The heavy scent of violence

Why are some people gratuitously offensive for no reason? I was woken from being half-asleep on the coach back from an impromptu trip to see my sister and my visiting parents by the man in the seat in front, who said in an offensive manner that I should get my knee out of the back of his seat. I hadn't noticed that it was resting against the back of his seat; in the days when I travelled into work by bus from Kidlington there was usually no way that I could avoid pushing my knees into the back of the seat in front. I stammered 'Sorry, sorry'; and then fumed inwardly for most of the journey, wishing in part that I could display some of what a generous person has described as my 'ability to put even the spikiest of people at their ease', and not let someone who needs to throw their weight about (and he had a lot of weight) get to me. If the argument had escalated my umbrella handle could have been put to less than humane uses; unless any assault was to be considered an attempt at a mercy killing, and I think that at most such a case could be described as rather thin.

Mumbai on Isis

There is a Bollywood movie filming outside my office today.