Mama always said not to give a reply to everyone and everything. It was her reply when a sibling said something annoying and you tabled the matter before her. If it was name calling, her response would tow the line of "is that your name" followed by our negation and then an "ignore it". If it was something else, she'd say to us "it's not everything someone says that you reply to." Silence is the best answer for a fool, was an adage that almost every child in our environment knew. It was a call not to honour every talk with a reply and became a comeback when you ran out of insults. Over the years, I adopted the habit of replying with silence to most people. Totally ignoring certain talks and not deeming certain people worthy of a response. And today, I was once more reminded of the need for this.
I boarded a bus from highway to watt market. The distance can be likened to a 10 minutes drive on a free highway, the driver must have been in a good mood as he drive quietly and efficiently. His vehicle was full and the roads were open. I sat quietly at the back listening to a group of young men who boarded after I did discuss the plans they hoped to achieve in the market. They launched into another conversation regarding money they had been owed for 3 years, with one disputing it to be 2 and expressing hope that they'd be paid by next month. I doubted that would happen, but I reserved my thoughts. After all, their conversation technically wasn't my business. We got close to the market and encountered a slight traffic jam, due to a diversion by the traffic warden. The driver switched lanes, and tried to return to his lane, a move I considered totally unnecessary, considering how both lanes we're heading in the same direction and taking the diversion. On his attempted return, a silver Toyota Camry was already in his space, and failed to give him passage. All was well and right with the world, as I wandered why the Toyota driver couldn't just give him passage to move ahead of him. Well, most drivers in this part of country have a loose screw or two and are terribly impatient.
"If you scratch my car" the Toyota driver threatened, "you'd know who I am." A totally unnecessary threat I thought. If you wanted to protect your darling car, a little patience might help, considering there was a 99% chance he had no insurance for his car. I say a lot of things in the safety of my head, you see. I just don't let my mouth get carried away.
"Who are you? What do you think you can do? You can't do anything? Who do you think you are?" The driver begun ranting. "You can't do anything to me? You think it's because you have small money that you'd be talking up and down..." I wandered why the driver bothered himself replying with so many words. Ignoring him would've been best. He'd seem like a mad man talking to himself. The bus driver proceeded to slow down and joined the line behind the Toyota driver. Next thing we witnessed was someone alighting the passenger seat and walking up to the traffic warden's post and the Toyota driver moving into the police station just after the warden's post. I knew there and then that casala don burst (there was trouble) and alighted the vehicle. The warden boarded the vehicle and they both drove into the police station. Knowing it wasn't going to end well for the bus driver, I continued my journey home. I was already close to my bus stop you see.
I passed by the market the next day, and peeped into the police station, only to see the bus sitting pretty there. I felt bad for the driver whose mouth, ego and inability to ignore an idle word had cost him his source of livelihood. I reminded myself of the words of the Bible; "A soft answer turns away wrath" and reminded myself to talk more in my head than open my mouth and fall into mischief.