Bus Number 188

He stood waiting for the bus at the Malleswaram Circle bus stop with a sense of restlessness and uneasiness. He was already late for the morning bus, and he just hoped that the bus is late than usual. As such, he was getting used to coming to the bus stop more than ten minutes late, since the bus driver never kept his time. The bus was supposed to reach the bus stop daily at quarter past seven in the morning. The routine late arrival by about ten minutes meant that he never came before twenty five minutes past seven to the bus stop. Now, his normal time had shifted to the new time. He started timing his arrival at the bus stop to this new time, which meant that he was not able to meet the ten minute delay schedule too. Expecting a bus to be more than fifteen minutes late was something that was not extraordinary. Buses were never meant to keep up time. It was not the end of the world if he missed his bus, but that would mean an additional travel time to the main bus stand, and catching another bus from there would result in inevitable delay for his class. To spruce up further, delay for his classes meant a lot for him, as he would end up losing his morning nap that added as an extension to his previous night's sleep. The extension seemed to stretch as long as he was seated in class.

Today, it seemed that the bus was definitely on schedule. He cursed his lack of time sense that seemed to inhibit his daily mode of functionality in some way or the other. He always regretted having to take the bus to the main bus stand. It meant changing two buses, and he never knew, whether he would be able to make it to the first class on time, if he had to catch the bus from there. He had little time to think about his next course of action. He could either wait for five more minutes for the direct bus to college or take the next immediate bus to the main bus stand. There was always this borderline case whether the bus would still make its appearance or not. Since Malleswaram circle bus stop was an important point, there was an average of three buses every minute. So, he had to make sure that he did not miss his bus in the melee of other buses and large commuters. He could see the different buses heading in totally different directions - To Yeshwantpura, Mathikere, Shivajinagar, Koramangala, Ulsoor, Jayanagar, JP Nagar and other such places. But he could not find that elusive bus that was supposed to take him to Hosakerehalli. Though the direct bus did not yield him any extra benefit other than not having got to change the bus, it did not provide him with any luxury either. This bus was fun since all his classmates who were from Malleswaram and Suththa Muththa boarded the same bus to meander off in endless conversations and stories. Each had his own share of comments and tales to supplement the endless chatter from other fellow passengers. At times, the driver would be so irritated that the conductor would have to shout at the top of his voice at the students to keep the students from the aimless talk. Of course, there used to be days when all of them used to be busy with internals and exams, that the bus used to resemble a silent zone with everybody having their gaze fixed sternly on their books.

Bus number 188 provided a lot of comfort in such aspects for its commuters. Once the students got their seats, it assisted them in their quest for exam preparations. Everyone would get busy discussing the various concepts that had kept them elusive until the day before. Comments such as Yaako concept bagge yochane madthiya! Marks Mukhya Concept amele nodkolona. (Why do you think about the concept? Marks are important. Let us worry about the concepts later) This is not an important question. This example problem is important and other such talks would do the rounds. Each comment would be lapped with special significance as each one of them would not like to be left behind in his preparation. Thought ultimately what each one of them got in the internals and externals is altogether a different blog topic in itself.

So today he waited endlessly for the bus. He just had one more minute to take the decision. He would be taking the next bus to Majestic (Main Bus Stand). He knew it would be futile to wait for a longer time. There were two buses coming one behind the other. He saw that the first one was definitely not the bus taking him to the desired destination. The second one parked itself atleast twenty yards away from the actual bus stop. The usual hustle and bustle of commuters made it difficult for him to enter bus number 188. He heaved a sigh of relief and greeted his friends.