Burnpur to Bombay to Bangalore - By Bus

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Burnpur:

Asansol Railway Station to Burnpur Market is a very busy route. You will find lot of mini-buses (1/2 the length and 4/5th the width of say, Airavat Class), easy to maneuver, less traffic jam. They are running in 2 mins intervals and even during the day if rider-ship in less, i.e. running little empty, less fuel consumption hurts less to the happy owners.

Recently there is a new bus introduced, which is environment friendly, low height and easy to get on get off, did not find any dedicated "disabled-leveled-seat", basically its left up to the rider's inner-choice to yield if needed. 

One interesting thing is though is, almost all the buses are running late by 2 mins, i.e. until the Driver and Khalasi see the next bus 30 mtrs behind them, they would not move from the stop... and continues (Do paisa aur de de Baba, khujli ke malham kharid ne ke liya, bahut garmi hai), honk, honk, honk! Arre Jah Jah, Bayen thik!

Bombay:

In 199 9 5, I went to Bombay for my MSc Entrance Exam at IITB. After the exam I was travelling alone to ONGC Colony, Panvel. In bus stop there were Qs to catch the bus. The *hero* did not notice anything at the first look (kyaa bea, yeh lok Cinema ticket kharid ne ke liye khaDe hai kaa, thoDa thalli-marke bus kab aa raha hai, ou bhi nehin dikte), and *hero* was standing on the road doing his regular "Head and Torso Job".

The bus came, and everybody were entering though the BACK-DOOR, itni jaldi, ki *hero* ko CharDne ki jagah hi nehi mili" ;-). One retired-like person came to me and asked "Bombay mein pahli bar?", I did Vertical-"Head and Torso". He told me "Idhar log line deke picche se charDte hai, aur samne se utar te hai, to jab jab destination samne ane lagega, thoDa age ghisakte rahna, aur conductor ko puchh lo kinte baje Panvel pohchhoge, thik hai?", and smiled at me like Amol Palekar.

I whispered, "Chhoti Bat, BaDi Bus".

Bangalore:

In 199 9 5, I choose to take the admission in IISc. Here the buses were Ashok Leyland Big and now they are replaced by Volvo Vajra's. Bus ke andar edhar ek Ganesha, Udhar Shiva, Unke pichhe Mahaveera, side ki kone main Buddha, Durga-ji ki pichhe Lakshmi aur Swaraswati, Conductor ke side me Karthikeya, aur gate ke ekdam bajju mein Itna-Bada-Mirza-Ghalib. But no one was even talking a word to each other ~ pin-drop-silent. Buy your tickets, while boarding the bus, and no maa-bahen with conductor at all. 

Ab thoDa soch ke dekho, peak hours ke baad fuel cost kitne hogi,

Bhaiyo aur Behno, Bangalore City Bus Service ke first database (sayad) humb-ne lik-khe the, wo bhi flat file system use karke, sort-and-predict ke liye dictionary tree algorithm lagake, Maleswaram se Red-book floppy mein type karwake (itni typo thi ki, mujhe 3/4 sub-program likhke ukso saaf karne mein laaga tha). Aur mera Aryan-DDLJ-wale friend ne to program ke aisi demo liya tha, ki coffee board ke chaye yaad a gaya (Sh*le mera bicycle bhi....besaram! behaya!). 

Yeh sab paDne ki bad, agar kisine picche se unnecessary honk kiya tou.... "Pandu-ra Abhisapa Laagibaw"!

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Oops! two typos, ...no worries everyone does one or two, and also corrected (1999 --> 1995), see...

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