A Daydreamer, a Bus and a Misadventure
Illustration for A Daydreamer, a Bus and a Misadventure.
It was a normal Friday like any other except my throat was itchy and it hurt quite a bit. I felt rather feverish, so I decided to use my college's shuttle service rather than my usual odyssey of taking a metro, getting off at Deccan or Shivajinagar and taking a PMPML public transport bus all the way home. There was no way that I was going to stand in that unbearable and irritating October heat, only to lose a seat to an old woman's nagging. No, thank you.
The shuttle bus isn't much better, but it drops me close enough so that I can either take a bus or a sharing rickshaw to my home. It also has an added bonus of allowing me to take a nice nap for its duration, a luxury I cannot afford with the metro switching. I got off at my usual stop and waited for the bus at the intersection to take me home. Soon enough, a green bus was heading my way. I couldn't see it clearly but as long as it was a green bus that read from Shivajinagar I was content. I tried to get closer to check the number or even the destination. In this humid sea of human heads, the only thing I caught was Dhayari, 1 and 0 written in Marathi. Well enough, I thought. The crowd dragged me along and I thought this is it! I will go home and take a nice long nap, cuddled up with my fortress of plushies and my soft blanket. And the cherry on top? The fact that there were empty seats in the bus during rush hour. Oh, this just keeps getting better and better!
My daydreaming was crushed right then and there as the bus took the wrong turn. The bus was heading the other way, the one that led me away from my sweet home. I started to scan everything around in a panic. There must be something I read wrong. Although this bus did come from Shivajinagar, it was heading towards Dhareshwar Mandir! It wasn't bus 104 but instead it was 117. I started to mentally berate myself for misreading not one, not two but three signboards wrong! I missed the number, the painted whiteboard and the orange digital signboard. Now that was a record.
The conductor gave me a puzzled look as I pretended that everything was normal and got off right then and there. I checked the local bus app and saw that the next bus would leave in another 12 minutes. I decided it would be faster to walk back towards the intersection. Usually, two buses that are supposed to reach that intersection at 6 pm sharp, which seems to translate into 6:15 or 6:20 pm. I checked the time. It was 5:57 pm. I could get there comfortably.
This comfortable walk sent another heartbreak towards my way. These two buses decided to be the epitome of punctuality on that particular day. Even though I waved frantically towards the drivers, they deemed the buildings to be far more interesting than a young girl screaming to wait. I was losing patience. I wanted to save money desperately but life forced me to spend money on an auto. I looked around to check if there were any other passengers who wanted to head the same direction as me but not that day. The driver tried to hike up the price but I play these games every day so he couldn't do much there and we settled on Rs. 50.
And that is how I learnt that I should triple-check numbers, especially if it's written in Devanagari, and that it's always better to be early.
Mrinmoyee Roy is pursuing her Bachelor's in Media and Communications at Symbiosis Centre of Media and Communication. Formally trained in Art, Taekwondo and Kathak, Mrinmoyee has also worked on several projects as an illustrator, graphic designer and production assistant. With a strong passion for creative endeavours, an entrepreneurial bent of mind and deeply intertwined with the humanities, she wishes to incorporate all of these aspects of her life into her work.