Bus To NITK

After having travelled for over three and a half years between Mangalore and NITK, I think I should pen down some of my myriad experiences in those six wheeler, multi-seater, bi-cleaner guided, solitary controlled, recklessly driven cubicles of iron and wood which are better known to the layman as ‘BUS’, but which I consider to be an acronym for ‘breath under seize’. Before I proceed any further with my narration, let me put a line of declaration that all those men in khaki i.e., the conductors & drivers, cleaners and passengers travelling in the bus are non fictitious and any resemblance to any act with anybody only fortifies the genuineness of this article. At this point of time, let us define the three main categories of buses in the increasing order of their dominance. The first category is that of the city buses, which as the name suggests, are confined only to the city limits. Usually packed to about 2.5 times its rated capacity, people other than of course the conductor hardly find space to move even their noses. Second in order come the service buses. Last and the least are the express buses for one’s chances of reaching one’s destination in one piece are the least in this particular category of buses.

Blessed are the drivers of these buses for they are responsible for making their passengers sing eulogies to every God they can remember. Even an atheist becomes a polytheist, setting aside all his pseudo theories declining the existence of God and tries to discover Him even in the straw of his upholstery seat. Such is the capability of these men on the steering for they can transform the human mind much faster than the seer who is said to have envisaged God. Moreover, the speed of this transformation is directly proportional to the force exerted by him on the accelerator. Even Michael Schumacher is forced to give a second thought if at all he decides to land on NH-17.

Nevertheless, the dare devil passengers who travel by these buses are very optimistic. Their optimism is reflected in their seat selection process and its further updating at every bus stop though none of them is sure as to whether they will get a chance to get down the bus in full consciousness. The filling up of the seat matrix follows a definite pattern, which is very orderly, and recursive in nature. Though I.T wizards all over the world are trying to switch over from WINDOWS, it is one of the favorites in these buses for everybody want a window by their side and until the window seats are occupied, the other seats are left untouched. The process that immediately follows the choosing of the window seat is that of trying to open the glass panes that are seldom present. People utilize their brawns to its maximum only to realize that it is equivalent to finding a needle in a haystack. Once the window seats are occupied, the next in order is the last seat stretching from one end of the bus to the other followed by the other seats beside the window seats. Only those few people who consider themselves to be at par with the drivers or those who want to have a glimpse of all other fellow passengers or vice versa or those who want to learn the daring act of rushing through the streets which are not wide enough even for the two wheelers or those who want to be ahead in each and every field of their life occupy the front seat beside the driver’s seat that is in quadrature with all other seats. At every bus stop, a few lucky ones get down the bus sighing a breath of relief thereby creating a few vacancies here and there. This gives rise to the musical chair once again and the vacancies are filled in the order of preference mentioned above.

Trivia: Written on 20 April 2003 for our college (National Institute of Technology Karnataka formerly KREC at Suratkal) magazine, Vitruvian. The map below shows the satellite view of the college and the highway NH-17.

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