A Journey in NCR buses

I spent my last summer in Noida doing an internship. While I was there, due to lack of a conveyance, I used to travel by buses.They are like the lifeline of this region. They are jam-packed and provide people with probably the worst ambience possible for a journey. A typical journey of a person in a bus in this region goes something like this:-

As soon the person sees the bus, he rushes towards it and he is one in a crowd of almost 60-70. By the time he reaches the gate and tries to enter the bus, he finds that 20 people are simultaneously trying to get in through the door. He strategically places his hand like a barrier across the door and tries to move forward only to find that he is blocking some guy’s head who is trying to crawl in the space beneath his hand.Quickly, he runs inside the bus and finds that only one seat is empty. He comfortably sits down on it and thanks his luck for it. After about 5 minutes a female comes, shakes him and points above his head. He looks up to find that it is a ladies seat. He grudgingly stands up and vacates the seat. Now as he stands, he realizes that there are three people pressing against his back while others are pressing him sideways. Among these, some guy’s sweaty hands are pressed against his shirt making it all wet. He tends to fall over the guy who is sitting on the seat in front of you and his bag constantly keeps hitting his face. This bloke doesn’t say anything for sometime but then he gets irritated and starts abusing him. He pacifies him somehow and tries to tangle the bag in his arms. In the meanwhile the conductor comes asking for a ticket. He realizes that he dosn’t have enough space to take out the purse from his jeans. So, he hands over his bag to the guy sitting, leaves himself leaning against the guy behind him and bends his hand backward at an angle of 10 degrees to take out his purse. While he is at it the conductor keeps shouting at him and he keeps cursing yourself for wearing a jeans. He hands over the money to him and the conductor gives him his ticket with the balance money written on the back of it. He takes the bag back and returns to his stuffed position. In the meantime his back starts paining due to the bent posture. Suddenly, the bus crosses over a bridge built over an open sewage drain. A smell (let’s say, an indescribable smell) starts filling his nostrils and he feels a strong urge to place his hand over his nose. But he suddenly become wary of the consequences and instead tries not to breathe in air. He is able to hold his breath for just as long as the drain lasts. Anyways, the journey continues. Finally, after standing like this for what seems like an eternity the destination comes. He gets out, thanks God as profusely as he would have if he had survived the dooms-day conspiracy and immediately startS feeling revulsion at the thought of the next journey.

Had this been a DTC Blueline bus, he would have experienced numerous jerks in the journey caused due to the driver just narrowly missing hitting someone and then he could have heard the driver abusing that someone. Along with it, he would have enjoyed the very irritating sound the conductor makes while hitting the metallic body of the bus to tell the driver when to stop and when to move. His skills in getting down and boarding a moving bus would also have increased considerably.

The Private buses are another common feature in these parts. Their inside temperature is about 5 degrees higher than the outside temperature and they travel at about half the speed of a normal bus while charging you twice.

Moral of the story : Arrange for yourself a conveyance before you enter NCR.