Almost a month ago, I went to a bank nearly 3 streets away along with my 75-year-old grandfather to get some money. Since the ATM was not working, we had to enter the bank office to receive the sum. He wanted quite a reasonably large amount of money, around Rs 25000. Due to COVID restrictions, I was asked to stand outside the bank.
Banks, as you may know, are infamous for their notorious lack of efficiency. As expected, I was waiting outside for a very long time. I killed my time by first looking at the busy main road and then at the people who were waiting outside like me. I was looking at the different floors of the apartment, part of which the bank was located. After that, I was looking at the banner for the gym above the bank and even tried memorising the phone numbers. (I was so inspired to join the gym because I had not been performing any physical activity during the lockdown). If you are thinking that I am displaying strange behaviours, then kindly understand that I did not carry my phone then. I got bored of observing my surroundings and my impatience was beginning to kick in slightly. But…
I saw an old man, who was definitely 60+, with a bag walk towards the bank. He was almost only 8ft away from me. He began to stare in my direction. At first, I ignored. But he kept walking, here and there, by taking a few steps at a time. I was beginning to get mildly suspicious. After some time, he crossed the road and I felt relieved. However, he returned again to the same spot. Just a few moments later, my grandfather came out of the office finally and we crossed the road to go to another shop that was diagonally opposite to the bank. I was still keeping an eye on the old man. When we were about to enter the shop, I noticed him walk away. Phew! Maybe I was just over-worried. However, the story continues.
My grandfather and I came out of the shop after nearly 15 mins and crossed the road again to go to our home. In my field of vision, I could see the same old man following us. I panicked. I started walking faster in the hopes that my grandfather would also hurry up slightly. We were near the beginning of the street where we live and I still saw the old man following. I was getting worried a lot. We were four to five buildings into the street. At that point, I noticed that the old man began crossing the main road and was going away. I told my grandfather, “Thatha (meaning grandfather in Tamil), an old man was following us all the way from the bank. Did you notice?” I could not convey this to him earlier because the main road was noisy. My thatha replied, “Oh. Don’t worry. He can’t steal money from us. We are in our street now and people are around too.” I was surprised. I never thought about this.
Do you want to know what I was thinking all the while, given the title of this piece?
“This old man probably wants to assault me. He probably wants to find out where I live.”
Another argument that did pop up in my mind was that maybe I never thought about the threat to the lumpsum money my grandfather was carrying because I did not carry that money. So, it might not have struck me the first time. But, I would still argue that even if that had been the case wherein I had gone alone to the bank carrying a lot of money, this threat would have probably popped up as the second possibility. Further, this old man was looking into my direction even before he knew that I was coming out of the bank. I might have been someone living in the apartment in which the bank is present or coming from the gym/shops above the bank.
Now, if you are going to invalidate my fears by saying that I was overthinking, then please do not comment or talk to me about this post.
I will not be analyzing why I thought that way or probably why a woman might have thought in a similar way had she been in the same situation. This is a piece I am going to leave it for the reader to ponder over.
