It happens......

So the tropical thunderstorm Ike hit Houston hard. So it rained heavily at parts. So Houston is still around 60% without power. So the wind blowing at 120 miles per hour for 4 hours have made damages that will take more than 4 weeks to recover. But the spirit of Houston, the awesome work units and those uncountable good Samaritans are making sure that the fourth largest city of United States comes back to fully functional state as soon as possible.
Life in most part of the city is back to normal. The offices are now operating normally and trying to make up for the lost days of the business. My office, for instance, was closed just for a day (needless to say that I have to make so many efforts to reach my office in the disrupted local transportation service). I usually take bus to commute from home to office and one of the stops on my bus route happens to be a government Point of Distribution (referred here as PODs) for food and drinks for the hurricane affected people. So usually while returning back home from office, my bus is crowded with people as a lot of them get down at POD. Now yesterday while returning home, I was lucky to get a seat in the crowded bus. As the bus reached the next stop, there were many people who were waiting for the bus. Amongst them were three people standing. Two girls and a guy. As the bus approached the stop, one of the girl just hugged the other girl and then the guy and one of the girl (I'd refer to her as the brunet) got on to the bus. The brunet was pretty and the guy (assuming his boyfriend) was also good looking. Usually the people who get on the bus always ask weather the bus will stop at the POD but these two straightly strutted towards the seat. The brunet walked in the bus looking for a seat and due to the crowded place she was deterred by the people around. She just stared the people until they got out of her way. "what an attitude!!" I thought. The pair couldn't find seats together and were forced to sit in different seats. She sat diagonally across me. As soon as the bus moved, her phone rang and she looked past me, outside the window to her friend at the stop. She took out her phone and started text-ing.
After a few stops, the seat in front of me became empty and the pair took it. Now in situation like this when people are fighting such dire circumstances, they tend to develop camaraderie with other folks and have discussions about the storm and the aftermaths. But the "high-flown" pair was totally indifferent and engrossed playing with their hand held devices. Every now and then, the brunet got a buzz (thankfully she silenced it but the noise of opening of her mobile case was annoying). She used to slide open her blackberry phone and text something. Also she used to show that to her boyfriend and he used to nod. The guy was actually listening to music and took savor in the texts her girl was showing her. In this time all she cared about was gossiping and reminded me of the countless brats from so many chick-flicks. She left no opportunity in flaunting her Blackberry handset and always slid it open whenever she was text-ing. Her boyfriend, like any other Gen-X guy, always indulged in the texts and m sure added the spice to the texts she was sending. I was slowly starting to get irritated with their apathic behavior and flaunt they were putting on. I felt the urge to take out my 'iPhone' and flaunt it, but I didn't.
Then something weird happened. All of a sudden in the middle of her "text-ing" she turned back towards me and put her phone in front of me. I couldn't understand what was happening as there she was with the phone screen pointed towards me and looking at me along with his boyfriend. I looked at the phone screen and there was written – "Can you tell us when will the POD come?" I was confused; I said "Two stops from now". Both of them smiled back to me and gestured me to write it down. Then I realized that both of them were deaf and dumb and were using the handheld device to communicate among themselves!! Their actions started to make sense. I was cut down to pieces. I wrote it down on the handheld and they replied back by writing "Thanks". When the stop came, they got up and the brunet looked at me, smiled blissfully and left. Rest throughout the journey back home, I felt the stupidest and dumbest in my life and took that blissful smile with me.

*****Ankur