CREEPING DISCONNECTION: JEPHERESON CHUKWUEMEKA

A short fictional article
Written by JEPHERESON CHUKWUEMEKA

I guess she just remembered she was on a public
transport.
She unplugged her earphones.
Since I entered this Maruwa bus.,These earphones
has been on this socket(her ears) .
"Conductor ! please do let me know when you get to
Oshodi!
She exuded this unusual English accent. My people
will call it phoney... (phonetics)
Immediately I saw heads turning like standing fans .
All in search of the face bearing this voice. Well I
did not need turn mine. CCTV can hardly compete
with it,especially in such an unfamiliar environment.
I can even describe the shoes everybody in the bus
were putting on.
'Ndi phoney amarodi ebe far n'aga 'i thought in my
mind
She was plugging back the earphones on her ears
when the already confused and infuriated driver
started yelling at her .
"se o wakpa ? kilo n se ? you deaf ni? "
The look on her face read "am confused "
Immediately this "Be your sister's keeper"
gentleman sitting next to her started quarrelling the
Conductor on her behalf. He Told her not to mind the
conductor.
But when we arrived Oshodi, the conductor had
continuously emphasized on whether anyone was
dropping off. Nobody had said yes.
''Nne! Just drop off here and take another bus going
back to Oshodi"
He suggested to her. He spoke to her in this 'I must
speak phoney too' voice
Let me not go further in their discussion.I Thought
he was a brother or maybe just an altruist until i
heard "
Can i have your Number ?
What a good Samaritan" I thought.
But was she really deaf ?
Obviously not. She was only deaf to her immediate
surroundings. Her ears were stuffed with two lil
headsets.
This reminded me that i am an earphone freak too.
It could have happened to Me.
Missing your bus stop because you are enjoying
some musicals on your headset.
I pray there will be a good Samaritan that would
speak and suggest for me how to get my way back
too.
I remember when i was growing up in the village.
You had to at least say Good morning Sir or Ma to
any Senior passerby you meet .
Your face beaming with happiness as the greeting is
reciprocated with those appreciative words like
"Good morning Nwa m, Idi agaa...."( my son,how
are you?)
But This one person shell created by headphones
intensifies social insulation.Even when the wearer
has a one on one,face to face encounter,the sealed
ears offer a ready excuse to treat the other person
as an object.
Something to navigate around rather than something
to acknowledge or at the very least notice.
This technology absorbs us in a virtual reality &
deaden us to those who are actually nearby.
From the wearer's perspective,He is very busy.
Yes , busy relating to someone_ the musician_
singer,the band or the talk plugged into his ears.His
heart beats as one with theirs .
This is quite a misuse of the opportunity that life as
a pedestrian has given us _that opportunity to greet
someone approaching or spend a few minutes
charting with a friend or an acquaintance.
But it does not only end there.
The rate at which these earphones gets spoilt,one
would really need moderation on their use.
If not i would be somewhere laughing at Hushpuppi
for waisting his money on Gucci's not knowing
wastage has different levels,
because am also waisting my small Garii money on
earphones!
But an earphone freak like Jeph would surely need
a DIVINE intervention to achieve moderation to that.