One Night in a Bus

Time was 4:40pm and it happened to be a Sunday. It was a most busy time to employess especially software employees as they need to go back to their offices from their native places. Hence all buses leading to cities specifically to Bangalore in general were rush and exactly at that point of time I wanted to travel to Bangalore. What happened during that journey? How was the conductor's behaviour? what kind of people were traveling in the bus? what all things happened? If you want to know, read further. :)

I started to Bangalore from Podili in super luxury bus without a prior reservation. I met the bus conductor and enquired about the seat vacancy. 500 was the reply which came to me at the light speed. I thought for a while if this was a special bus in which the fare is 1.5 times the normal fare . Then I asked if it was as per ticket fare. He said yes and gave me seat No:9 after requesting for the seat.

Bus started at 5pm with 10 passengers onboard, among whom I alone was traveling to Bangalore. Conductor started collecting money. Electronic Ticket Vending machine stopped working after collecting the fare from 2 people and traveling a distance of 4Kms. The conductor started shouting the Bus Depot General Manager for giving him nonworking machine. He let all my co-passengers to board the other bus coming in the same way and bus started back to Depot to get a working machine in which I was alone. I heard bus conductor saying to driver that they have got one passenger atleast to Bangalore.

Conductor collected a working ticket machine from depot and bus sbtarted with 8 passengers. One passengers called-up his friend and started explaining his post-marital problems and was scolding his wife. I was wondering why people start scolding when they are angry. I know the reason for shouting when someone is angry. When people are angry, they get lots of energy and they shout at others to exhaust this energy. But, I could not find any reason for them to scold others especially their spouse's mothers when angry..?

Conductor came across one uncle who gave Rs.100 for his Rs.17 fare. Conductor asked him to get down if he doesn't have change and that fellow got down after 3 Kms from Podili. I felt pity on him but didn't do anything. The conductor handed over me a ticket of Rs. 400 after verifying my CAT card and I gave him 500 rupee note and got back 50 only. I asked him what about the rest 50. He nodded his head to convey that I was to leave that 50 to him. I said to him “take 10 or 20 if you want, but I wont give you 50 bucks”. Hearing this he kept silent. After a while I got surprised when I got a response from saying “ You take 31 or 32 seat Nos” and this was from the same fellow who told earlier to take seat No:9 because I didnt give money.

I told him “Do whatever you want. But I will not move”. I thought of asking him if APSRTC also introduced caste or income based reservations like 10% to some caste X. One thing I remembered here was what my friend once said “recently govt has released funds for Concrete roads to be lied down in SC, ST areas only” when I asked him about why is that Cement roads are not sanctioned for our village. Fortunately, APSRTC didn't introduce caste based reservations and will not be in future also I hope.

I happened to see one toll-free no. stuck on bus door that can be used to give feedback, suggestions and grievances or complaints . I thought of calling that no and complain about the conductor's behavior. But, I could not do it,because, I remembered “Madhavan Nair and 3 more scientists became scape-goats” for Anthrax-Devas deal for ISRO that is directly under Prime Minister who is also invlolved because he signed on the deal. Same is the situation with the IAS officers in Andhra Pradesh. Ministers, who are actually doing corruption, are escaping by making the officers as scape-goats. The conductor was in his final years of his pre-retirement life and I didn't want him to become scape-goat if at APSRTC takes the complaint seriously. The conductor told my propinquity passenger that he said he will give one seat and has given one seat , but for this he got a negative response from my co-passenger and hence he had to leave to his cabin. The bus was running at the speed of 60kmph even on muddy roads and metal roads.

After some time, Some passengers boarded bus with chickens and cocks that started making sounds like “Kukkur ko kukkuru ko….. and kav kav” and conductor started shouting “tickets tickets” as if he was selling chips and water packets in the bus. Some children started crying because of the noise and one drunken fellow passenger started scolding his wife for no reason who was ready to give diverse to his spouse. All those chicken fellow and drunken fellow got down after half an hour and bus became calm except for the tyre sounds

Bus stopped at 10:30pm for dinner. Hardly any passenger got down for dinner except of course the bus driver and conductor. Bus resumed its course to Bangalore at 11:00pm and I slept after that. By the time I woke up, we were in K.R.Puram and went to conductor to collect the remaining money. But, the conductor was sleeping and hence I asked driver to give me the change. By hearing my words, conductor woke up as if thunderbolt was falling on him and handed over me Rs.30 as if he was giving from his packet. Ofcourse, If he doesnt give money, it goes to his pocket only. I think people like black money more than white money.

This is the story of my journey dated 22-01-2013 from Podili to Bangalore.