Dedicated to all those who travel by bus to work day in day out! :D
My normal work day begins early in the morning. Office being so far away from home, I need to start at 7.30 in the morning in order to catch my bus and be there before the traffic hustle bustle begins! I've never spent this much time on travelling everyday ever in my life. So well, I guess this is quite the reason why I'm dedicating a post to it. :D
The bus journey everyday is a very interesting experience for me. I was very very apprehensive about travelling so far away everyday but now I can say I am kinda used to it and it's really not so bad. To be honest, I almost enjoy it( although I crib and complain about it all the while!), except the waking up real early part!
The bus stop is just about 3 minutes from my home. I reach there by 7.27 on most of the days. I meet a couple of people who I call my bus friends. We just have some little silly small talk about the match yesterday or why these guys have such a big problem with their ties or how marriages and holidays are so much fun! Just random topics for exactly about 3 or 4 minutes till the bus arrives.
From the first day, I used to go and occupy the last seat. The only reason behind this was I wanted the window seat and that was the only seat where window seat was empty. Slowly, it's become my habit to sit just there even though the seat is highly uncomfortable and throws me out of the seat on a slightly bad road. But well, it doesn't matter to me, I still prefer going and sitting there. :) I just like to sit there by myself, gazing out of the window or listening to music or reading a book or just dozing off.
In the morning, it's pretty much easy to travel. I reach work in at most an hour. And I doze off for half the journey. Listening and discovering nice music is my favorite activity during that time. Everyday it's a new band and a new song. Gives me the inspiration to keep myself going for the rest of the day! Ah the wonders good music and good sleep can do!! :D
If I am not doing either of these two, I just sit and look out of the window, admiring the scenery(?) outside ;) Well, all I get to see are mostly people waiting for their office/ college buses somewhere near the bus stops. There are people all fresh and determined to face the new day's challenges. It reminds me of the saying-"Early bird catches the prey", all the people all set to hunt down their preys. :D There are no traffic jams anywhere, just the umpteen signals(I'll talk about signals in some time). So well this is the view I get when I peer outside the window. Oh one day I saw one man going on his scooter on the other side of the road. My bus had stopped at a signal. This chap stooped his bike and folded his hands and prayed for a couple of minutes, as one would do when they see a temple across the road and went by. I go on this road daily and I wondered how this temple went unnoticed by me! So I turned to look and guess what, there was no temple there! I still search for a temple everyday when I go on that road and I've not found it yet. :|
People keep boarding the bus at various different stops and sometimes the bus gets full and some of them come standing as well. I think I am glad I get to sit in the bus, I am "better placed" than them, thanks to my faraway house ;) Then the best part of my morning journey is the freeway. It spans a distance of around 10km and soon as the bus enters it, I somehow manage to doze off. It just takes him 7-10 minutes to cross this stretch and I'm woken up when the bus takes a turn near the tollgate indicating the end of my journey and start of another day at office! Everyday, invariably my thought is "Oh! So soon, did we reach so soon!? Why??!!"
That was my morning story. Evening story is not really so interesting because it's pretty boring to have to go back all the way so far away everyday and the traffic and pollution don't help lift my mood up. So, I'm quite a sad grumpy girl when I'm travelling in the evening. I just go and sit in the bus, now not the last seat, I just occupy any seat that's got an empty window seat. Once the bus leaves, I wonder what to do. I am too tired to read that book. Music! Yes I need music to keep me away from the noise of the outside world and to soothe my tired soul! :) So listening to music, I manage to doze off till we reach the end of the freeway. The freeway is mostly(emphasize mostly) traffic free even in the evenings. So I kinda get my power nap. Then comes the stranded traffic, noisy, polluting, irritating. I still shut my eyes and sit for however long possible. I sleep, and wake up to find the traffic's hardly moved up 1km.
Somehow I catch glimpses of sleep, again get up, change the music and try to sleep again. This happens for the initial half hour of the journey. Then mostly I just give up on the idea of sleeping and just begin to think. Think of what to write next, think of what to ask mom to make tonight for dinner et al. This is my time to just sit and close my eyes and let the thoughts flow.
Even after an hour, sometimes I'm still stuck up far away from home. It just gets to me. Looking out of the window just makes it worse. So I close my eyes and meditate(?) if you can call it that. Oh I almost forgot about the traffic signals! These are like adding salt to my wounds! I get stuck in every possible big signal for 120 seconds! It's like that, on an average, increases about 15 minutes of my travel time! I just sit in the bus, helplessly feeling suffocated, adding the numbers on the number plates of vehicles to kill time just waiting to get home. The one good thing about this is that the journey is non stop till almost two stops before my home so that's a relief. :)
Anyways, after about one and a half hours( sometimes two hours) of this journey, I finally am back home for a good night's rest to wake up again early in the morning for my next journey!
My cousin rightly wished me-"Happy journey to your office" the other day :D It truly is!!
From the first day, I used to go and occupy the last seat. The only reason behind this was I wanted the window seat and that was the only seat where window seat was empty. Slowly, it's become my habit to sit just there even though the seat is highly uncomfortable and throws me out of the seat on a slightly bad road. But well, it doesn't matter to me, I still prefer going and sitting there. :) I just like to sit there by myself, gazing out of the window or listening to music or reading a book or just dozing off.
In the morning, it's pretty much easy to travel. I reach work in at most an hour. And I doze off for half the journey. Listening and discovering nice music is my favorite activity during that time. Everyday it's a new band and a new song. Gives me the inspiration to keep myself going for the rest of the day! Ah the wonders good music and good sleep can do!! :D
If I am not doing either of these two, I just sit and look out of the window, admiring the scenery(?) outside ;) Well, all I get to see are mostly people waiting for their office/ college buses somewhere near the bus stops. There are people all fresh and determined to face the new day's challenges. It reminds me of the saying-"Early bird catches the prey", all the people all set to hunt down their preys. :D There are no traffic jams anywhere, just the umpteen signals(I'll talk about signals in some time). So well this is the view I get when I peer outside the window. Oh one day I saw one man going on his scooter on the other side of the road. My bus had stopped at a signal. This chap stooped his bike and folded his hands and prayed for a couple of minutes, as one would do when they see a temple across the road and went by. I go on this road daily and I wondered how this temple went unnoticed by me! So I turned to look and guess what, there was no temple there! I still search for a temple everyday when I go on that road and I've not found it yet. :|
People keep boarding the bus at various different stops and sometimes the bus gets full and some of them come standing as well. I think I am glad I get to sit in the bus, I am "better placed" than them, thanks to my faraway house ;) Then the best part of my morning journey is the freeway. It spans a distance of around 10km and soon as the bus enters it, I somehow manage to doze off. It just takes him 7-10 minutes to cross this stretch and I'm woken up when the bus takes a turn near the tollgate indicating the end of my journey and start of another day at office! Everyday, invariably my thought is "Oh! So soon, did we reach so soon!? Why??!!"
That was my morning story. Evening story is not really so interesting because it's pretty boring to have to go back all the way so far away everyday and the traffic and pollution don't help lift my mood up. So, I'm quite a sad grumpy girl when I'm travelling in the evening. I just go and sit in the bus, now not the last seat, I just occupy any seat that's got an empty window seat. Once the bus leaves, I wonder what to do. I am too tired to read that book. Music! Yes I need music to keep me away from the noise of the outside world and to soothe my tired soul! :) So listening to music, I manage to doze off till we reach the end of the freeway. The freeway is mostly(emphasize mostly) traffic free even in the evenings. So I kinda get my power nap. Then comes the stranded traffic, noisy, polluting, irritating. I still shut my eyes and sit for however long possible. I sleep, and wake up to find the traffic's hardly moved up 1km.
Somehow I catch glimpses of sleep, again get up, change the music and try to sleep again. This happens for the initial half hour of the journey. Then mostly I just give up on the idea of sleeping and just begin to think. Think of what to write next, think of what to ask mom to make tonight for dinner et al. This is my time to just sit and close my eyes and let the thoughts flow.
Even after an hour, sometimes I'm still stuck up far away from home. It just gets to me. Looking out of the window just makes it worse. So I close my eyes and meditate(?) if you can call it that. Oh I almost forgot about the traffic signals! These are like adding salt to my wounds! I get stuck in every possible big signal for 120 seconds! It's like that, on an average, increases about 15 minutes of my travel time! I just sit in the bus, helplessly feeling suffocated, adding the numbers on the number plates of vehicles to kill time just waiting to get home. The one good thing about this is that the journey is non stop till almost two stops before my home so that's a relief. :)
Anyways, after about one and a half hours( sometimes two hours) of this journey, I finally am back home for a good night's rest to wake up again early in the morning for my next journey!
My cousin rightly wished me-"Happy journey to your office" the other day :D It truly is!!
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