a bus incident..

i was on a long haul bus today and coughed. a guy (mid to late teenager by my estimate) in front of me turned my way and gave me a look. like “your cough is annyoing” look.

at first i kinda wanted to apologize but then i thought “look dude, this is an involuntary reaction and its not like ive been caughing the whole way this is like the third time in one hour so just deal with it”. so i just gave him a look back.

he didnt quit though and kept looking at me. while turned around in his seat. i took it as a challenge so i returned his stare.

we did this for about a minute when i openly said: “i can do this forever” to which he replied “me too”.

i then said “am not quiting” to which he said “me neither”.

i then said he is in a disadvantage because he has to keep turning his head in order to keep staring at me and i was sure that must be uncomfortable. he said he didnt mind.

we continued the staring contest for full 5 more minutes (!!) before the bus got to its final stop.

by then i was really amused by all this. the kid was pretty good at it too. i ALMOST lost the game at one point by nearly bursting to laughter but he held his own very well.

when we got to the final destination we both broke the stare and then shook hands and complimanted each other on our staring abilities. we laughed, said our names, chit chatted for a bit more before we split.

while it certainly was an unusual human interaction in the end i enjoyed it. it was a welcome break of a routine in the adult life.

if u witnessed this interaction what would u think of the two obvious strangers engaging in it?

and would you enter a staring contest with a stranger?

and if u would, do u think u would win?