Funny Story – THE DEFINITION OF JOKER
Photo credit: xenia from morguefile.com
My name is Priya. I am a commerce student. A couple of friends and me, we are waiting at a bus stop. While chit-chat is going on, one of my friend points out at a person not far from us. It’s a guy wearing green shirt and blue jeans, properly combed oily hair. He is wearing earphones and listening to some music. Don’t know which song, his eyes are almost shut while he is listening to the song. He is literally dancing on the road with no awareness of where he is. ‘One step left-one step right-two steps forward and one step back followed by a slide.’ The last step, i.e. slide was met with a bump on road making him fall on his face.
We were watching him the whole time so we expected for such a thing to happen. Seeing his shocked expressions while he fell made us burst into laughter. His earphones were detached and so he could hear us laughing. The way he looked at us, I expected a response full of rage. But instead as he stood up, he looked at us. Then he bowed down like the stage performers do after their act. Putting back the ear phones he passed by. It was totally unexpected, the way he responded. I don’t know about others but it put a smile on my face.
My name is Arvind, manager in a bank. I am sort of a perfectionist. I, not only maintain perfection in all my actions but also point out the faults in others. I see this guy in green and blue, standing beside me at a bus stop. His hair was oily and properly combed except for one bunch oddly standing up. I was getting irritated with the look of it so I pointed the fault to him. He looked into his phone, probably in phone’s front camera. Keeping the phone in the pocket, with his hands he messed up the rest of his hair which was properly combed, making all the hair stand up like a porcupine. Then he walked forward to board the just arrived bus. It was a bit rude for him to react that way. But then he turned for a handshake saying, “Thank you, for pointing out the fault. Not many people do that.” Then he boarded the bus. He might have responded oddly but with his concluding sentence he handled the situation very well.
Birju, a bus conductor. Same job every day. I come across many people daily but none are that worth remembering. Just another morning, when I am in a half full bus, issuing ticket to recently boarded passengers. There’s this guy sitting by the window seat.
“Ticket!”, I said.
“Ticket!” he replied.
“Where to?”, I asked. Raising his hand pointing in front,
“There”, he said.
“There where?”, I asked.
“Where this bus is going.”
“But which stop?” I asked raising my voice. I was getting irritated now.
” Which ever you would like to give.” he said. I was going to give him the last stop but then he said,” A stop after this.” The bus stopped and started again. Issuing the ticket I said, “the Baug stop.” But before I could press anything in the machine he said, “No the next one.”
“Hospital stop then.”I said.
“No..(paused)..which other stops you have?” he asked.
By that time I decided to go along with the conversation where ever this was going, anyway no one was boarding the bus. “I have the Minister market, Palace hotel and Freedom street.” I said with humor.
Then the guy started talking really fast, ” Minister M..sounds good, but no! I am not much into politics, Freedom street maybe. Yes! anyway we are just a week away from the Independence day, or the hotel. Palace hotel, that one would be expensive…”.
I was just standing there being entertained by this stand up show. He was also attracting attention of the other passengers. The next stop was approaching. “No, no, no… It’s decided, I’ll take the Baug stop.” Finally I issued the ticket. When the stop was closing in, he stood up to get down. He said, “Sorry for that. My earphones were broken so I needed to talk to someone till my stop arrived.”
He then thanked me and got down. This was something that made my day. That guy had skills to entertain even those who were stranger to him.
Hiralal, I own a stationary shop. Just opened the shop and now I am doing the pooja I do daily. That’s when the first customer arrives. Seams a decent guy in green shirt but his hair is messed up. He asks for a blue ball pen handing me a ten rupee note. The pen is for nine so with the pen I hand him a chocolate toffee. Then I get back to my pooja. A while later I see the guy still at the same spot. He is just standing there eating the toffee I gave. Once, twice I ask him what he wants but he is just lost in some thought. I walk closer to him to ask again but, “Found it, thanks.” ,he says, smiles and leaves. On quickly asking what he found, the guy points at the jar from which I gave him the toffee. I look at the jar. On it there is a cartoon with ‘Chomo’ written on it. Adjacent to cartoon there is the toffee tagline, ‘ U’ll find the Chomo core Milky, It’s a cash back guarantee.’ (Silent laugh) I have been giving this toffee for a week now and never noticed the tagline. That guy did have an odd presence of mind.
My name is David. It’s evening time, I am just out of my office returning home. I have to catch a train for which I have to walk till the station. It’s a busy street in the evening time. A rush of people walking in all direction. But among all there is one guy in green-blue just standing looking at a sign board. I tried to ignore at first, but he was staring as if there is some secret hidden. There were just two directions indicated on the board, Left to the railway station and Right to the market place. For a moment I stood besides him. I did not say anything, just was trying to find out what this guy was up to. Suddenly he turns to me, “The railway station is to the left.”
Why did he told me that, “I know that!” I replied.
“Then why are you looking at the sign board?” He asked.
“I was trying to find out why you were looking.” I answered.
Then he said, “I looked at the sign board to point you in the correct direction. Glad to help.” He shook my hand and walked away. For a minute I just stood there looking at the sign board. I had approached this guy to play a joke on him, but instead he turned the joke on me. With a laugh I continued to walk on the path to the railway station. That guy took a lot of effort for one joke but it was worth it.
It 7:30 pm, time for my son to return. Earlier that morning I shouted at him for dressing oddly green shirt over blue jeans. I told him to comb his hair before leaving. In response he pours a lot of oil on his head and left the house without a word. ‘Ding-dong’ that’s the door bell which indicates he is back. I open the door to let him come in. At the door itself I ask him, “Are you okay now?”. He thinks for a while with odd expression on his face. He feels his stomach with his hand and replies, “I don’t know. Maybe I drank too much water.” Saying these words he walks to the washroom. It was odd for him to behave as if nothing happened, because his anger doesn’t cool down that easily. But it was good to see him relaxed and happy.
Inside the washroom. My name is Sameer. Leaning on a wall I look in the mirror at my reflection. Earlier in the morning my mother shouted at me. My anger was at its peak as I walked out of the house. The only thing that could control my anger was music. I put my earphones and listen to music full volume. But that did’t calm me down instead something else did. Following that there were moments where I made a fool out of myself on purpose, like a Joker. These actions of mine might have made people happy or not, but I was able to overcome my anger. That’s when I realized one thing, something maybe not that important. No matter what is our state of mind but a joker always manages to make us laugh. Joker is not just a person in a funny outfit, it a funny/happy personality which resides within each one of us. The true definition of Joker is- “ Jo Jee Kare Kar.”
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