This commuting story comes from yet another BEST bus journey. You might be thinking, what happened to this eternal railfan? No train journeys blogged anymore.Thats because I havent been getting the elusive window seat as commuting time has changed & travelling duration also reduced. On the other hand bus journeys have increased and they seem to be more time consuming & rigorous, though the distance to be traversed is hardly 5 kms.
Ok, now this was like any other evening commute from my hotel near airport to Vidyavihar station by BEST bus 308. Luckily after getting into the bus, I got a window seat and we had just crossed the Airport and moving towards Leela Hotel & then onwards to the ever traffic infested Andheri-Ghatkopar Link road. The distance between Leela & Airport is hardly 500 metres but our bus took 20 minutes and finally turned into the nightmare called Ghatkopar Link road. Our bus must have started from Majas Depot which is far away from Andheri and the drivers of this route(308) can be easily conferred Nobel peace prize for the patience they display to drive along this irritating stretch.
As soon as we turned into the link road towards Sakinaka, my bus was veering close to the footpath instead of the norm of siding with the middle divider as we had to take a right into the Andheri-Kurla road. The road was infested as usual with the debris of metro construction work, 220kv high voltage line digging, the miniscule and irritating 2 & 3 wheelers. All of a sudden, after crossing d MarolNaka stop, our driver parked the bus & turned off the lights & got out off the seat to alight. Harried people inside the bus were shocked and thought if traffic jams werent enough, we have a breakdown of the bus.
Murmurs became louder and inqusitive ones started asking,''master kay jala, bus zaanaar ki nahi''.Conductor was a mute spectator like many of us. Driver did not answer any queries as if he was above the law. He strolled back towards the footpath testing each tyre making others contemplate that we have a puncture to deal with.
Surprisingly none of us heard the air escape from tyres during the journey. Then the driver moved towards the shops lining the footpaths. He was gesturing something to the shopkeepers and each one just shoved him away to a direction which was behind the way we had traversed. After carefully observing, what our driver was gesturing I knew it was nothing related to the bus and more human in nature.
He disappeared from our sight and people inside the dark bus were shouting, yelling and getting jealous of other buses going past us. After 5 minutes our driver returned, turned on the lights and started the bus and all inside heaved a sigh of relief. The conductor who was maintaining a stoic silence till now, said a one liner which made the whole bus burst into laughter and the bus driver a bit embarrased. He said, ''Didnt I tell you not to drink that extra glass of water, see what happens now, that extra glass of water made all of us wait for 5 minutes''
Poor driver !!!
Ok, now this was like any other evening commute from my hotel near airport to Vidyavihar station by BEST bus 308. Luckily after getting into the bus, I got a window seat and we had just crossed the Airport and moving towards Leela Hotel & then onwards to the ever traffic infested Andheri-Ghatkopar Link road. The distance between Leela & Airport is hardly 500 metres but our bus took 20 minutes and finally turned into the nightmare called Ghatkopar Link road. Our bus must have started from Majas Depot which is far away from Andheri and the drivers of this route(308) can be easily conferred Nobel peace prize for the patience they display to drive along this irritating stretch.
As soon as we turned into the link road towards Sakinaka, my bus was veering close to the footpath instead of the norm of siding with the middle divider as we had to take a right into the Andheri-Kurla road. The road was infested as usual with the debris of metro construction work, 220kv high voltage line digging, the miniscule and irritating 2 & 3 wheelers. All of a sudden, after crossing d MarolNaka stop, our driver parked the bus & turned off the lights & got out off the seat to alight. Harried people inside the bus were shocked and thought if traffic jams werent enough, we have a breakdown of the bus.
Murmurs became louder and inqusitive ones started asking,''master kay jala, bus zaanaar ki nahi''.Conductor was a mute spectator like many of us. Driver did not answer any queries as if he was above the law. He strolled back towards the footpath testing each tyre making others contemplate that we have a puncture to deal with.
Surprisingly none of us heard the air escape from tyres during the journey. Then the driver moved towards the shops lining the footpaths. He was gesturing something to the shopkeepers and each one just shoved him away to a direction which was behind the way we had traversed. After carefully observing, what our driver was gesturing I knew it was nothing related to the bus and more human in nature.
He disappeared from our sight and people inside the dark bus were shouting, yelling and getting jealous of other buses going past us. After 5 minutes our driver returned, turned on the lights and started the bus and all inside heaved a sigh of relief. The conductor who was maintaining a stoic silence till now, said a one liner which made the whole bus burst into laughter and the bus driver a bit embarrased. He said, ''Didnt I tell you not to drink that extra glass of water, see what happens now, that extra glass of water made all of us wait for 5 minutes''
Poor driver !!!
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