BUS RIDES.. HERE AND THERE

I remember once during my school days our teacher gave us an assignment to write about the experience of taking a bus ride. When I asked what all needed to be considered, she smilingly explained to me that I could write about where I boarded the bus, the people inside and where did I alight. My assignment was among the least best. I had described the experience of boarding a bus and alighting to watch a movie for the first time in the main city area. As it is, I thought the grading was not fair, but what added to my misery was that the teacher read aloud each students' assignment. And mine was accompanied by roars of laughter from my classmates each time my teacher paused in between some sentences.

If I was given an assignment now, I think I'd be able to write much more and about the bus ride, not the after-bus activities. Whether it was back in Shillong or here in Delhi or in Singapore, a bus ride is full of characters. Characters mostly visible in art-house or parallel cinema, a genre which is becoming indistinct now thanks to the experimental commercial Indian cinema these days. The characters in such films are not larger-than-life, rather representing the most common of the common men.

Whether they are the young school going adolescents or senior lots or the working class 'heroes' and 'heroines', peculiarity of the human kind can be an entertaining trait to observe. It also makes the time go by real fast. Especially when you are on a long journey and don't want to think about how long it is going to take to reach there.

At first I used to think buses in big cities were much better maintained and no one ever stood inside the bus as there were seats for everyone. Well, I was a kid then and didn't have to bother about getting a seat as I easily sat down on either of my parents' laps. Most of the buses, at least during my growing up years, in Shillong were made of wood exhibiting a typical red, blue and yellow colour paints. They are still around as I found out during my recent visit. It's funny how they have now become a part of a fond memory, when at those times I would be complaining about the height of (I had to duck a little; imagine me, a 5-feet 8-incher considered as 'tall') or congestion in the buses.

Most of the people I saw in Shillong buses exhibited a stained smile aimed at me or while talking to each other. Their teeth were stained due to consumption of betel nuts and leaves with quicklime. In Delhi, it was the complete indifference or a coldness somehow, that would greet me when I boarded a bus. I feel having stayed in the city for few years now, even I have come to endorse the coldness in my persona. Not that I haven't had some of the most pleasant encounters in the buses. Perhaps we tend to become the city we live in somehow. Now, which aspect and what ethos of the city we imbibe would depend on person to person.

And what to say of summers in Delhi. So many years and still can't get myself to deal with the heat in the summer. Some things one hardly gets use to, no matter how long one has been or how well one knows them. I remember once when I was taking a ride to my office, in an outer mudrika. It was jam-packed as usual during the morning and one had to run to catch it as it would almost inevitably NEVER stop. It would only slow down at the bus-stops. I have missed many-a-buses due to this. In a way all those missed buses taught me how to board a running bus!

Wearing formals that day was the worst fashion faux pas I ever committed. Not because it wasn't smart but it meant I was drenched in sweat no sooner had I boarded the packed bus. First few minutes, I was trying not to be in contact with any sweaty arms or faces. One can't really help rubbing against each other. That's why getting a seat was almost a reward. I finally found one and once seated wiped off my face, arms and the back of my neck with my handkerchief which didn't need a second running to be soaking wet. Thank god for the fact that I had noticed and so pulled back my hand from the bar of the front seat. One of the men standing next to the seat had nothing to wipe himself off it seems. The salty drops had gathered across his forehead and were heading for a jump below. I cringed when I noticed the target was my hand. Alas! when I pulled my hand away, my left leg which had no place to move became the default target. The fabric absorbed the sweat and I reached office feeling quite disgusted.

If dealing with the rainy bouts in Shillong was almost an everyday ritual, the extreme seasons here in Delhi, the summer heat and winter chills still is difficult to cope with. Although winter is very cold back home too. Working and travelling at nights made the winters here much worse. Especially when the bus had quite a few missing glass panes. It would become a torturous experience when I happened to 'dress down' a little.

The most pleasant rides in a bus that I ever had had were in Singapore. The tropical climate meant it would be warm the whole year round. But the air-condition in the buses made it all too comfortable. It would get crowded but it never would be jam-packed! And if dealing with the bus conductors can be a hell of an effort in Delhi and very rarely in Shillong, Singapore had done away with it altogether. Most had e-card for the buses which we just need to tap on the machine when we enter then tap again when we exit. For those without cards, they can insert the exact fare and get the ticket issued automatically. One had to press buttons on the bars and polls to indicate that one wished to alight at the next stop.

Well, the new buses that were launched a few years back in Delhi, sure is a sign of good things. But it would need proper organisation and better scheduling and monitoring to make it as easy a ride as in Singapore. What cannot change is the sweltering heat. And that makes travelling in summer in Delhi a very unwelcoming experience.