snapshot of a bus....

It was more than just curiosity that made us take the bus that day.We were tired of our now prosaic bike rides and we knew that if he have to go that far , the auto guy would charge exorbitant prices..Here I find it necessary to let u know,that we don't remember the last time we've been on the bus.That's how often we travel on it.
So the next day we came prepared with the no. of the bus we had to take and were ready to spend a hour staring aimlessly out of the window in peace.
boy!! were we in for a surprise....
when we saw the fast approaching 45m heading towards srnagar,it was relief first at getting the right bus and as the bus drew near so also did the realisation that buses come in 3 capacities..1.the empty..2.the full and 3.full with 7-10 people popping out.as luck had it,the bus concerned belonged to the latter category. ..
To begin with,we were confronted with the imminent task of fighting with 10 others to get into it.So when the lady holding that closed bucket[i later came to know contained dried fish] asked me to help her get in,I gladly obliged realising only later that etiquette wasn't a requisite here...I staggered my way across ,stumbling over many feet and managed to barely stand which was a luxury in itself.The bus pulled on with a jerk ,as i swayed forward bumping into a rod, just coming to terms with the use of those dangling holders....
I suddenly became conscious of the fact that my friend whom i seemed to have left to struggle with her fate while getting on the bus had miraculously managed to do so and was now having as much trouble standing as me..
.After a few sharp brakes ,just when i was beginning to appreciate the use of those holders,the conductor squeezed through out of nowhere.And as much illiterate as I am about travelling on a bus,I now knew that my feet had to be trusted upon as my hands would have to leave the safety of those holders to grope their way through my bag for coins.Another brake i knew would send me in forward propulsion....The brake did arrive but surprisingly nothing happened...
It din't take long for me to realise that the reason for it could be the fact that i was so well lodged between two women who were sending me out of breath or maybe that ''out of breath ''feeling was because my nose was too numb due to it's close apposition to the hair downed in jasmine oil.Whatever the reason the propulsion did not, but repulsion did take it's stand.Got the tickets ...one job well done i thought...
But before i could be grateful for anything two ladies planted right in the middle of the bus had to move.Now i seriously din't want to know what was in store for me.My feet i knew were in for impending doom.As they made their way across,i was caught unawares in the eddies of the crowd and like a ping pong ball in a mexican wave [neither am i so light ,nor was it that fun]got transported into the space between two successive seats..and stayed there...
Coming to my friend now,maybe due to the resilience of the attack ,she seemed to have recoiled to the other end and landed [with her enormous bag ] on the lap of a woman who was already sharing the single seat with someone else..and as the lady shooted expletives right in my poor friends ear she had no other choice but to savour them in all glory,because she couldn't budge..Many passengers seemed to have noticed our plight ,coz there was no other reason to explain the giggles..
It took some time for the bus to empty and we got our seats in the last 5min of our journey and almost as a reward the driver offered to drop us off exactly where we wanted.
The next few days somehow were getting better ..infact we soon began to enjoy the bus rides ..,may be because we learned to laugh at ourselves ..or may be because out of the obscure multitude we now knew faces ,nameless faces..but we knew them now...the conductor who recognizes us,the driver who waits for us to hop on,the girl who gets off at the life style showroom,the woman with too much make -up on,the old man who spoke to us about the traffic,the little girl who was moving to the song on the radio ,the ticket we passed on for an unknown guy,the old woman who held us to stand still,the lady who offered to hold our bags...
the subtleties of life seems to echo within a bus.....
so many moods,so many thoughts,so many people all huddled together..intermingling,differences melting down,to form a human web behind all the chaos..
What is it that makes me want to come back....
may be it's the comfort that you are not alone in facing the world....
maybe it's the warmth of the people...
or maybe it's just the aroma of life in the snapshot of a bus....