Summers or winters, have you ever enjoyed the morning bus rides? Is it some fantasy or curiosity I dont understand but even now everytime I catch an early morning bus say around 6-8am, I rush for the window seat. The air is very fresh at that hour, maybe because the vehicles haven't hit the roads with their smoke yet. Or maybe I like exploring the outside world while the bus travels from place to place.
Strange it is that, I actually prefer long rides in a bus, which normal people unlike me don't! I put on my favourite earphones (the red ones) with my favourite music and as I cross every new place I just observe, from the roadside 'dhabas' to the big city malls. On the way there are many sweet shops, but then that is what Kolkata is famous about, Right? Those cute children playing at the field, and the ones walking towards school with heavy bags on their backs, to them it is like a burden of the whole world, they have no idea how its going to feel when they are out of the school, entering into a dramatic college life and when they will be away from home.
As the songs are playing, flashes of memories strike my mind, some old fainting some old but still sharp & recallable, remembering people or moments linked to it, or that guy who sang for me. Yes, he did, in a public vehicle, "pehla nasha pehla khumaar", just for me, and no one actually stopped him because his voice was very melodious. Had he stayed with me for some more time, I would have fallen for him! There is also this another song "jaane tu ya jaane na" title track of the same movie, me and my best friend used to sing it all the time and relate ourselves with the characters, I was 'meow' and he was 'rats', this must be somewhat 10yrs ago, we are still together and counting though we didn't end up like its in the movie, but we are still happy and laughing at our childish behaviour.
I am not a miser, its not about the money also but yesterday I just walked 1.7Km to get to the main road only to take a bus instead of cab. I was exhausted but it felt good (maybe I lost some pounds, hahaha). The bus I boarded stopped in the traffic jam for quite a long while, and still my eyes kept looking here and there exploring, in search of something new, AND to my surprise I saw an "akhada" with many big-big hatte-katte pehelwans just wearing boxers, I laughed at myself wondering for this I left the cab but I was amazed to see how these pehelwans workout, God its tough!!! You know what even the busiest of the roads and traffic have their very own way of providing entertainment like today I saw, how at one side of the road there was a couple fighting, screaming at each other while on the other side, one newly wedded couple just snogging on the roadside with all those cosy PDA's.
I also saw an old lady standing outside a pricey saree shop, just staring, maybe she didn't have the money, or whatever but it gave me Goosebumps, I remembered my childhood, my parents started a life out of scratch, but never gave up on the struggle so they earned every bit of it. It gave me a thought, my mum must have also liked a saree someday somewhere which she couldn't buy or didn't tell papa about, due to financial crisis, but that was the past, now I felt stronger, working harder, earning well enough so that she just has to look at something, like it and it will be hers!
What is it about the bus rides, I am still comprehending, why have they become so exciting to me, is it because I never got this much freedom of travelling alone before, or am I finally becoming confident, trying to stand up on my own legs, Or maybe 'that one day' is the reason behind this race that I have joined in, the day when I asked him to get down the bus, and leave me, pain in eyes, both sides, but the tear glands turned dry, just as he got down the bus, I started getting up on my feet. He knows this, he wouldn't say it, but somewhere deep down he too is proud of me, and what I have become.
"C'est la vie"...Yet I know whenever I decide to halt, when I get tired or frustrated with everything, even if its for a little while, where will I want to go, there in the laps of my MaPa, to get the strength again, to run again & to be strong again because that's the only place where I find ALL my peace!
So I am ending this up asking you a question dear reader, do you have your own memories of riding in a bus? Or it may not be the bus, but something else which catches you by surprise every now and then with flashes of memories of the past.
