Thursday, March 24, 2011

Of Mad Men and Fear

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Standing at the bus-stop this morning impatiently waiting for a trotro to Tema Station, it was almost fifteen minutes after seven, and I was contemplating whether I should board a taxi ('dropping') like I had had to do for three continuous day, I heard this incessant stringing of words beside me, I slowly turned my head only to realise there was a 'mad' man standing close to me at the bus stop. I detest the fact that unkempt, plainly out-of-their-minds men who roam the streets of Accra incite feelings of fear from people they come in contact with and yet I could not stop the flare of fear that shot up in my heart as I saw this 'crazy' man. It didn't help that he seemed to be looking at me and speeching away with incoherent words and gestures. A lady standing in front of me quickly walked away and yours truly, the macho that she is, kept standing there, all the while thinking, "you try anything crazy, I will beat the *?@# out of you". What gives! Ah! It is my stupid, 'crazy' pride I tell you. One thing I love to say is I am not afraid of another human being. The man, albeit crazed, is a human being like me, so why should I run away from him?, though such 'crazy' people have been known to cause serious harm to people and seem to possess super-human strength when they get all crazy. Let me digress (ah, digress, always wanted to use that word. lol), this is not my first and sure will not be my last (if the 'mad' people are not taken off our streets to psyche hospitals), encounter with a 'mad' person.
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About six years ago, one 'mad' man touched my butt and I distinctly heard the word 'big'. I had turned to talk to a friend at a bus stop (these bus stops seem to be a magnet) near Gaza, a hostel at KNUST when my friend started running and as usual I, the cool cucumber that I am, did not ran after her. I just walked fast towards her, asking why she was running away. Then it happened. A second delay and I ran like lions were after me. Looks like I did not learn anything from that encounter. Yours truly, the 'foolish' Amazon, was not drawing herself away, again; she was spying the empty trotro which had made a U-turn and was about to halt at the bus stop for passengers to clamber  for seats. I 'gauged' the trotro's entrance and got myself a seat.(*sign of relief*). As the trotro was about to draw away from the stop, I noticed the 'mad' man, still speaking incoherently, standing close to the trotro's entrance. The trotro drove away with him standing at the bus stop and waving his hands.
I seriously need to get me some super-fast-reacting adrenaline hormones.

P.S. Man in insert is not really a 'mad' man. He is a hiplife artist known as Kwaw Kese, goes by the nickname Abodam, which means mad.