Inertia of Motion

Never do I remember Sir Isaac Newton more clearly than when I return home on bus after college. It is because our memory has a way of bringing strange things to our mind as we experience anything remotely connected with it. And so it is with my bus rides- Every time the bus screech to halt, I (and all other passengers who have to stand due to utter misfortune) will go and fall face down into the one standing in front of me. And that’s when I remember Sir Newton. Hadn’t he taught us that an object in motion tends to remain in motion, and all such stuff? If I’m to guess by my experience, Newton probably got this idea of inertia while travelling on bus (or whatever was used for public transportation those days, the only condition is that it has to sway enough to make you feel uncomfortable). It will be barely bearable in all seasons, but the condition worsens in rainy season as almost all the bus windows will be covered to prevent rainwater wetting the seats. The air inside will be suffocating- the smell of perfumes, hair oils and sweat, water dripping from umbrellas, the hurry to get down at the right stop… It makes you wish you could somehow get out of it. But unfortunately that’s not the end. You fight your way through the unrelenting crowd and somehow get down at your stop, but even then you are not left alone. You walk down the road to your home, and out of nowhere an SUV comes directly at you, you have to scurry out of its way (that is, only if you want to live) and again comes Sir Newton! Now in the form of wonder. Perhaps vehicles tend to be in motion even when they see people with nowhere to move in order to make way for them. And so you are forced to stand in a stream of muddy water, while being fully aware that it must have passed through garbage, spit, urine and only-God-knows-what-else. And that too with my ultra-sensitive feet. It was only in January that I had to stay at home for two weeks due to a skin problem. My God, the trouble one has to face to get education these days!