And yeah, we're developing!!!

Yesterday, as I was coming out of a departmental store after I was done with my purchase, I saw a girl sitting in the steps with a couple of shopping bags fully loaded. Her posture made me to think she was waiting for someone, and that someone, I apparently thought was a girl (her roommate).

I actually saw her when I was walking towards my bike parked next to the steps where she sat. Before I started my bike, I saw a guy rushing towards her with a lighted cigarette in his mouth. As soon he reached her, he passed on a cigarette – a new one – to her, and then the one that was in his mouth few seconds before. She put the new one in her mouth, and lighted it with the one she got next. Surprise, was the scene to me. Uh, a girl smoking wasn’t a surprise to me. I had witnessed it already - when I went for a treat with my friends - at a famous restaurant.

By then, I was all but left in awe for it was first time in real I saw a girl, well, a bunch of girls actually, smoking (I have seen girls smoking in many Hollywood movies. It wasn’t a big deal for me though for that was America, after all). Those girls, with a cigarette held in their hand, casually called out the waiter by his name (They were regular customers, maybe) and asked for a lighter. After that day, I have seen girls smoking many a time at different places.

But yesterday, what I saw was a surprise to me, not because I saw a girl smoking at a common place, but it was because she was smoking with her husband. Yes, the guy was her husband. That was evident. Eventually, he sat next to her and both started smoking, enjoying the company of one another. It took few seconds for me to realize that I was actually staring at them sitting in my bike. Luckily, I was wearing a helmet, and that no one would have actually seen me gazing at them. And maybe I would have been one among the few who were left staring at them. I was just wondering what would happen 20 years from now, maybe they would give company to their child in smoking. No offense. In many ways, there is a possibility.

I have seen and heard people quoting several facts to substantiate their point to prove India is fast developing. As I rode my bike back home yesterday, I was just thinking that the incident is merely another one to help them. Isn’t it? Yes, Indeed. India is fast catching up.