An afternoon in blueline

In a lazy afternoon, when you have barely anything to do and a long journey ahead (even small distance seems long then) and that too in a blueline bus, crowded by all kinds of people who give u a why-don't-u-get-down look as you manage to grab a seat, you don't have any other option but to look outside the window pane.

These 'gentlemen and not so gentlemen' passengers have one thing in common -- they all have their eyes set on those all important seats in the bus, which they envy alike. Often it that pursuit they even try to elbow each other and shove across to grab their space, placing themselves tactically in front of the seats, grabing with both hands the handles of the seats, making sure no one else gets their ass on those seats and attimes that wait stretches beyond the span of one's journey.

With all these happening all around, what you can do apart from turning deaf and blind after all you too want that piece of wood for your bisected piece of flesh. So you shun all morals and ethics and follow your heart and get lost in the humdrum and
cacapony of the world outside the window, only to face another challenge -- keeping your eyes open.

The otherwise monstrous-looking blueline, which lives upto its reputation whenever it touches down the roads of Delhi, spreading its menace in all and sundry, all of a sudden will look like a tortoise which has lost its way. Moving languidly with an amazing irregularity it will stop at all stops, attimes making its own stops where there are none, as you wait for the ordeal to be over.

You inhale the carbonmonoxide and suspended particulars along with oxygen, look at the hungry faces of the roadside kids selling pens if not begging, scan through the rush of an ever-burgeoning crowd at the redlights, the mannequin-like souls standing on the divider, waiting for the vrooming vehicles to pass to cross the road, the birds and scavengers scrambling the litter left outside the VIP mansions, the begger having a nap with his head on his sack, rustic souls enjoying the sun along with the dog lying side-by-side as you get lost in a reverie......

When you open your eyes, you find yourself amidst a new set of 'gentlemen and not so gentlemen' passengers but equally hungry for that seat that you have been occupying for so long and before you could realise what had happened to you, you see your bus
stop nearing and infront of you a pool of humans. Soon you too join the party and indulge in some ignobly act, hostling and shoving your way through the crowd, out of the bus, mumbling to yourself of never boarding a bus again, only to ride it again in the evening on your way back.