Those bus rides

Those bus rides!

 When I calculated the hours spent in the bus throughout my career, I was dumbfounded. Every working day two hours in a crowded bus for thirty one years – the figure baffles me. How I could have utilized those ill-spent hours for anything I would have enjoyed. Every morning between seven and eight it was a nightmare( or morning mare?) to me. Hurried reading of newspapers, more hurried breakfast which was thankfully made possible by my early rising wife to whom I did not thank even once and the last minute run to board the bus. The situation was made worse by a phone call or a casual visitor who obstinately wanted to know the whereabouts of someone in the neighbourhood. All my morning exercise would sometimes prove futile if the bus driver chooses to be very punctual. Some days I could see the bus vanishing round the corner with many empty seats. My desperate attempts to outsmart those drivers sometimes ended in fooling myself. The bus would never appear or there would be no seats. If luckily I found one, then my co-passenger (Oh! What infinite variety of this kind!) sharing the seat took the credit of overpowering me with a heavy body and  leaning against me shamelessly usurping my right of the portion of the twin seat. Then there are the exhausted, sleep starved ones taking advantage of my lean shoulders to cradle their heads which bore the weight of the entire body. Some are compulsive conversationists who would discuss anything under the sun. I was expected to nod every now and then to their brilliant remarks and force a smile too, if what they meant were jokes. Some flaunted their newspapers which flapped on my face during the whole journey. A few were the probing kind asking very personal questions about the occupation, salary, community and the family. My vague responses clothed in mysterious vocabulary should have confounded them. How I enjoyed their facial expressions! Rarely did I enjoy the ride with a co-passenger who did not belong to any of the species mentioned. If I happen to be the unlucky standing passenger, it is another story. I was deceived on many occasions by cunning passengers seated comfortably. They would now and then move to pickup a bag or something as though they are ready to empty their seats. Many such devils had heaped my curses on them.Less said is better.