Respect

Enough, enough, let's get back to words. This erratic patchworking of sounds and visual stuff is fun though...

I spotted this man in the metro the other day. Middle aged, fat pouting lips and greasy curly hair, dressed in jeans with a sloppy tee shirt. He held a pile of papers on his lap and was scribbling on them deftly with a red pen. He did this as without thought, in a hurry, without emotion and he looked terribly bored.

Peering at the papers he held, I realized that he was correcting university exam papers. In two minutes he had browsed through one, cluttered it with red, decided on a grade and proceeded to the next one.

I went on staring at him, thinking of how little respect he showed for all the energy, stress and work spent on writing those papers. Looking around me, I saw similar disapproving stares around me.

A young girl boarded and sat down in front of him, she too stared at the papers he held on his lap. He looked up at her, appraised her as if he were evaluating some specimen of a woman, and did the same when another girl stepped in.

I saw him again yesterday. This time he was trying to solve a sudoku with his red pen, slowly, carefully, his plump hanging lip giving him a puzzled expression. I looked at him and this time he looked at me. He seemed frightened, surprised to see me staring at him with an amused smile.

Election Day