Well, I haven't posted in a while, so this post is more of a 'for the heck of it' post than anything else. That doesn't mean it removes everything interesting about it.
Today's journey to work was quite exciting. I usually take the RTV, which basically looks like a tin-box on wheels. My colleagues joke about it calling it a pull-back gaadi (because of it's strong resemblance to that spring driven toy that shoots forward when you pull it back). Needless to say, it is quite a congested ride. The vehicle is perpetually full of people, and the conductors main job is to make people stand in a particular way so that the maximum number of people can sit/stand in the bus. You should also consider the fact that the roof is about 5 1/2' feet high. Tall people have to bend over double. The conductor once noticed my neck scarred slightly. I was also wondering how I got flesh-wounds on my neck until I realized that this particular RTV had it's roof peeling off, and the sharp edges gave me my scars! After that experience (and other equally insane ones) all conductors on my route try and find me a place to sit asap!
All the buses that run on this particular route (namely bus number F839A) belong to one owner. So the drivers and conductors of these routes plan their trips so that there is an exact 5 minute gap between one bus and the next at peak hours. A passenger is not supposed to see two F839A at the same time. At this unfortunate instance, the air is filled with the words of purest hatred, courtesy the drivers and conductors (let's call them 'crew') of both buses. If a bus overtakes another on the same route (and this happens at times), the second bus stops the other bus, and baseball bats come out of both drivers seats! Though all drivers and conductors know eachother well and I haven't seen anybody use their weapons till date, there is generally a grand display of anger and violence.
Today, one bus apparently left the stand behind schedule, giving the second bus a chance to overtake and take more passengers than usual. The second bus did overtake, and picked up all the passengers (which included me), leaving the first one running its route absolutely empty. This spelt all kinds of bad things to that crew because the owner will not be pleased with that bus. May be they'll get a salary cut.
Obviously, the crew of that bus knew that. In frantic hurry, they overtook our bus, fishtailed it, got out and hurled abuses at our crew asking them if they had no shame, not giving their fellow-bus driver a second chance. The conductor was abusing, shouting, and flailing his fists at our bus with fear and anger in his teary eyes, while the driver (with a similar countenance) was flailing his baseball bat at our bus. He reminded me of Type A personalities we learnt in school. Our crew initially laughed, and hurled back equally loving words, and later on took a detour so that this bus could collect a few passengers.
(I hope all this made sense)
