Route 344/345

This is the first time I am blogging on a bus, well, not exactly since I am not connected. But of course this is the first time I am using my laptop on a bus. It is the AC Volvo bus and hence I am not getting any stares, but if this was the bus about which I am going describe ahead, then definitely I would have attracted a lot of stares and even curious on-lookers. The story starts with me shifting into my new apartment (again, not exactly mine, but Achintya’s, my apartment is not yet livable, and what I am going through to make it livable is another story for another day!). This apartment is actually out of Bangalore, in a village called Yelenahalli, and my office is on the other side of the city, in Whitefield. It takes 1.5 hours to travel each way in off-peak hours, I can’t imagine how long it will take during the peak hours!

So, the story is about the bus routes 344 and 345 which runs from just in front of my apartment (it’s excellent to have that), to Madivala (from where I walk to Silk Board to get into this AC bus I am sitting right now). First exciting thing about this bus is that it has no timings, well, no Indian bus follow timings, but this one is way beyond acceptable Indian Stretchable Time (IST). More because it runs on a rural route. Though I am sure this route won’t remain rural 2 years ahead.

Second exciting thing about this route is or are the people on board. I will give a few instances. A few days back, there was a passenger in the bus who was sleepy; I agree there is nothing weird about being sleepy on a bus, I think I get the best sleep on a bus, and miraculously I never missed my stop because of that, not everyone is like my friend Anirban. Coming back to our interesting passenger, he was sleepy and taking a nap, nothing weird in that, but the weird thing was that whenever he woke up with a start (due to the sudden maneuvers of the bus and the excellent roads in Bangalore), he will curse some unknown being. I did not understand what exactly he was saying, but it was really funny whenever we wakes up and shouts on someone, and again go back to sleep.

The second passenger on another day, was singing loudly, some soing which I did not understand, of course. This is not weird in local trains or metros (in Paris/Oslo/London), but that is mostly for money. But this person was singling just like that, just because he loves singing maybe. Though the song was not very melodious or continuous for that matter, yet, that made the journey interesting.

This is how my day starts nowadays, meeting these interesting people on an interesting bus which follows an interesting route. And the day ends with me running after buses to get a little place to stand. I change three buses usually while coming back from work, sometimes an auto (rickshaw) or tuktuk as most of them say outside India. It invariably takes 2 hours. But no doubt it is fun.

The good thing about we humans is that our happiness and sadness mostly depends on how we take things which come our way. If I would curse the bus and the people every day, I think I would be more tired and stressed than I should be. I take this as a part of life, and coming from my Indian mentality of life-is-supposed-to-be-difficult, I think I manage it quite well.

Well, enough of gyan, but the truth is I know this is not permanent, as I will get a car soon. Yes, and I am using this experience as a lesson, so that I learn to drive soon, mere out of necessity. Again a gyan out of this: if we consider everything as non-permanent, I think we will be able to enjoy life in a better way. Whenever we are happy, we will enjoy every moment of it, thinking that it is not permanent, and whenever we are sad, we will easily go through it, thinking that it is not permanent. And to be true, nothing really is permanent.