Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Rain-coaster rides!

I had been drafting this post about the bus rides here for so long that a really crazy rain had to push me towards completing this today. As a kid, it has always been pleasant and joyful to be hanging out when it rains. Not until I started working that I realized how inconvenient rains could be. And commuting in the trains and buses, getting stuck in traffic and wavering around in pools of muddy water on the roads used to be so painful that the whole day would be annoying at work for everyone. Be it any place, anywhere in any part of the world, rain is but a necessary pain.

My day was full of surprises. I checked my results online for the weekly test in my course and it showed a 101 on 100 this time! And I had to give a presentation in my class in Spanish. A very basic simple one, but first time ever speaking "only" Spanish. I came out after my class today to see it raining cats and dogs outside and I was totally unprepared for it. As I'm even writing this now, it is so freaking sunny outside!! It was supposed to rain last week and I was carrying my umbrella every other day. I just threw it off my bag yesterday and it rains today! I was stuck in the college campus after my class unable to cross over to the bus stop and it was crowded there too. In spite of the fact that people were standing in the shelter they were still getting drenched because it was very windy too. I took this bus that stops just outside my campus instead of my usual bus, as I don't have to walk any distance for it, and then made a transfer to my regular bus in between. The bus drivers were happy but the passengers were all annoyed as most of them were not prepared for a rainy day and were boarding the bus soaked wet. The bus hovered around the roads like a ship sailing on a sea. It was a 3" to 4" heavy rain due to some hurricane which is about occur somewhere in the northern Mexico. The bus was still sailing across like a queenship yacht ignorant of what its passengers were experiencing! But while I was waiting for the transfer a guy next to me was thanking God how good he felt after the burning sun the whole last week while he was working day long on roof-tops. He must be a laborer, couldn't make out though, as everyone looks alike in this country unless one is homeless! 


Even on such a rainy day, I found the bus overcrowded and people were standing inside the bus and the bus operator (there's no driver/conductor, there's only one operator who drives the bus) here does his duty so genuinely, helping a handicapped person to be seated properly. Every individual who is handicapped has a special seat in the bus, which simply offers seat-belts that can be tied to the wheelchair or the powerchair of the passenger. This has to be done by the bus operator. And the passenger enters the bus while the operator slides down a plane for him through a remote button to wheel himself inside. It is during the bus rides that we can meet reality here. Could we call it the other side of this country? On one hand this place may be technically so sound and offers every possible comfort for everyone here, but on the other hand holds every individual responsible for his or her own choice of actions, which is logically and judicially unquestionable. Life may seem to be very comfortable on one end but it would be pulling you from the other end. But yes that's reality, someone who was locked up in a jail for a while and could not manage to get a job for his whole life, someone who had to undergo a knee-repair for a broken cartilage, but didn't get it done as he couldn't meet the medical expenses for it.. people living in homeless shelters.. such people also exist here in this very place that others consider as heaven.


Finally when the rains were still lashing at my feet I got down from my bus, rushed to my car and continued my journey back home praying all the Gods for the safety of my co-drivers on the roads! Only to see an obstacle on the way.. This is the third or fourth time that I was driving while it was raining. But this rain was horrible. I could barely see anything even after turning on my headlights. While I just ramped up onto the freeway where I could hardly see my lane on the road, I had to jump immediately to the next lane on seeing a car parked happily right on the middle of the road for some reason.. My day was full of surprises! And rains ain't always cool.. But I managed to get back home escaping the fiery of rain-God. Smart moves everywhere!

2 comments:

lavanya said...

Its a nice one.
I enjoyed more while you were describing this.

Uthra Mohan said...

Thx ;-)