Having always been accustomed to the comfort and luxury of owning a car, the idea of using public transport had never really crossed my mind…I mean of course I don’t have my own car when in college,and public transport there is no big deal,but then again dude!!! There has to be some difference in life @ the hostel and life @ home….and ofcourse @Goa and @UP!!!
However my bubble of placation recently burst when I started using local buses to commute to my PS (practice school/training centre),everday… (The car seemed like an excellent option until the government thought the same about hiking oil prices! :P )
So well. After the initial issues of finding out which bus I had to take,learning to jump out of buses that would refuse to come to a standstill etc... I got used to the usual everyday humdrum.
So well this one fine day, glad to have finished a work day I was heading home in one bus no 33…making plans for the many things I had to do when I got home, when a guy in his mid thirties climbed onto the bus…I was too engrossed in my thoughts to notice that it wasn’t a bus stop but just the middle of the road!...however I realised it soon when the driver shouted, “Who the hell do you think you are…stopping the bus in the middle o the road!... and what did u say “Abey bus rok?” (srry but it wouldn’t have the same effect If I put that in English :P )…I have a respectable job and I do not deserve to be spoken to like that! To this the gentleman (if he deserves to be called so) said, “Oh don’t you shout on me, I had been asking for a lift for a considerable amount of time… what else am I to say if you refuse to stop!”…The driver goes “ ………” (abusive words that I cannot write :P )… Soon we had the passengers parting ways into three categories the ones For the driver, the ones For the thirties guy(lets call him that) and the diplomatic ones.... (mainly the bored aunties and old uncles and me ….who just wanted the two insane men to shut up!)… As soon as one party zipped up, the other would throw a mini verbal bomb, the kinds that you know the massive ego of all Indian men cannot let pass away without reciprocating in their own sweet little way…(read : more abuse)…
So well our bus driver here was so infuriated that he almost ran into a tempo! And on top of that instead of apologising started abusing the tempo driver… Do I need to say what happened next?? Like I mentioned before the events that followed were another result of male ego… and the musical sounds of the typical UP hindi abuses greeted my delicate ears…Soon random people on the road joined in on the fight.Wonder why it is necessary for people here in India to take sides on every matter! Meanwhile my worried mother started calling my cellphone… (And I realised that even under such circumstances guys will never stop raising their eyebrows to strawberry shortcake or any other particularly girly tone!)…The matter was somehow settled and the bus started. Soon a large group of women came aboard… for lack of space to sit they were all standing (on top of my head) and talking (in the loud monotonous aunty tone). This continues for 15 minutes after which one of them attained enlightenment and moved over to this man sitting across me to tell him he to vacate the “ladies seat”… he did so immediately, and looked at Auntyji for a thank-you, but Auntyji snapped back saying… “You know it was the ladies seat, I shouldn’t have had to ask you to vacate it!”…The Man shouted back saying , “Did I not get up when you told me to!...what do you mean if a seat is going vacant don’t I have the right to sit on it!” By this time I had started to enjoy this! And was pretty sure it would turn into an article.!! :D
But Alas my thoughts were broken when the conductor said “Madam your stop!”
And I jumped off the bus…disappointed that I couldn’t see more of the fight and glad coz the conductor had called me “Madam” (owing to denims and a tshirt) as opposed to “Behen-ji”(the word that he had used for another girl my age who had just gotten off in a salwar kameez) :D :D :D
My day was made!
Hmm..
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