Of my innumerable vices, my favourite one is eavesdropping. I just love eavesdropping on people. I'm a very curious person and its just really interesting to know what random people on the street are talking about. That is one of the main reasons I disliked Italy when I first came here 4 years ago. I didn't know a word of Italian, which meant that I couldn't understand a word of what people were talking about.
In Bombay, I hardly ever got an opportunity to indulge in this hobby mainly because I used to go to school and everywhere else by bicycle. That really doesn't give you much of an opportunity to listen to what other people are saying, does it? But in Italy, travelling alone by public transport 45 minutes to school and back each day gave me ample chance. So it used to really frustrate me to have people talking loudly all around me not understanding a word of what's happening. It was as if the whole country was conspiring against me by bluttering out their secrets loudly in front of me in a language that I just couldn't understand.
Now I thankfully know enough Italian to actually understand what people are talking around me. Its really funny because people tend to say the strangest things. Its actually pretty cool because I can not only understand Italian people being weird but also the tourists here who are speaking in English. Anyways, this morning I was traveling in the metro to school and two middle aged women were in a deep philosophical debate about the meaning of life (Seriously how do people even have the energy to talk about these things at 8.00 in the morning, I'm normally half asleep in the train). She tells her friend in Italian:
"I want to know the meaning of life, the answer to all the unsolved questions on earth."
At this point the metro stops at a station, a teenage kid sitting on the other side of the women gets up, looks at both of them and says: "Forty two" (in Italian, of course) and then walks out of the train, the doors of the train then close and it starts moving. The women were stunned and probably didn't know what the make of it and kept giving me dirty looks for the rest of the way because I giggled to myself loud enough to them to hear me. Thankfully, I had to get off at the next stop.
So I'm guessing, its not just me who loves listening to people, is it?
PS: If you don't get the post, its because you haven't read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I realized that it was rather presumtious of me to think that everyone had read it. Anyways, its hilarious and I would definitely recommend it.
6 comments:
John Steinbeck himself once admitted he eavesdropped, (where else would he get such believable and meaty characters?).
My favorite method was to connect my mobile radio, stuff the head-phones in my ears, switch it off, and shake my head like a goof. People tend to speak unhesitatingly and loud enough for our "purposes" in the midst of such freaks. And one got to know a lot of things going around. Though I never found anybody who discussed such substantial questions
I tried eavesdropping on the bus today because I thought two people looked Turkish, and I really wanted to know if they were. So I turned off my iPod with the earphones still in my ears, and listened. They weren't Turkish. Pity.
Hmm. I guess you had to be there. It's just that, well, I was ALONE on the way home today, and pretty bored. And who's fault is that?
ok,now listen really carefully coz this is important... go find the guy who said 42... and marry him. im telling you, go marry him.. or at least have his babies. i looooove the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy!!! oh yeah, also, guess who this is, go on, guess.
Always I'm really happy to know I'm not alone on the whole switching the music off and keeping the earphones on and listenting to people. Thank you Nitin and TPF, you guys made me feel much better.
Nitin - I always do end up with the strangest of all people in public transport, trust me I think i just attract them or something. At least it was people discussing substantial questions this time and not the usual drunk or crazy people that normally sit next to me.
TPF - the only reason you were alone yesterday on the bus was because of your own stubborness. Don't even try to blame me for it.
Frankengirl - This does make me feel so much better because now its a responsibility and not a guilty little secret :)
Cookie or umm.. Eris now - You finally got a blog! I love you.. you ARE a big ball of fluff and the boy was a geeky looking 14 or 15yr old kid, I dont think it would have really worked.
hey! how'd you guess??
and who are you kidding??? the fact that he's geeky and young would have made you want to jump him normally. whahaha. now the whole world knows just how creepy you are.
Eris - I think you're trying to ininsuate something weird about me that I dont get and no, I dont need a clarification because I'm sure its not anything nice.
umm..about the creepiness, I think the world is well aware of it already :)
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