No, my first blog post is not about Diana Hayden's debut movie (haven't heard its name, right?), rather I'd like to recount my experiences on the reliable(?!!), inexpensive and one of the most popular modes of transport around the globe.
I grew up in Burdwan, where unfortunately buses are very few, even today; the most popular public transport of the town being rickshaw. In the early 90s, there were even fewer buses. There used to be a bus from Golapbag (the University campus) to Curzon Gate (downtown Burdwan). These buses were known as "Town Service". I had a cousin named Tabun and I mistook the "Town" part of the name, thus calling them "Tabun Service". The "Town Service"s were small (about 24 seaters) and were never densely populated. The good part of these buses were -- however far you go, the fare would be the same. So, unlike people of Kolkata, who would say "1 Kalighat" or "2 Shyambazar" while purchasing bus tickets, people in Burdwan used to say "1" or "2". During my JU days, once, when I went back to Burdwan once, I remember telling the bus conductor "1 Golapbag", and he giving me a weird look.
Of course, we had our school buses, where seats would be separated for boys and girls. However, this post is more on public buses and hence, am avoiding my school bus stories. My earliest memories of Kolkata buses would definitely start with L7A. This bus would travel from Howrah railway station to Sarsuna, my uncle's house (mamabari). Since my visits to Kolkata would definitely end up in my mamabari, I knew the entire route of L7A by heart. We would get down at the penultimate stop and take a rickshaw to my mamabari. The red-colored government bus would more than often get stuck in a traffic congestion and take around an hour and a half to reach Sarsuna. I liked the way the driver pulled the large gear of the bus. One unique thing about Kolkata buses I liked was the way the bus conductors would shout for the passengers -- "Dharmatala, Park Street, Exide, Hazra" ... thus enticing the prospective travelers to board the bus. "Bus khali" was another oft quoted term they'd use. This literally means the bus is empty. However, actually it means, the bus has space for standing (seats are full, dude).
I came to explore Kolkata buses more during my JU days. Buses in Kolkata were mainly of three types -- Government, Private and Mini. S31 was the bus I'd take from Behala Chowrasta to JU. During office hours, there'd be a huge rush and buses'd be less in number. Often, I had to stand in a half-an-hour queue to even board the bus. Along with the JU students, there were lot of high school students from Carmel, Jadavpur Vidyapith and Jodhpur Park Boys/Girls. I will recount some incidents that I still remember. S31 used to travel via Korunamoyee (Tollygonge) and Tollygonge Metro. There were one Kishore Kumar statue a little ahead of the former and an Uttam Kumar statue at the latter. One day, due to traffic congestion, the bus would take a lot of time to travel from one to the other (about a km distance). I heard an elderly gentleman saying "Dada, you took half an hour to travel from Kishore Kumar to Uttam Kumar".
Prince Anwar Shah Road has two huge bumpers near Dhaka Kalibari. Am not sure why anyone thought of putting those, but those were really difficult to cross, specially for small cars like Maruti 800.
Once, the S31 bus I was travelling, was also having difficulty in going across it. A Jadavpur Vidyapith boy would shout -- "Dadu, is the bus hanged? Wanna hit double click". During my JU days, before the Nandigram incident, the event that shook the whole of Kolkata was Saurav Ganguly (DADA)'s exclusion from the Indian Team. Not only have I seen a lot of statues of Greg Chappell, Kiran More being burnt; I have encountered some funny incidents in S31 due to that as well. One day, in a fully loaded bus, a person stamped another's foot and the two started arguing
"Don't you see where you stand?"
"The bus is crowded. If you want to avoid this, why not take a taxi?"
"Who will pay, your dad?"
"Do you even have a dad, you brothel-born?"
"You are a highly uncultured, uneducated person, look at how you talk in public"
"You are the root of all devils, DADA is out of team for you"
I did not venture to listen to the rest of this conversation. It was already too much for me.
Buses in Gainesville were way different from the ones in Kolkata. First, they were AC. They had cycle carrying carriages in front of them. We used to board the bus showing our University ID (that would make it free). There would be no conductor in those buses, the driver used to work out everything. I found this concept even in Vegas, where the "Deuce" buses were double-storeyed; however, did not have a separate conductor. Also, unlike Kolkata, no one would shout "Bellagio, Venetian, Flamingo. Seat Khali. Bellagio Bellagio"!! Most of these buses would have a day pass, which was something new for me as well. I once travelled from Gainesville to Atlanta on a long distance travelling bus called "Redbus". The seats in these buses are 140 degrees reclining, have a legrest and Wi-fi. I followed the entire India-South Africa World Cup 2011 game on my iPod touch during my travel. Needless to say, the journey was very comfortable.
Buses in Bangalore are of several types. However, unlike Kolkata, there are no private buses, as far as my knowledge is concerned. All buses are government run. I can not see any mini-buses as well. Recently, I travelled in a sleeper bus for the first time in my life, during my trip to Hyderabad. The sleeping arrangement is like a first class compartment in a train with a vestibule connecting all. However, I learnt a lesson for life -- never to take a lower berth sleeper in a bus. The whole effect of bumps and jerks would get manifested on your body.
I had travelled in various kinds of buses in different countries. I'd definitely like to explore the buses in Europe, where, I hear, public transport is the backbone of the continent.
In conclusion, this is my first blog post. I'd really like all my readers to comment and recount their experiences of bus-travels.
I grew up in Burdwan, where unfortunately buses are very few, even today; the most popular public transport of the town being rickshaw. In the early 90s, there were even fewer buses. There used to be a bus from Golapbag (the University campus) to Curzon Gate (downtown Burdwan). These buses were known as "Town Service". I had a cousin named Tabun and I mistook the "Town" part of the name, thus calling them "Tabun Service". The "Town Service"s were small (about 24 seaters) and were never densely populated. The good part of these buses were -- however far you go, the fare would be the same. So, unlike people of Kolkata, who would say "1 Kalighat" or "2 Shyambazar" while purchasing bus tickets, people in Burdwan used to say "1" or "2". During my JU days, once, when I went back to Burdwan once, I remember telling the bus conductor "1 Golapbag", and he giving me a weird look.
Of course, we had our school buses, where seats would be separated for boys and girls. However, this post is more on public buses and hence, am avoiding my school bus stories. My earliest memories of Kolkata buses would definitely start with L7A. This bus would travel from Howrah railway station to Sarsuna, my uncle's house (mamabari). Since my visits to Kolkata would definitely end up in my mamabari, I knew the entire route of L7A by heart. We would get down at the penultimate stop and take a rickshaw to my mamabari. The red-colored government bus would more than often get stuck in a traffic congestion and take around an hour and a half to reach Sarsuna. I liked the way the driver pulled the large gear of the bus. One unique thing about Kolkata buses I liked was the way the bus conductors would shout for the passengers -- "Dharmatala, Park Street, Exide, Hazra" ... thus enticing the prospective travelers to board the bus. "Bus khali" was another oft quoted term they'd use. This literally means the bus is empty. However, actually it means, the bus has space for standing (seats are full, dude).
I came to explore Kolkata buses more during my JU days. Buses in Kolkata were mainly of three types -- Government, Private and Mini. S31 was the bus I'd take from Behala Chowrasta to JU. During office hours, there'd be a huge rush and buses'd be less in number. Often, I had to stand in a half-an-hour queue to even board the bus. Along with the JU students, there were lot of high school students from Carmel, Jadavpur Vidyapith and Jodhpur Park Boys/Girls. I will recount some incidents that I still remember. S31 used to travel via Korunamoyee (Tollygonge) and Tollygonge Metro. There were one Kishore Kumar statue a little ahead of the former and an Uttam Kumar statue at the latter. One day, due to traffic congestion, the bus would take a lot of time to travel from one to the other (about a km distance). I heard an elderly gentleman saying "Dada, you took half an hour to travel from Kishore Kumar to Uttam Kumar".
Prince Anwar Shah Road has two huge bumpers near Dhaka Kalibari. Am not sure why anyone thought of putting those, but those were really difficult to cross, specially for small cars like Maruti 800.
Once, the S31 bus I was travelling, was also having difficulty in going across it. A Jadavpur Vidyapith boy would shout -- "Dadu, is the bus hanged? Wanna hit double click". During my JU days, before the Nandigram incident, the event that shook the whole of Kolkata was Saurav Ganguly (DADA)'s exclusion from the Indian Team. Not only have I seen a lot of statues of Greg Chappell, Kiran More being burnt; I have encountered some funny incidents in S31 due to that as well. One day, in a fully loaded bus, a person stamped another's foot and the two started arguing
"Don't you see where you stand?"
"The bus is crowded. If you want to avoid this, why not take a taxi?"
"Who will pay, your dad?"
"Do you even have a dad, you brothel-born?"
"You are a highly uncultured, uneducated person, look at how you talk in public"
"You are the root of all devils, DADA is out of team for you"
I did not venture to listen to the rest of this conversation. It was already too much for me.
Buses in Gainesville were way different from the ones in Kolkata. First, they were AC. They had cycle carrying carriages in front of them. We used to board the bus showing our University ID (that would make it free). There would be no conductor in those buses, the driver used to work out everything. I found this concept even in Vegas, where the "Deuce" buses were double-storeyed; however, did not have a separate conductor. Also, unlike Kolkata, no one would shout "Bellagio, Venetian, Flamingo. Seat Khali. Bellagio Bellagio"!! Most of these buses would have a day pass, which was something new for me as well. I once travelled from Gainesville to Atlanta on a long distance travelling bus called "Redbus". The seats in these buses are 140 degrees reclining, have a legrest and Wi-fi. I followed the entire India-South Africa World Cup 2011 game on my iPod touch during my travel. Needless to say, the journey was very comfortable.
Buses in Bangalore are of several types. However, unlike Kolkata, there are no private buses, as far as my knowledge is concerned. All buses are government run. I can not see any mini-buses as well. Recently, I travelled in a sleeper bus for the first time in my life, during my trip to Hyderabad. The sleeping arrangement is like a first class compartment in a train with a vestibule connecting all. However, I learnt a lesson for life -- never to take a lower berth sleeper in a bus. The whole effect of bumps and jerks would get manifested on your body.
I had travelled in various kinds of buses in different countries. I'd definitely like to explore the buses in Europe, where, I hear, public transport is the backbone of the continent.
In conclusion, this is my first blog post. I'd really like all my readers to comment and recount their experiences of bus-travels.
