BUS no.4 ( Velachery -> Vec )

It was a beautiful morning. the first rays of sunshine squeezed their way in thru the narrowly opened window of my room. forgive me for the typical bharathiraja start. But soon, its was going to be gautam menon action. The day before was my bro's marriage.. Ceremonies went on till 11. So i was adviced to stay at my uncle's place tat night. The next day i had to go to college. My maths teacher has arranged for a premodel exam, and i surely cant take leave tat day and stand in front of his cabin explaining my situation.. Thats the hardest thing anyone could do in my college.

I'm popularly knwn as "the slow poke" and my uncle was very well aware of tat.. Even in tat tiredness he managed a firm statement ,"if u r late tomorow, you'll miss the bus.. you must get ready as soon as possible..will u? "After i gav an assuring nod he promised me that he'll drop me in the bus stand the next day. I had 2 remind myself again and again that i'm in velachery and not in ambattur that day. because things are not gonna be the same. I hav to get up early( not a big problem) and hav 2 make myself ready in way that ll not disturb any1 who are already tired

(herculean task for a guy lik me).

Before i cud even run the bristles over my teeth properly i found myself on a bajaj motors' product. Checking if i hav all the buttons on my shirt intact, i somehow settled myself behind my uncle who was flaunting his bike riding skills. My uncle's predictions went right, i was late. Late by atleas two mins. But tats all u need. Buses in this beautiful city are punctual u know. I am talkin about the buses run by the colleges which definitely outnumber the government buses here and tat too by an handsome amount.

I was some hundred metres away from my stop but to my agony i found t empty. completely empty. My uncle shifted uneasily infront of me. he just realised tat i had missed the bus. A shopkeeper right next to where my bus stops , gave me that wicked smile. tat "idhelaam enga urupuda pogudhu" smile. He gestured sayin the bus just left. But he added on "sir rendu nimisham munnadi vandurundinga na pudichirukallam". A dialogue always reserved for doctors in tamil movies.I started to hear huffs and puffs from the soul in front of me. Not good signs. My uncle's getting irritated. He has a chauffeur’s schedule ahead of him. But somehow i felt he was making a conscious attempt to not show the irritation on his face.

Now the chase began. I felt like saying ‘uncle, drop me here . ill catch an auto and chase the bus”. But the two soiled twenty rupee notes in my wallet did refrain me from saying so.
The bike took a u turn and we chose the narrowest road in this universe so tat v reached the bus soon. This can surely be compared to one theme park ride when my uncle evades everyone from school going children rushing to school to those early morning old strollers moving at 10km/day discussing the possible political outcomes of the day. My uncle honked but to no avail. We jus avoided crashing into a cycle rider who occupied around ¾ ths of the road but gave an impression as though he was riding it on the pavement. He used his absolutely impressive tamil vocabulary to give vent to his irritation. And then finally finally in the distance, I saw her. There she is, I heaved a sigh of relief. She was shimmering her way thru the hustle and bustle of traffic. The sunrays fallin on her made her look all the more beautiful. The yellow and black combination swathed over her was mesmerizing. Slowly she came close and stopped. "VELAMMAL", It read on her head . Bus no.4 - " well painted good lookin exteriors but the same mofussil bus interiors inside. The conductor gave me a warm welcome, he's getting promoted today i thought. I finally turned to say good bye to my uncle but was horrified to find out tat he was already 100 metres away. Poor man, he ‘s got his own business to do. And then, to my shock the conductor's facial expressions took a turn. He gave me a queering look and asked ‘ Panchetti velammal thaana sir’. Its so odd to hear people call you sir so soon in life but I had absolutely no rights to argue about tat now. I said ‘ no’ . The pleasant look on his face changed. Now there was an absolutely disgusted man standing in front of me. He growled ‘ get down’. ‘the surapet bus is right behind this one. Get into tat.’ Showing no signs of protest I had to get down. Even though both the colleges lie on the same road it is strict college rules not to entertain other branches’ students in some other branch’s bus. I see no logic in the rule but as many of the college rules are in the same vein, I got myself used to adhering to them. The next bus was mine. I double checked t and got in. The familiar face of the driver was encouraging. The funniest part was both d bus had the same number written on the board and velammal " institute of technology" and "engineering college" names interchanged... was it my mistake then to get into the wrong bus???

Somehow, mission accomplished. The already half asleep inmates of the bus acknowledged the arrival of the new entrant with everything ranging from a sheepish smile from the people I knew to a 35cm dia yawn from the ppl I dint know. To whp all gave me a sheepish smile i hesitated to give bac a big smile(wic i normally do) as i didnt hav the patience to xplain the reason for gettin into bus no.4, if the question to my xplanation is to follow that smile. I never understood how people manage to sleep so fast. It’s only been ten mins since the bus started its journey and some were already snoring. God knows how. The next mission was to get myself settled on a seat, so that I get myself ready for the tough ride ahead. Another funniest thing in the college buses is that, the last row of every bus will b occupied only by the seniors and no juniors dare to claim for it. Even gettin a seat in VEC s easy, but not the last row seats. Bus no.4 was not an exception.. all the seniors sittin in the last row had their legs pointing towards the sky. needless to comment i said to myself and began my search for a place.. The window corners were already occupied and I had to run repeated scans to find a window seat. Window seats were crucial you know. During the second half of the journey they prove to be life saving as they provide the much needed air . And finally I did. And hurray it was a lottery. Right at the centre there was an unoccupied window seat.

Admiring my intelligence , I somehow wriggled into the 10cm gap between the two consecutive seats that these college buses provide. Ther wasn't much place 2 land my foot.. my legs started searchin 4 space to position itself there. Shit I scowled. I reached a position where I hit the leg of the person next to me. He shrieked. I turned to say sorry. But that expression on his face. He looked like an angry dog ready to bite ( mechanical student, i guessed) I somehow got the sorry word out of my mouth.

Every bus has a clock I guess, k atleas bus no.4 and no.24(ambattur) does. And the drivers stick to the time on the clock perfectly. Only the previous week had I adjusted my wrist watch’s time to the same time as that on the clock in bus no.24 so that I reduce my bus missing skills. But to my awe, I found that the clock in bus no.4 was four mins faster than my wrist watch’s time . Now I had an answer to why I missed the bus. I wished I could run back to my uncle and tel him tat it wasn’t my fault. But it was too late. How could my situations make me change the bus with a different clock hung in there showin different time and expect me to notice that too. Rude isn’t it??? ‘Experience certainty’ I told myself and closed my eyes……..

POM!! POM!!! POM!!!!!!!!!!!