My Experience With Bus

Every Person would have been on buses to either School/College/Office/MTC. I have experienced/recollected some momentous funny experiences while I travel by bus. I always cherished the idea of traveling by train. Not just because of the cozy factor involved but I feel when I travel by a train especially in upper berths, I am sleeping in a swing with the Train whistle being my lullaby (hmm wish I travel in a train right away: P)

Being a kid, I rarely had an opportunity to travel by bus to school but the little I did was during excursions where we use to enjoy singing songs, playing pranks on friends everything under stern supervision of our teachers. Even during such occasions we would sit by the windows and yell out at people riding bi-cycles “அண்ணா/ அக்கா வீல் சுத்துது வீல் சுத்துது” :P. We keep giggling while they stop to wonder what had happened to their vehicle.

College Bus travel remains one of the best moments of my life. Traveling for nearly 2 hours on a National Highway without the disruption of buzzing vehicles is a real pleasurable experience :)During first year we got the taste of ragging in bus when seniors asked us to sing/dance near the backseats while the staffs doze off in the front rows ;) But later we did find good friends among them and enjoyed playing antakshari, listening to cricket scores while traveling, trying to imitate staffs, chatting on silly topics umpteen number of times :P which ended up in we people being more skilled in handling group discussions :P

We even went to the extent of proving people it is no big deal completing ED (Engineering Drawing) work in bus ;) Travel made us more proficient in reading books in bus, understanding course contents ;) during semesters, and more importantly learning tips for preparation of quicker dishes for breakfast/lunch! Wonder how ?? Having to take bus at early morning(??) 7.00 am we forced to have breakfast in bus and we end up sharing simpler such recipes from our friends as well staff members :) . Brings back nice moments, friendships shared also with staff members which came in handy many a time ;)

Four years after college I did regret that I would miss my bus travel :)! But bang I found the most notorious gang to travel to training center ! I was skeptical for a while concerned about company for girly talks as I was the only girl in the bus during initial days but god save all my friends were so good that we all shared a perfect wavelength. Fact is our company buses operating in our routes never had company logos. All we had was a verrrrrrryyyy tiny note displaying route number. Adding to the agony for few weeks we had a different bus operating on each day. It was really dramatic how we would identify our bus. Ours being the second stop from the start we hardly had a person boarding at first stop. As we were four people in our stop we used to make each one standing in say 20 to 30 m distance at 4 points. First position where one could spot our bus(???) arrival would be decided based on the sheer sharpness of a person’s eye. If the first person spots/ guesses that a bus which might pick us approaches our stop, he would alert the rest of the gang and we all would move closer to ensure if it is our bus(??) and boarded it. If it wasn’t our bus (bad luck huh :( ) we all would resume our positions and the loop continued until we boarded the bus :) (All Smiles -> Target Accomplished). Even this procedure was quite enjoyable as it was only for initial days as we could establish a more connected network by then Thanks to the CUG plans offered :)

Till date bus travel makes me really happy and when you establish a good friendship it becomes more interesting. Just imagine this it is almost 9.00 pm on a Friday Evening :( and as always though you wish to leave early but you are forced to stay due to stiff deadlines :(. You complete your code bang at 8.55 pm and send a status mail to onsite and you are already on your heels to catch the last bus at 9.00 pm . But poor you struck up at last floor you quickly make a call to your friend (who is already in bus waiting for you to join him/her ) and ask them to stop the bus. You enter the elevator, press the floor button. Huh you wonder to see so many such poor souls like you on every floor. Yeah your BP level shoots up. You could see people biting nails, trying to make call to some bus-mate (yet another soul receiving curses for delaying the start ) very well knowing that they could not make one until they come outside the elevator. Like the final countdown of a rocket launch you wait for the lift doors to open. Seeesh !! You see everyone making a rush from the elevator pushing people with a sole aim of catching the bus. You then realize what it means to be goal-centric/what is the definition of Hawk Eye ;) I can also afford to say “ To Know the value of Milli Second ask a person who misses the bus in spite of displaying wonderful sprinting skills “ ;)

Ah! I bet this being the most thrilling moment than a One dayer where it is win/lose and here case being you making it to bus/missing :(. Try to watch out for such moments next time when you are in rush to catch last bus. It would be thrilling for the moment but I am sure it will be 100% relief when you make it to bus with a beaming smile stuck to your face as if you have made it to THE MOON :)

MTC Bus Travel is still more interesting experience. But Personally I am more allergic to morning travel by bus because of டிபன் பாக்ஸ் சூடு you experience from fellow travelers :P. But it is also lively as you get to see more interesting people. Wish everyone have such memorable experience with a safe journey!!