BST buses, are in fact, the BEST

Well, that confirms it. I have become a Mumbaikar. I have become a Mumbaikar in all senses of the word.

Go on, ask me why?

Yesterday, in the searing October heat (to those readers who think that Mumbai experiences a mild winter, or even what some like to call, pleasant weather, sorry to burst your bubble, but that would be you being optimistic to the point of foolishness) I travelled by a big worn out metal container.

Oh all right, i traveled by a BST bus.

Yes, and it was a life changing as well as an insightful experience. Wipe that smirk and that "oh yeah??" off your lips, readers. Read on, and you shall know how.

BST buses are extremely popular in this city, I must say. A popular mode of transport, I mean. You do not see an old woman cross a road without a BST bus nearly running her over. You do not take a shower in the morning without hearing the BST bus honk loudly outside. BST buses are an integral part of all of our lives here in Mumbai. Men may come and men may go, but BEST buses go on forever. On it, you shall see a variety of people, and the stories they carry with them are invaluable lessons.

I arrived at the bus stop, with a spring in my step and a song in my heart. My very first public bus journey! A few dogs lying lazily under the seat, welcomed me by scratching themselves.

Like everything else in Mumbai, BST buses have no time. They are in a great hurry, to be somewhere else. SO much so that it does not matter to the driver whether someone gets on or off the bus, he has to pause, not even stop, PAUSE at the bus stop for about two seconds, and if you plant both your feet on the bus by then, YOU'RE IN! This entire exercise requires cat like reflexes, the minute you see the big red vehicle (read- contraption, for,in all fairness, the worn out state of the bus cannot be called anything synonymous to a machine) you are expected to rush to the entrance and jump in, no time wasted. It is no option for the old, the slow or the thoughtful.

Being a user of only the auto rickshaws and cars, where one has to first convince the rickshaw driver to take them to ones destination, this sort of rush was something i was not acquainted with. However,some miracle took place, and I, the BST bus novice managed to hop on quick enough to ensure that both my legs were on the bus, as opposed to one leg on the bus and the other either on the street or in mid-air(this phenomenon is one that tests the balance and how lucky and individual is, if he is either he will be spared an injury, say loss of limb).

The first thing that hits you when you enter the bus, panting, is someone elses body squished up against yours, as like you, the other person would have just entered the bus, and wouldnt have had time to move, let alone find a seat. After extricating oneself from this position, one gets a better picture of the occupants of the seats while scanning the area for an empty seat, hoping to get lucky.

Fat chance that's going to happen. BEST buses are perhaps the best example of the diverse population, and also a fine example of how accommodating we Mumbaikars are, because of the sheer number of people on the bus. So getting a seat is a rarity.

The next task is to find the bus conductor. To do this, one has to navigate through the bus, while having to endure several curses of the fellow passengers as one steps on their foot,in an effort to reach the front of the bus. On finally locating the conductor, a thin, frail, worn out man, one has to haggle with him on the ticket charges, for more often than not, ones actual destination is in between two bus stops, and BST buses, having slight capitalistic tendencies, will want to drop you off at a location that would give them the maximum money. After convinicing the bus conductor (actually, this is not completely true, its quite rare that you convince the bus conductor, usually the opposite) you rummage through your jeans pocket to find the required change, and then, finally, you get a ticket.

Now one can just stand and relax while the bus jumps up and down on the portholes of the roads of Mumbai, while observing the amusing passengers travelling with you. Typically, there will be the i-just-came-back-from-the-church lady, who's smile will seem kind, but she cannot condone your untidy, dusty appearance. Then we have the runaway boy. Runaway boy is a young, reasonably good looking lad of about 24, who probably came to Mumbai to be a hero, but has decided to start his career as a small time actor, playing the 'audience' in a reality TV show.

You may come across a group of students, who, after deciding to bunk school ("physics test man today!!") are perhaps sneaking off to marine drive.

I could go on and continue telling you about the people i met, but fearing my rambling tongue that does not know the meaning of the word 'stop', I'll just end here. But like all good narratives, I'm going to end with what i learnt from the experience.

Unconsciously, every single person I met on the bus, let me into their lives, and gave me a little perspective on my own. I may have described only physical attributes of the people, but i think it's time t give you the reader the full truth, the aspects that mere physical description does not cover.I realized that while we have so many different kinds of people, we are all connected by a common thread, and I am not the only one who problems and challenges to meet with. I did not converse much with the passengers, but just by observing, i learnt to take life a little lightly when it becomes heavy, to stop worrying so much, because I'm not the only one who has those days when the world seems to turn their back at you.

That is why, dear readers, BST buses are the BEST .

So take some time off your hectic lives and live. Because, in the true filmy fashion that Mumbai follows, 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara'

(you live only once)

;)

GANPATHI GOES PLASTIC..?

Mumbai is certainly unity in diversity .Yes readers, we are UNITED. We may have riots because some of us feel that we do not get enough attention, after all, we are ONLY a population of 20 million and everyone’s voices have to be heard, everyone’s body odour has to be smelt, like we do in the over stuffed trains, and we may possibly have a few bombings-purely for religious purposes aimed at the greater good of course, we want everyone to have a good afterlife :D, but in the face of danger-or to put it more bluntly, in case we have a chance to create chaos-look at it any way you want- we ARE UNITED!. No doubt about it. We are one of those cities in the world which has slum dwellings right outside a premier apartment complex( this shows, by the way, that no matter how rich or poor our population is, we can all afford to live in Bandra or Parel), a church right next to a temple( please ignore the loud arguments amongst the owners with regards to petty, trivial issues such as who’s lord is greater-this is often a musical item, wholesale, so it serves a dual purpose the argument is not just an argument, but also a wake -up call in the mornings and in the evenings, a way to scare the pigeons sitting on the roof tops, - apart from such miniscule matters they coexist peacefully), and all of us, whether we are driving a BMW or a bullock cart(told you we were diverse) , are stuck in the same traffic jam because some idiot mumbaikar (we do have the stereotypical characters in our clan-the idiots, the pompous rich brats, the goody goods..you get the drift..) has decided to leave his car in the middle of the road while he is off shopping for fruits sold on the pavement.
Our unity is seen from time to time. One such time that comes once every year and lasts for nearly two weeks(yes two weeks! Two long weeks of traffic jams and chants that not only sing praises of the great lord, but also subtly praising the sponsers of the parade- usually a political party…more on this later). Yes..you hit the nail, it is indeed the ganapathi festival!
Of course, the ganapathi festival in Mumbai was of huge help when the innocent Tilak REVIVED( not STARTED , please note. I tell you this becuase I have lost marks in history when I wrote STARTED instead of REVIVED and do not wish that you experience the same) them to create unity amongst the mumbaikars, which was an added bonus in the freedom movement. However, now, nearly eighty years down the line, it has served it’s initial purpose, but is still being celebrated with vigour ( perhaps a huge understatement, but I shall not waste too many precious words on that) and is enjoyed by many.
And why wouldn’t it be? We all know Ganapthi is a favourite amongst the people ( as my eleven year old sister puts it- he’s soo cute!!!) and let’s get real here, we all enjoy the fat laddus and modaks that we can gorge on, under the excuse that it is ‘Prasad’.
For those who reside outside Mumbai and do not know the extents to which this festival goes to, I shall outline briefly what it is like. The entire festival lasts for about ten days during which each home keeps an idol ( of varying sizes, and usually each year the size gets bigger and bigger, one wonders how the Ganapathis which are five feet tall are carried up seven flights of stairs, but hey, whatever it takes!), of the lord, decorated beautifully and surrounded by sweets. Others come to view this Ganapathi- to seek his blessings.
But this does not stop here, let me assure you . Very often, there are huge idols (and I must add here, that these idol do not necessarily have to be one hundred percent Ganapthi only. We now have the various avatars of Ganapathi- Ganapathi as Amitabh Bhachan, Ganapathi as Sachin Tendulkar, ganapthi as Superman..the list goes on.) sponsored by leading political parties, or trustees of large temples and the likes, which parade the streets from four o clock in the afternoon, often accompanied by loud chants (sung tunelessly, but we do tend to turn to go tone deaf during these festivals) not only about the lord (which is perfectly acceptable) but also about the sponser of that particular Ganapathi. Talk about killing two birds with one stone.
However, this is all very nice, but as it is said, every silver cloud DOES indeed have a grey lining. The grey lining here is that many of these Ganapathis’ have plastic decorations stuck onto them, or perhaps they are dressed in plastic itself. As all of us have been told in the seventh standard, PLASTIC IS NOT BIO DEGRADABLE. To put it in normal, understandable terms, it does not break down. Once plastic is made, it cannot be destroyed and remade. So when the ganapthi is left to drift and dissolve in the sea, what the people do not know is that some part of it never dissolves. Those bulbs surrounding the Ganapathi, for instance. Or the jewellary ganapthi is adorned with. They just remain in the sea, and pollute the sea as they are not do not belong in the sea. And as we all know, blue seas do not exist in Mumbai anymore, thanks to the 20 million population. Nope, our seas are BLACK.
So every year, hundreds of innocent mumbaikars unknowingly(or perhaps some do know, but do not care enough) pollute our sea further. Traffic is manageable, the noise is pardonable. But polluting our environment is neither of the two.
I ask you. With our climate changing darastically, our seas become blacker and blacker. And for Mumbai, at least, the sea has always been special, has always been something we Mumbaikars have been proud of. So why are we willing to slowly pollute our beautiful sea, for the sake of plastic lights and jwelllery? Ganapathi will bless us even if we do not have large bulbs flashing around him. Our parents were brought up with purely mud ganapthis, and they turned out fine. I could try to convince you further and support my argument with statistical figures, but I do not feel the need to do so. We are all educated individuals here, and we all are MORE than aware about plastic and the problems that arise due to it.
So next time you’re out Ganapthi shopping, take an eco friendly step, buy a fully mud ganapthi. Believe me, when you realize that there is a sea left for your children to see ( not sure about the colour, but that is an entirely different issue), you won’t regret compromising on some bulbs and a few chains for your Ganapthi :)
Since we are united on so many levels, let this be a level too.