So I've joined a new office and it has been three months now. It is about an hour by road from where I live and I normally travel there by bus. This is a small article about my experiences on the buses I travel on.
I remember my senior in college telling me once that he loves to travel on buses because he gets to see a lot of things, listen to a lot of songs and oftentimes the conductors make cheerful conversation with you as you stand (or sit) in the bus. At the time, I was not a surface traveler and was traversing the underground metro rail network to get from place to place. That in itself was an experience about which I've written a lot and will write again maybe, but let's focus on buses for now as Anjan Dutta croons at me from my Spotify.
So, the experience of traveling on a bus can be summed up in two situations- do you get a seat or don't you? If you get a seat, and it's a window seat you get to watch the world go by you in a slight blur as the bus accelerates or in a slight crawl as the bus slows down. If you get a seat, you also can dive into a book and read a short story which is what I do on the Barasat-Baruipur on my way to work. So far, I've read some O'Henry, some Russian folktales and am now reading a science fiction omnibus which has some interesting stories. I've also found that switching to my father's old Jabra Talk bluetooth device has helped me enjoy music on low volume while travelling and frankly the lack of a wired earphone helps a lot, because wires have a mystical habit of getting tangled or torn in crowded buses. Just this morning, I listened to the Indian Ocean song "Kandisa" on loop while reading Asimov's short story in the omnibus (The C Chute).
On the other hand, traveling back from the office on a bus is a tactical ball game. The office crowd tends to be large and while the essential travel is cheap, it is because it is cheap that the buses are usually crowded. So, the tactic is- get on, struggle to find a place to stand in peace, keep ten or twelve rupees handy in an easily accessible place, put your bag on the bunker and sway to the rhythm of the bus. This journey may allow for music, but rarely does it allow for reading.
So...a morning spent reading and an evening of swaying back to the homestead is what the general picture is. However, there is a queer sense of belonging in the bus. Making way for people, hurling abuse at an irritating element, interesting conversations with the driver or the conductor (dependin gon where you are in the bus and how crowded it is), and the almost miraculous mathematical algorithm by which you approximate the rate of influx and efflux of people in the bus, and if it's safe to sit down on a vacated seat (if you're fast enough), or when you have to mve out of a person's way...sometimes physics can be a cruel mistress and leave you gasping for air due to the sheer number of people in the bus, and sometimes the bus is empty in the evenings as well!
Then of course, we must talk about the regularity of the buses. An S9C from Sector V (my office) leaves the main T junction at 6:40PM and because it was a Saturday yesterday, I managed to get on and had a semi smooth journey home. On the other hand, if I miss the 8AM Barasat-Baruipur, my commute to office becomes a challenge because of the time factor involved. Also let the court note that, I've usually managed to find a seat on the 8AM bus from home.
And sometimes, I've met people on the bus with whom I've had interesting chats while traveling about myriad topics- the weather (there was a heatwave in Kolkata recently), boyfriends, music and books to name a few topics.
Indian Ocean bled into The Local Train by the way and now I'm listening to Lucky Ali. So as I wrap up this post, let me just say that it's a mixture of tactics, luck and merriment to ride a bus on my commute to office. Quirky? You bet!
(Attached below is an Indian music playlist I made on Spotify)
The Bilge Master
Well written.
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