Almost Famous

Mama called up unexpectedly asking how I was doing. Turns out she saw a news report on a certain rally in UP Diliman that seemingly got out of hand.

"I passed by that rally this afternoon!" was my response to her.

I was making my way to the UP Press Bookstore at Balay Kalinaw in order to look at some books and I happened to come across the said rally. Mass demonstrations is nothing extraordinary here in UP but what surprised me was the very visible police presence.

So picture this: me walking nonchalantly through the crowd of protesters, silently praying that nothing untoward happens lest I become a casualty in the melee. And it would be easy to mistake me as one of the tibaks -- I was wearing the UP History Department shirt with cargo pants and sandals. I was like walking bait for the police itching to trounce any wayward tibak.

I was going: "Diyos ko...wag lang sanang magkagulo...paraanin niyo lang ako bago kayo magpatayan...Please lang..."

But my prayers were answered and I made my way through the masses without any incident. Thank goodness the crowd decided to up the ante much, much later.