A Journey By Bus

I really donot know why I had not undertaken  a bus journey for such a long time. I have always loved travel by train. Thr moment I board a train, I feel so free, relaxed, away from the humdrum, with myself and feel  totally at home amidst alien faces. That feel fills me partly because I have generally gone by train  only on long journeys.

A bus journey is different as its for shorter duration most of the time. I feel like a child who claps at every jump the bus makes with utter disregard for a speed breaker leaving behind a shaken hoarding of ; Attention: Speed Breaker Ahead. Who bothers for a vulnerable back as its presumed that in Haryana especially we all have strong backs.

With hordes of audio messages on railway stations,one tends to feel Railways having some  time sense but roadways buses ply on the principle oft scribbled on back of trucks: ey to yun ee chaalegi.  A HR bus stops and moves at the whims and fancy of its driver solely. If he is happy go lucky natured, its speed matches a loudly played fastamfast filmi song and (God forbid!) If he is angry then one may end up reading numerous rounds of Hanuman Chalisa or Mahamrityunjya mantra!!

Thanks to our ever on the rise religious inclinations and swelling number of devotees, there is never any dearth of bhandaras or chhabeels nor shobhayatras and prabhatferis on the vast expanse of our National and state highways. I bet every season is a festival season with few exceptions.

Bus journeys provide quite a relief from cell phone communication as there is no way you can listen or the receiver may hear a meaningful word or sentence with constant honking of horn for the outsiders  in neck to neck race with loud music for the insiders.

Interestingly, all the messages scribbled inside the bus are supoosed to be flouted only with a vengeance e.g. Just above driver' s seat-speed limit 65 km; no smoking, 1,2,3 seat par sona mana hai, please give seat to lady passengers etc. Only exception is the  reminder: 'passenger is responsible for his jaan, maal' -very true, indeed.

A bus gives more protected feeling than a car journey-may be because of number of people in it or due to its giant size-any guesses?

I think a bus  or train journey offers exclusive space amidst crowd  and that can be really creative if only it could be minus unnecessary loudness.

And see! It costs one tenth the amount we incur on a car journey. Tell me if a bus journey is really not  worth undertaking once in a while?