They smoothly flowed over the city's roads, crisscrossing this mad mad yet at one time beautiful city. Connecting you to the most beautiful and the most dreaded areas...its as though they were the one witness who was allowed to observe and delve into the throbbing heart of this megalopolis.
They now stutter and are made to grudgingly trudge through wherever little they are allowed to crisscross.
What is it that I speak of here? A true Bambaiya knows, and I'm sure nods/smirks in lament on this absolute fall that we have accorded to what was at one time the BEST road transport offering in the country.
Why am I writing about the BEST?
I was suddenly shaken out of my flowing life by a friend to start writing again.As is natural to revisit old pieces of your writing I decided to do the same and well my first writing I'd penned was on the BEST. Unfortunately I've lost that piece, and while I can only roughly recollect what I wrote, I am able to still completely, even after about 20 long years feel the thoughts and emotions of that piece of writing. It was about the early morning ride in the no; 79 bus that I took from home to college - a distance of about five odd kms covered in about 10 mins flat. Half asleep, half awake, I'd nearly always take the last or the second last seat just around the entrance door... how the driver would speed. how he would amazingly control this long bus over bends and turns and speed breakers. The control at the wheel, the thrill experienced at the last seat. the rush of fresh morning wind through your hair! Gosh some feelings can only be experienced. No matter how nuanced and evocative your writing is, some feelings can only truly be individually experienced.
I've always loved controlled speed...I'm not exactly sure where the love comes from, but I know of two early influences...getting up at nearly dawn to watch the Himalayan rally in the early '80s in my home town and observing all the Hawks/Kites/Eagles amazingly gliding and diving around and over the hillsides and the valleys. Its what gave me my love for F1 and whatever little rough terrain rallies I've followed.
Coming back to the BEST and why I'm rewriting about them (apart from the fact that they were the inspiration for my first piece of writing) is a collection of observations over these last 20 years of where this lovely transport body has been made to go, by utter callousness, infact depravity (worse than Macavity) by the administration.
Any transport body the world over, primarily performs a public duty. The metrics that measure these duties are mostly economic/social. But there is a very human a very emotional aspect that these public transport bodies (cover) and unfortunately that is never tabled in reports to the decision makers. Why is it that we can't take a survey of the happiness/thrill/excitement that a ride provides to a user. Why is it that we don't measure the feeling of safety that this service accords to the old, the young and the women users? Why don't we measure the provision of access to travel that it provides for those not so well off. Why aren't these metrics more important in deciding that such a beautiful transport body ought to be funded well enough in a city which is largely still middle-class? Are we no longer human enough? Or is it that this financial capital only knows money and not value, anymore?
That the city has gone to the absolute gutter and its administration has taken it there is the long and short of it.
They now stutter and are made to grudgingly trudge through wherever little they are allowed to crisscross.
What is it that I speak of here? A true Bambaiya knows, and I'm sure nods/smirks in lament on this absolute fall that we have accorded to what was at one time the BEST road transport offering in the country.
Why am I writing about the BEST?
I was suddenly shaken out of my flowing life by a friend to start writing again.As is natural to revisit old pieces of your writing I decided to do the same and well my first writing I'd penned was on the BEST. Unfortunately I've lost that piece, and while I can only roughly recollect what I wrote, I am able to still completely, even after about 20 long years feel the thoughts and emotions of that piece of writing. It was about the early morning ride in the no; 79 bus that I took from home to college - a distance of about five odd kms covered in about 10 mins flat. Half asleep, half awake, I'd nearly always take the last or the second last seat just around the entrance door... how the driver would speed. how he would amazingly control this long bus over bends and turns and speed breakers. The control at the wheel, the thrill experienced at the last seat. the rush of fresh morning wind through your hair! Gosh some feelings can only be experienced. No matter how nuanced and evocative your writing is, some feelings can only truly be individually experienced.
I've always loved controlled speed...I'm not exactly sure where the love comes from, but I know of two early influences...getting up at nearly dawn to watch the Himalayan rally in the early '80s in my home town and observing all the Hawks/Kites/Eagles amazingly gliding and diving around and over the hillsides and the valleys. Its what gave me my love for F1 and whatever little rough terrain rallies I've followed.
Coming back to the BEST and why I'm rewriting about them (apart from the fact that they were the inspiration for my first piece of writing) is a collection of observations over these last 20 years of where this lovely transport body has been made to go, by utter callousness, infact depravity (worse than Macavity) by the administration.
Any transport body the world over, primarily performs a public duty. The metrics that measure these duties are mostly economic/social. But there is a very human a very emotional aspect that these public transport bodies (cover) and unfortunately that is never tabled in reports to the decision makers. Why is it that we can't take a survey of the happiness/thrill/excitement that a ride provides to a user. Why is it that we don't measure the feeling of safety that this service accords to the old, the young and the women users? Why don't we measure the provision of access to travel that it provides for those not so well off. Why aren't these metrics more important in deciding that such a beautiful transport body ought to be funded well enough in a city which is largely still middle-class? Are we no longer human enough? Or is it that this financial capital only knows money and not value, anymore?
That the city has gone to the absolute gutter and its administration has taken it there is the long and short of it.
5 comments:
So true Kaveri. And so well written.
It is not just the bus ride itself, but the wait at the bus stop, the random conversations with the folks there and the folks passing by. Learning to gauge moods by figuring out if today you could ask the conductor for change for your ticket or not. Not knowing the driver or conductor's name and them not knowing ours, but developing an unspoken camaderie with them nevertheless less. Always onward.
Remember Kolatkar's The Bus Ride? In a way this reminds me of that poem.
Thanks for this.
The bus ride you describe,
Remind me of mine,
The edginess of the ride,
The turns sharp and jerks high,
Aah those tailbone jarring early morning rides,
The odd way one was lulled and woken
The same rhythm this piece has woven.
Keep writing :)
Good write!! clap! clap!
My recent experience about bus ride was in Chennai, actually 5 years back. Moving from Honda Accord to directly MTC khatara bus was quite a change over to commute to office. A minimum ride fare of Rs. 3 with almost everyone sweating in typical Chennai weather was quite an interesting sight inside the bus.
With all these odds, I still found it very effective in terms saving time (that twist and turns in few narrow road), money or even avoiding direct pollution compared auto (low clearance and open) and bikes.
They have good connections, quite frequent compared to lot other Indian cities that I lived.
About survey, India being a highly populated country, I do not know how survey results would go considering age groups or diversity, might add confusions ;-)
But yes, at least we'll know what people think about it.
A poem as a critique of such a rough write up! Only you Anusha!! (hugs)!
Thanks Ramen, BEST rides used to be something else ages ago...no longer the same... And I've not used public transport in any other city but good point about avoiding direct pollution! infact a bus also gives you a higher vantage point from which to experience the city!Good i'm getting more points to polish this little article of mine...
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