"ashtu khaali idru olgade hogak saithiralri"(Even when there's so much empty space why do you hesitate to get inside?)
This is perhaps the most routine dialogue u hear from every Bus conductor even when there are people hanging on the footboard!!
Travelling by these BMTC buses makes way for the most interesting eccentric and memorable experiences in daily life........
but mind you...... keen observation and being a sensitive soul become imperative for that to happen.......
couples engrossed in family talk, men engrossed in cell phonic conversations, students with headphones and books together, people taking a nap after a long day.and old people guidin the others outside for buses, small children mysteriously sleeping peacefully even amidst the plethora of noises around and conductors running hither n thither to find change............. This is probably the average scene that you'l c if u get into any of the rectangular boxes.....
somewhere there seems to be some subtle element of beauty in seeing so many people from different levels of the social hierarchy in their perhaps most natural behaviour.........
In this age where kindness and arrogance are considered completely antithetical, there seems to be some sort of a subtle but sure connect between the two..... strangely one somehow seems to be arising out of the other....... and it is probably while travelling in these buses.. that you see both these virtues in their purest form......
Sudha Murty's theory on conversations is this. "The probability of you striking a conversation with a co traveller is maximum when you are on a bus, lesser when on a train and probably nil when u r on a n aircraft"........n my theory is that the more conversations you have , the wiser you get..... to listen to so many different stories from so many people in so many different ways is at times very enlightening and at times very torturing!!!
before even it stops it has people steaming in to it making it unnecessary for me standing at the door to spend my energy to even step forward.... i'm comfortably pushed to the place i like!!!
young or old, everyone seems to hav some energy and dynamism left probably just for this!!!
Once this initial euphoria gradually subsides, and the journey has begun for the nth time in the day.. people get wild if the bus doesnt stop at their place till everyone's comfortably in and the same people get wilder if the halt is anything longer than a minute anywhere else....where else do you notice such impetuously transient and paradoxical behaviour?
being a constant stander in buses(this is when i get an actual feel of the indian population!!!
someone gets up…..and ah! a sudden surge of intense bliss results! i'm never as happy even for much bettter reasons!!
it is the bus that marks the beginning and the end of the innumerable endless pursuits the society is engrossed in............
seeing such a divers assortment of people..... sagacious,audacious,vivacious and atrocious! is truly an enriching experience that leads to a more profound understanding of human psyche and behaviour than those richies who go speeding in their skodas and honda cities on mysore road.........(if u r one of them, then the offence meant is purely intentional and obvious!!)
If the varied facets of many people's Persona can add new dimensions to that of your own.... then, those pairs of coins that you lose is a very small expense……. n not to forget the free prestigious 'environment friendly' brand that you become an unwritten ambassador of......
The ultimate ldestination hasn’t arrived yet….......
so let the journey continue............
