.

I offered my water-bottle to him and he took two sips from it.

The Guy: Thanks a lot. These guys are very irresponsible, I had lots of hope from this deal but they have made me a loss, they are terrible……….

Me: Don’t worry sir, everything will be okay. Time will heal everything.

The Guy (in a little louder voice): But, this healing is going to cost me a lot of money.

This made my mood off,and I didn’t talk to him in the remaining journey and waited for my destination.