The Real World Journeys

When i was in Pune, TRAVELING in the city did not occupy any position in my thought process.. It was mechanical. It was short and quick with almost definite required time. It was only after I landed here in B'lore that I think about traveling.
On this occasion, let me do a little burai of ITPL* buses :p Trust me, when i used to take ITPL buses, they would make me sick from inside. It's filled with people who's life is computerized. They are always thinking about how they can look more cool etc etc.. no one talks to the person sitting next and they are perpetually listening to the songs on their funky iPods!! How pathetic!
Slowly I grew sick of these uneventful long journeys and decided to get my bike to B'lore. Now, it so happened that, ITPL refused to give me 15 days bus pass so, i had to go for the local buses. I was lil tensed.. yeah... though it sounds funny, that is the truth. I have hardly ever traveled by local buses in Pune. And this was B'lore..
To my surprise, I found those local bus journeys pretty amusing, of course in a different way. It is tiring when u don't get place and have to stand for an hour... that part apart, I got to c a lot of different things. What I felt something like a fresh air current was that I was among the real people!! The people who talked to the people who sat next, who had natural expressions on their faces.. who were eager to help u when u got onto a wrong bus.... really, it felt so good when I saw all that.
I see so many different people on the bus.. small kids, girls n guys from colleges, old people.. I remember there was this old couple who were fruit stall owners in a near by village i suppose n they had sacks full of fruits.. we all helped them load the sacks onto the bus.. they were happy then n gave us a banana each! how sweet! :) I would surely not get to experience this on a ITPL bus!
The other event that has left a deep impression on my mind is when I met this little kid. He and his sister got onto the bus to go to the school. he must be 8 or so and his sister around 10. He sat next to me and smiled at me .. He was wearing a white shirt.. which was looking more on the brown side with a collar torn, a tie almost torn.. the same was the condition of his sister's uniform. What was very striking was that these kids were very happy!! I did not understand their language, but I could make out that they were joking and laughing over something that was innocently funny.. some minutes passed and an old lady got onto the bus. She had to go a long way n did not get a place to sit. Seeing that I offered my seat to her. This kid who was just 8, saw all that n was almost on the verge of crying because it did not strike him first that he should have asked that old lady to sit on his seat.. he got up and offered his seat to me and said something in Kannada. I must have had a blank expression on my face so, his sister looked at me and said, please sit down. Of course I said no. I was really surprised.. such little kids and they were so well behaved..
Ten min. must have passed after that when their school friends also got onto the bus. And I heard the same innocent laughter again... These kids dint have money to buy new clothes.. but they had something precious that made them happy, cheerful and nice human beings! Even now as I think of those kids, I smile :)


* ITPL is a place in B'lore where there are lots of computer companies, and my institute, where I work.