Resumo de The Last Stop - Gene Oswald Duster

The last stopThe ####-3333 super fast in which I sat was slowly nearing its final destination. While getting off I was glad I had chosen a khadi dhoti outfit rather than jeans for these marathon trips.There is something about the look of city people everywhere in this country that marks them out. A listless and generally insecure kind of look. Like pods in a deep dry well who live there with everlasting grudge towards the creator and towards the rising prices and the economic condition of the country, and the government...An eternal, endless wailing sound seems to come without stop from their eyes.The words are scarce in their being, and the act of indulging in leisurely and harmless talk about the weather or little nothings is taboo. One gets the impression that the air is poisoned. So people have to take a risk to speak back every time a stranger asks them for the way to a particular place or shop.Most astonishing fact which a new-comer to any busy city finds is that nine out of ten people who have been living and commuting on a particular road won?t be aware of a particular store or shop or temple or church on that street. Even when the place in question stands right in front.
But you did ask, what then...He will ask you to show the written address even if he has already heard you clearly pronounce the street name and number and all.There?s a desperation to get hold of some written address, to look at for a while, and maybe read out loudly with a tight lipped sneer, that seems to say "Damned, in my hurry and tension to do nothing...and go nowhere. My mind is unable to recall this particular address... any other place I could have pointed out easily..." And then returning the written address he will point his hand in a most dramatic way in any one direction and say ?That way...goes to the theatre ... (Which is of no use whatsoever). You ask someone there"All the while he will jerk his head up and down like he is on the tip of recalling this place. You feel that he might at any moment tear his clothes off and run naked on the road shouting "Eureka! I got it!" right up to the place you are searching.Asking him anything more would be a grave mistake. And, if you did? the response then could take one of two forms.If he has not been around in the city sufficiently long to have been totally psyched out, he will probably curse you; even kick you in a moment of understandable embarrassment. But that is okayand not bad.One the other hand there is the type that has been in the well for so long, that after you have done the disaster of persisting in getting more favorable directions (which of course is the way you look at it). Surprisingly he wouldn?t loose his temper or react with anger. On the contrary, a complete change will come over him. You will be convinced that he is beginning to realize that you had been in trouble and it was incorrect on his part to have finished with you with a quick look at the written address.For a moment he will look you from top to bottom with a humble smile, while he gracefully places his suitcase or whatever other material he had on his person, with which he had intended to quickly leave., before you made him realize that you really needed his help to find this place in this hectic hussle-bussle that the city is. People walking up and down allover the place. All going all over the place.Once again the address must be looked at and of-course ...

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