During the 3 years of my college a recurring dream that I
had was getting into an empty bus that’s en route to my college at the usual
peak hours and finding a place to sit.
Don’t think I’m crazy. Usual commuters will agree with me
when I express the glee on seeing my favourite regular bus just looming from
the distance. (Yes, I have a favourite
bus) And if I find some empty seats, well that will just make my day! :D
A regular two hours on the bus leaves you a lot of time and
room to observe people around you. There is the
“I-don’t-care-if-twenty-people-are-squeezing-me-I-will-still-talk-on-the-phone”
kind of people that you can easily identify once you get on. Theirs are the
voices you can still hear on a traffic jam when the whole vehicle is silent. There
is also the “Seat hogger”. The minute someone rises from their seat, this
person shoots through a crowded bus to the seat. I call these the terminal
cases for they just HAVE to sit if they find an empty seat even if they are
about to get down in 10 seconds.
There are also the ladies always ready to offer their loud
and invaluable comments on anything and everything. For them no one is a
stranger. If a couple inside the bus are holding hands she will go, “In our
days all these were frowned upon…” to anyone who catches her eye. If the
conductor yells at her she will be the indignant passenger fighting for her
rights. If someone stamps her leg accidentally, boy you don’t want to be that
someone.
College boys hanging from the last step and still trying to
catch an impressed eye, the school girls with their dead heavy bags, the
nameless and wordless friendships that are made, the people who duck conveniently
to avoid awkward hellos, the general struggle to get through the one hour
amidst the crowd and the palpable relief when the destination finally arrives; All
of these sights which are usually hard to get used to in the beginning become
familiar soon enough and fade into a lull at the back of your mind as you grow
to be part of the mayhem.
Now that I’m about 10 minutes away from my workplace, I
realise how much I miss these 2 hours. I am in a position where I am having to
allocate time to even listen to some music and I realise how much I took for
granted, the time that was given to me every day. I miss my bus rides and the
people I met… And well I guess I am still the same guileless commuter at heart
because I still get the urge to get into an empty 10c or S8 (my college route
buses), even though I am going elsewhere! :D