A Long Journey from Home to Workplace

The luxury of travelling in an own vehicle was dragged away from my hands when my office shifted to RR Towers at Guindy Estate Area from GR complex at Nandhanam on January 6^th 2014. 

So leaving my Scooty Pep Babylicious all alone in a corner of my street, I took the next option of travelling by public transport.

For the past few days, my life has been centred on the 45B bus. Given that I've to travel to the Industrial Estate area from the heart of the city, boarding the bus from my place seemed to be the most viable option. This is the only bus that took to the Industrial Estate from Triplicane.

Travelling in a bus, that too in Chennai, is a poles apart experience. I am not sure about the other bus routes that run in the city, my knowledge is limited a very few buses .The people, the attitude of the driver, the frame of mind of the conductor, the endless noise that is always heard, everything is a fresh experience. Even the simplest matter will make the conductor go mad in the early hours of the day. For instance the conductor would sulk if you do not tender the exact change.

One might look at the people travelling in the buses and think of how unfortunate they are to travel so hard. Believe me getting there is not as easy as it seems. You have to be talented 3 aspects to be able to travel comfortably.

1.       To board the bus at the right time
2.       To be able to run with your bags
3.       To be talented to stand steady in a moving bus.

Let me elaborate.

If a bus is scheduled to leave at 8.00 am, in a perfect world, the bus would arrive at 8.15 am. Or in the other case it would arrive at 7:45 am. God only knows where the buses are.

Let us assume that the bus is approaching the bus stand. Here is the tricky part 2. Some bus drivers stop the bus at the bus stop. But, some of them refuse to stop the bus at the bus stop, making all of us (around 20, on any normal day) run with our bags and lunch bags, unmindful of the traffic. All this is because people prefer to sit and travel than to stand in a bus, which could turn out to be a nightmare. But in a way, I'm grateful to these drivers, they help compensate for the lack of any brisk activity throughout the day.

Here comes the tricky part 3. To be talented to stand steady in a moving bus. The problem here is, though we do not have enough space to stand, there is not enough support to hold on to. I guess the minimum qualification to be able to drive a bus is that, the person should have had experience in driving an auto, in Chennai. Now you get the idea of how a bus driver would drive and how the passengers would have to hold on to all the support they can find to avoid swaying in all directions. (Another workout of sorts is my guess).

Most of the drivers are known to be reckless when driving a bus, so much so that even the auto drivers stop to hurl abuses. Just imagine, an auto driver reprimanding someone for reckless driving. But on the brighter side, for all the Harry Potter fans there is something to look forward to. We did not have the privilege of going to Hogwarts; at least we have been given a chance of riding on the Knight Bus!

There are separate seats for women here, but when a seat is vacant and there happens to be a man and a woman standing, most of the time, the former offers the seat to the latter. When an elderly person steps in, people do think twice about offering their seats. One need not be alert all the time, you can ask someone seated to hold your bag and stand at the rear end of the bus, without having to check if the bags are safe. They will be. In fact men even offer to hold women's handbags.

I’ve been travelling for a month now in these buses and I make sure I board the 8 am bus. So there are a lot of familiar faces and people do not hesitate to talk.

The traffic sometimes irritates you. Stuck at a point for more than half an hour is irritating, but light music played on your mobile will keep you engaged. Even if there is no one around, the music played in the mobile would give you company. If that option is not available, just close your eyes and beg for forgiveness from God for all the sins you have committed.

The background score would be in sync :-)

On the whole, I am assured that my trip to and from work is lively and entertaining.

What a way to start (and end) the day!