Alternate Vision

It was around 6 in the evening. We were riding a dormuş (30 seater bus) back from the beach. The sun was no where near ready to retire, rather it was in full form; relentless; unstoppable to the point that you felt every ray slice through your skin. My head was throbbing. Juan and I managed to grab a seat at the back of the bus, both of us fatigued from having spent a long, much needed, day on the beach doing what not. It didnt help that we were gorging down a döner sandwitch, with oil, parsley and onions spilling all over the place everytime the bus jerked. The bus conductors (two of them) weren't too pleased about this.

The bus ride back from Kizkalesi was a modest hour long back to Mersin from where we had to catch a train back to Adana. Ten minutes into the ride and the bus was packed way beyond its normal capacity. Passengers lined the middle aisle. All of them were standing with some pushing and shoving taking place between them. Now, sitting a row ahead of us to the left was a lady who must have been in her late thirties, with her 2/3 year old son sitting on her lap while her daughter, who was probably 6 was forced to stand. The mother was visibly stressed, almost to the point of being distraught. Her son, from what I could see sitting at the back, was diseased. I will spare you the details. To add to her misery her daughter was almost in tears because she was desperately sleepy and didnt have a seat to sit in. So she sat on the floor next to her mom, desperate to close her eyes. It was quite a pitiable sight and all the mom could do was tell her daughter to hush up, for fear of disturbing the people around them. She looked helpless. My heart went out to them.

Juan and I decided to take turns standing and gave up one seat for the girl. The mother couldn't understand why we would do this for, dare I say, chivalry is certainly not a quality that men here possess, atleast not on a bus. So the girl sits down and minutes later is fast asleep. The bus conductors were perplexed and babbled something at us in shock. Minutes later, the bus halts at the next bus stop. Some seats open up and Juan and I both have a seat again. Pleased with the status quo and with no energy to think I fall asleep. Twenty minutes later the bus jerks to a halt at yet another bus stop. The jerking awakes me and I notice a couple enter the bus along with some others. Everyone finds a seat to sit in except for the man. The conductors' first reaction was to turn around, grab the girl by the arms (who was still fast asleep) and force her to stand. Everyone else seemed calm about this and lost in their own world. The mother was embarassed that this had to happen and looked on at all three men apologetically. So I stood up and offered my seat to the gentleman who, along with the conductors, noticed I was a forgeigner. They insisted that the young girl's seat was available to him and that I shouldn't bother.

Here I was witnessing for myself a complete lack of respect for the opposite sex. Yes, it is a traditionally conservative society where men's outlook towards women is, again, dare I say, backward but this was ridiculous.

I refused to let them take her seat and stood for the rest of the ride, which was only another 10 minutes. All the while the conductors remained perplexed while the mother remained speechless. And again, dare I say, this is but the tip of the iceberg. This world needs some fixing. Badly.